Monday, July 25, 2011

FINtastic, Family Fun Night...

What's that lurking in the distance??....Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week kicks off Sunday July 31st! We love shark week at my house. This week's family fun night idea is sure to get your shark week kicked off right. Incorporate the following to make sure you have a FINtastic family fun night:


Dinner and a show:
Make dinner special by having a picnic in your living room, while watching shark week. We are going to lay out beach towels, I will put out a few pairs of goggles for those who would like to wear them and make the show come to life!


Menu:
Quesadilla shark teeth;

Serve quesadillas sliced into triangles on a plate to resemble shark's teeth.Place salsa and veggies in the "jaws" of the shark!
Shark week Sushi roll:

Use food coloring to tint the cream cheese light blue. Spoon the creamcheese ( or cottage cheese, or plain yogurt) into a plastic bag.Cut cucumber into slices. Snip a small corner from the bag with the cream cheese. Pipe spikes of the cream cheese on top of the cucumber slices to look like waves. Arrange
gold fish crackers onto the cream cheese waves and serve!

Sharkade:
               Rim a glass with a wedge of lime and dip it in blue sparkling
               sugar used for baking. Fill the glass with a blue beverage, such as
               Gatorade. Garnish with a big blue gummy shark by cutting the belly 
               of the shark to rest on the rim of the glass.

Showtime Snack:
Pretzel fishing poles:
Dip large pretzel sticks in peanut butter or cream cheese and "fish" for toppings, such as raisins, Swedish fish, goldfish crackers, celery
chunks or chocolate chips.



Dessert:
Surf and Turf cupcakes:
 I love these Ocean & beach cupcakes found on Martha Stewart
 Instead of paper fins, I am using pieces of Oreo cookies. For an  
 unexpected surprise, I am making cupcakes that have a 
 red icing lurking inside, (you could also use red velvet cake.) There will be an Erie layer of delicious red when my family bites into them!

Make:
Felt shark fins:

Cut shark fins out of gray felt. Cut matching fins out of cardboard(I always save cardboard boxes...they have millions and millions of uses. You can either glue or sew the felt onto the cardboard, glue the fins onto a base cover with felt and pin onto your little Great White's back!
    
Play:
Feed the shark:
Your kids can test their throwing skills by "feeding" a stuffed animal shark sitting in a basket. Give each child five to 10 ping pong, tennis balls, or small rocks to serve as the "shark food." Determine which player can toss the most pieces of food to the shark in 30 seconds. Make the game more challenging for older children by placing the shark in a smaller "tank" or by requiring the children to stand farther away from the basket!


         **Don't forget to play with your " shark tank" bubbles!

SEE:
 Gold fish make and inexpensive, low maintenance pet....and a great centerpiece for the table during shark week!
(pic via pin)

Learn:
Use a measuring tape to a measure out how long each of the following breeds of sharks can grow to be. You and your children will be shocked to see just how large the beast of the sea can grow to be!


*The whale shark is the largest shark and grows to almost 40 feet long!
 *The great white can reach up to 20 feet long!
*Bull and Tiger sharks grow to 11-14 feet long!
( thanks google for this pic)


Remember, whether you have children or not, you can incorporate family fun night into your week. If it is just you and your spouse, spread out your beach towels and have dinner together while catching an episode of shark week. Do the learning activity together....have some fun together!


If your children are too young to understand or watch shark week...have an ocean themed night. Even babies enjoy looking at images of fish and romping around on a beach towel!


May you"ATTACK" fun together as a family!
XO
BB


**See last week's family fun under the stars  here!

4 comments:

  1. My favorite post ever. Shark Week and the Olympics are the only time I miss having TV.

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  2. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I. CAN'T. HANDLE. YOUR. AWESOMENESS. HA HA HA HA!!!!

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  3. Such a cute idea! My husband would enjoy this as he is all about Shark Week.

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  4. SHARK WEEEEKKK! One of my favorite weeks of the summer. Really. I love every single one of these ideas.

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