Dinner Play

Dinner Play no I'm not talking about dinner theater. Family meals are so important and here are a couple ideas to spice them up and have some fun!

If you have or can have glass covering your table put a map underneath the glass. You can play geography quiz and ask family members to find a place. My in-laws used to have a map on their table and we'd joke about creating new islands when crumbs littered the table. You could pick out a country and have a dinner theme. Make food from the country, practice their table manners for the night, maybe learn of a celebration that is important there and celebrate.

Maybe a family tree might work nicely under the glass you could put copies of photos Please don't ruin photos with spills the guilt would kill me! :)

You can draw on the glass with a dry erase marker. Pictionary, Hangman, word scramble, draw place settings, eat off the table, use your imagination.

Blue Plate special Have a unique plate that signifies family member of the day. Celebrate & honor them during the meal.

Family Show & Tell

Picnics

Indoor Camp outs - hot dogs smores in the living room with sheet tents

Pioneer night - Turn off the electricity & eat Johnny cakes etc.

Breakfast for dinner is awesome!

I've had luck getting kids to help by saying Who's the waitress tonight? Who's the cook? It would be fun to add laminated menus to our diner play. (You can order 2 things Take it or leave it. ;) Just Kidding I couldn't resist!)

Cooking together can be messy fun too. A few things we've made were
Family size hamburger. We got a round bread and made a hamburger big enough for all to eat.
Fish Pizza Make your pizza dough the shape of a fish use pepperoni for scales an olive for an eye
Pizza Cookie Shredded white chocolate, fruit loop circles for pepperoni, chocolate sauce mmmm

Pocket Place mats
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=10014

Picnic game table
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=11447

Engrave place mats on your wooden table NO ANTIQUES PLEASE! This is a wacky idea but I think it would be so cool to inherit a table with engraved place mats from long ago. Not sure I'm brave enough to do it. Maybe you could do drawings for under the glass. ;)
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/171872/family_craft_projects_engrave_placemats.html?cat=24