Springing In Feet First!

Well, here I am, all "din-spired" and everything.... and I look at my calendar to see when the next holiday is - and there it was, right in front of me -the first day of spring!  Well, for sure I thought that would be a perfect opportunity for our next family dinner party.  Since the first day of spring was on a Sunday, I decided to get my girls involved a little.  Saturday they finger painted.  Conveniently, the finger painting paper we have happens to be placemat size.  So they made the placemats.  Who knew this would be such an exciting activity for them.

This dinner party was far from schmanchy.  In face, the dinner hardly took any time to do.  And the "decorations" (IE:  Placemats and napkins) were a snap.  Of course the girls did the placemats the day before, so I guess that was the biggest time commitment.

I was excited about my themed menu. It was to be a springtime theme.  And healthy, of course.  Well, din-spiration hit, and the next thing I knew I had brainstormed out a cute spring scene for our dinner plates.  Green "grass" (french cut green beans), green "trees" (broccoli), sun (sun shaped cheese cut out with a cookie cutter), butterflies (mandarin oranges with banana bodies), and my favorite part, burgers on the grill!  Well, I really wanted to somehow make a grill with a burger on it for my meal, and I thought and thought forever about how I could do it.  Suddenly, I felt like a genius, as I decided I could use an ice cream cone as a grill and put the burger (and home made low carb bun) on it as part of the grill.  I decided to fill the cone with corn casserole.   

Well, I'll be honest.  As brilliant as the idea seemed when I dreamed it, my grill really did not turn out.   In fact, it was a terrible flop.   At least in my eyes.  Okay, in my husband's eyes, too.  However, my children thought the whole dinner was fabulous, and they loved every second of it. 

Activities included a memory game:  In the springtime, I will....... 
Each person takes a turn coming up with something that they will do in the springtime.  For the next person's turn, they must remember each turn prior to them, in the proper order, then they must add a new idea on to the end.  My girls loved this activity and it was a great way to build memory skills as well as spring time vocabulary.

Well, this dinner party was a lesson to me.  For one, memories were made in spite of my disappointment of the meal.  The girls loved the party and loved the dinner theme.  They didn't even notice that it didn't turn out.

Next, Din-Spiration doesn't have to be complicated or fancy.  Just putting out different napkins and placemats can turn any dinner into a party.