Grinch Dinner

For this weeks family fun night we declared a Grinch Day.  We started the day by waking up to our elf holding a sign that said, "Don't be a Grinch!"  Finding our elf every morning is one of my boys favorite things so we had to have him join in on the fun.

 After lunch the boys and I made Grinch Cookies.  I found the recipe here.  They were easy to make with the boys and were very yummy.

 For dinner we had Who Pudding, Who Hash, Roast Beast and Grinch Punch.  I wasn't sure about the recipes but they all turned out great and were well received in my house.

 

I had never had pudding made this way but I was pleasantly surprised.  It smelled and tasted great.

I found this recipe for Who Pudding.

 I got the recipe for Who Hash from here.  I realized I purchased a wrong ingredient so had to wing it.  It turned out great and everyone gobbled it right down.

 I am not sure what kind of animal the actual roast beast is from the movie but I just made a chicken.  I used my standard chicken recipe that I have been using for years.

 Grinch Punch was a huge hit.  My youngest son couldn't get enough.  We finally had to move it off the table so he would eat dinner.  It is just a combination of lime sherbet and lemon-lime soda (we used Sprite).

 Here is our table set for the feast.  It was fun to sit around as a family and talk about the silly foods.

Thank you to KT's Cooking for this fun idea.

This was so much fun I think we will add it to our yearly Christmas traditions.

Have you added any fun new traditions this year?

Family Fun Night- Cookie Cutter Pizza

My little guy and I were wandering through the grocery store and I spotted some mini pepporonis.  My first thought was, "Wow it would take forever to put those on a pizza."  Then I thought of the idea to make mini pizzas.  We love to make special shaped pizzas so I knew these would be a big hit.  We decided to have rootbeer floats for dessert.

Usually I make my own pizza sauce and dough but decided to make it easy on myself and got the jarred pizza sauce and canned dough.  They were easy and fun to make and taste really good.  You could use these for any holiday that you have a cookie cutter for.  We used Christmas cookie cutters and watched a movie afterwards.

 Once the shapes are cut out just put them on a greased cookie sheet.  I let my boys "paint" on the sauce with a sauce brush.  Then they put on the pepporoni and cheese.

 These turned out really yummy.  They were small so it was easier for my boys to pick them up and eat them.

This was a great way to get everyone involved in the making of dinner.  I think we will add it to our regular menu rotation.

Family Fun Night- Nature Mobile

For family fun night this week we went on a nature hike and collected sticks, leaves, pine cones and lots of apples.  Apples were not on our list of things to hunt for but my little guy just kept putting them in his sack.  When we got home we dumped everything out on the table and made nature mobiles.  We used fishing line to tie everything together.

 This is the mobile my oldest son made.  He chose leaves, a pine cone and lots of different looking sticks and  bark to go on his mobile.

This was an easy and free project to do as a family. It gave us lots of time to spend outdoors and talk about the things that come from nature.

Family Fun Night- Summer Olympics

Tonight is the Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies.  We are looking forward to watching it and sharing the experience with our boys.  We have been telling them some of the details about the Olympics but thought it would be fun to make it a little more special.  Today while my older son was at school my little guy and I made some fun things to decorate our dining table.  We made a torch, podium, medals and the Olympic rings.

 We set the table with the Olympic colors in mind and had the podium in the middle with the torch and medals.  We hung the rings on the wall behind the table.

To make dinner simple we picked up a pizza.  It is always more fun when I don't have to clean up a big mess after dinner. 

I hope you all enjoy the Olympics.

Easter Egg Lunch

My boys and I were at an event today and wouldn't be home until after lunch.  I didn't want to spend money to eat out so I packed them a lunch to eat in the car.  I had heard about the idea of putting snacks in Easter eggs so decided to give it a shot with their lunch.  When I handed the egg cartons to my boys they got super excited.  They loved opening the eggs to find out what each held.  They gobbled everything up and asked me to make their lunch like that again tomorrow.

Family Fun Night- Snowman

My son came home with a family craft project so decided to turn it into our next family fun night.  His craft was to make a snowman using items found around the house so I made a "snowman" dinner.

We started out with pizza.  The hat, eyes and mouth are olives, nose is a carrot, scarf and buttons are pepperoni.

 We also had snowman fruit kabobs.  The hat is apple and mandarin orange, body is banana, eyes and buttons are mini chocolate chips, nose is candy corn and arms are pretzels.

 After dinner we made the snowman craft project.  We had a great time hunting around the house for items to use and see what kind of snowman we could come up with.

Family Fun Nights take a bit of work but they are worth the extra effort, we all really enjoy them.

Family Fun Night- Treasure Hunt Dinner

For our recent family fun night we had a treasure hunt dinner.  It took a little thought to put it all together but was well worth it.  It gave us a chance to slow down and spend some valuable time together as a family.  I was so wrapped up in the evening that I even forgot to take pictures.

I started by choosing 5 places in the house that would be good for us to eat a portion of our meal and also do a fun activity.  I chose each of my boys rooms, the master shower, the playroom and in front of the fireplace.  I then chose a food that would be easy to eat in that spot and an activity.  I decided on a meal that was not only easy to make but easy to have ready when we moved to our next location.  We had fruit kabobs, deviled eggs, bread sticks, pizza and Oreos.

I came up with 5 clues that would lead us to the next location and gave them to my husband to read.  After hiding the activity in the different locations we were ready to start.

Clue #1

Go to the smallest bed in the house.

This led us to my 2 year olds room.  In there, we found the fruit kabobs and some Christmas coloring pages.

Clue #2

Go to where mom and dad keep their shampoo.

We found ourselves in the master shower.  All four of us stood in the shower eating deviled eggs and playing a game of Go Fish.

Clue #3

Go to where you can spend the night but also blast off into space.

We arrived at my son's spaceship tent in the playroom.  We found bread sticks and ornament kits for us to make.

Clue #4

Go to where Dorothy lives (our fish).

When we arrived in my son's room we found a pizza and my son's Christmas tree homework.  We decorated a paper Christmas tree with buttons, feathers and gems.

Clue #5 

Go to the warmest place in the house.

In front of the fireplace we found a package of Oreos and the game, Sorry.

It took us about an hour and a half to finish our dinner.  We had so much fun laughing, eating and enjoying each others company.  There were no phones, TVs or computers interrupting our family time.  I have to say it was one of our best dinners yet.  The boys asked if we could do it again soon.  Might be something we have to start doing around every holiday.

Family Fun Night- Gingerbread

We have started doing family fun night in our house.  We try to do something together as a family whether it is just dinner out or something a little more involved.  Last week we did a gingerbread theme.  We started by making gingerbread man cookies.

 The boys helped cut out all the men and put them on the cookie sheet.

 While they were baking we read "The Gingerbread Man".

 Once they were done we decorated the cookies with frosting, sprinkles, mini chocolate chips and M&M's.

 My youngest son got a little carried away.

 After the cookie decorating we made Gingerbread play dough.  It smells just like gingerbread cookies but doesn't taste very good.  We used cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes.  This kept the boys busy for quite awhile.

 Some how they ended up on the table.  Since it was family fun night I decided to let it go and let them have fun.

 The last thing we did was decorate gingerbread houses.

 Each boy took their time and made their house very special.

We all really enjoyed our night together and all look forward to our next family fun night together.