Let’s be honest….it feels like life has handed the world a big pile of lemons these days! We are actually really enjoying the down time in our home and have some days that feel amazing, some days that feel awful and some days that have all of us feeling every feeling in between!

One of the routines that we have had in our family for many years that comes and goes as our schedules permit is FRIDAY FAMILY NIGHT! We decided that during this time of isolation we need to be consistent with Friday Night Family night and are each taking turns being in charge. I was first up and decided to do a throw back event to my days in high school youth group where we would do these mix up dinners all the time and they were so much fun.

What is a Mix Up Dinner Party you ask?! A Mix Up Dinner Party is a dinner with multiple courses, made up of lots of different foods. The fun part is that the foods, drinks and utensils listed in the menu all have creative names given to them, so the process of ordering is really a guessing game that leads to the surprise of receiving each course one by one.

I started by creating invitations that I handed out to everyone at breakfast on the day of family night to build anticipation. I decided to go with a Vacation/Tropical theme to counteract the constant snowfall outside right now during isolation! You can download the invitation template here and customize it for your family night. I picked a tropical paper and glued the invitation to it , to make it more fun.

Next, I created menus. I picked a variety of foods, both sweet and savory as well as a list of utensils. You can download the menu here and print it off at home. I chose names of foods that fit the vacation/tropical theme, but this could really work with any theme that you want. I also created a menu code that you can download here so that I knew what foods were what when I was making up the orders in the kitchen.

When it was time to start making dinner, I got all of the food prepared in the kitchen so that once we started the dinner party, I could enjoy dinner with my family and not just be making food and serving it. I also decorated the dining room so that it felt a bit more tropical. I placed the menus and a pen by each place setting.

My two daughters were getting their tropical outfits ready in their rooms and they waited for me to call them before coming down for dinner. Once the tropical music was playing, it really felt like we were on vacation! (We just made sure to not look outside!)

My husband was the host and led the girls to their seats (and pulled out their chairs so that they were reminded of how special they are) and so that they wouldn’t look into the kitchen at the food and ruin the fun. They each received a floral lei and the Dinner Party began!

Everybody opened their menus and selected their orders for each course. It was so fun to see how excited they were about not knowing what they would eat! As each course came out from Macaroni and Cheese with a side of Sushi and a large Ladle for the utensil to Pizza, Soda, Cucumbers with Tongs - everyone had so much fun and it really created connection because we had just had a new, fun and creative experience together, despite the fact that we are in isolation.

I hope this has inspired you to think outside the box and be creative in little ways to make these sometimes long, drawn out days at home feel like we are really able to enjoy each others company and see this all as a gift!

Cheers to Celebrating Simple Life!