Foster Family Fabulous Feast-Back to School Night

In honor of today being the first day of school for my very excited first grader and preschooler, we had a very fun FFFF- Back to School Night last night.

When the kids walked into the dining room, they came upon this sign, which looks very similar to Charlotte's school sign. (Of course the name of the school was changed.)

This was a very fun one. I know, I know, I say that for all of them, but it really was. And it was a simple one to put together, which is such a bonus.

For dinner we ate alphabet soup, cheese pencils (which were not pretty because I used cheese that had been in the freezer, so it crumbled easily), and focaccia bread made to look like a ruler. I used Wilton's Edible Markers to mark the bread. The bread is marked on the bottom because it looked better and neater that way. (Forgive the fact that the ruler is not to scale and that rulers usually have 12 inches), We had juice boxes for our beverage (you know, as a shout out to packed lunches.)

The decorating part was easy. I clipped alphabet flash cards to Foster child #1's jump ropes (yes, I am aware my clothes pins are ugly. They are well used!) For the centerpiece I just used various school supplies. I also made placemats out of 2 pieces of notebook paper, that I protected with Contact paper and had to have desk signs so everyone knew which spot was theirs at the table. (Which I might considering using for future meals. We tend to play musical chairs for every meal and NOT have set places to sit - which can sometimes lead to not pretty attitudes.)

Foster Dad giving a "Pop" quiz to Foster child #2 on letter sounds. This is funnier if you look at the jokes I linked up on the blog. (And Foster child did extremely well knowing most of his sounds. And yes, I know that is not Foster child #2 in the photo.)

I can't believe we have a first grader and a preschooler! Time certainly does fly by!

I also had a display of books for my "students." Foster child #1 got 2 Junie B, First Grader books, Foster Child #2 received Preschool Day Hooray, and Foster Child #3 also received books because I didn't want him to not get anything. He received a Curious George number book and an alphabet book. (Number book totally not necessary as he can already count up to 13 on his own.)

Foster child #1 already delving into one of her new books!

We spent a lot of time telling school jokes during the meal. We also played with our dessert-letter cookies from Trader Joe's and crayons made out of Rolos and Hershey kisses. I was so stoked to find the crayon labels here.

Yes, we do like to play with our food!

Foster Family Fabulous Feast-Fancy Fondue Night

My mom has been a huge supporter of FFFF nights, including giving us wonderful suggestions for future ones. For our last one, she commented that she wished she was there, so I knew I needed to host August's when my mom, sister, and nephews were in
town. Before my friend Heather moved she offered two bags of chocolate fondue to our moms group. I was the first to request it with the idea of having Foster Family Fabulous Feast-Fondue Night.

My mom was a rockstar and made the cheese fondue, which we dipped our bread (and sometimes chicken in). We didn't fondue any meat because we didn't have enough fondue pots, but Fster Dad grilled chicken that we cut into pieces, and served with three different dipping sauces. We ended the night with chocolate fondue dipping marshmallows, grapes, strawberries and bananas.

We ate by candlelight (at least the dinner portion), had classical music playing in the background, and had our finest white tablecloth out on the table. We all drank sparkling juice from Trader Joe's in plastic wine glasses. It was very classy and everyone had a great demeanor and was very calm and relaxed. Foster child #1 kept saying, "This is like a restaurant, mommy!" Funny, considering I don't think we have ever been to a fancy restaurant with the kids. We're more the Red Robin, Chik-fil-A type! I would have required everyone to dress up but considering the kids had just come in from outside playing in the rain and the pool (don't ask) I decided against it. My mom said she thinks we should eat by candlelight more often because the kids were all so peaceful (not that they aren't any other times, but it did change their behavior some!)

Wish I would have turned the flash on for the group shot!

Bathed by candlelight!

Foster child #3 did great with the plastic wine glass, but that still doesn't mean I think he's ready for the real thing (the wine or the glass!)

Taken by our four year old, Foster child #2

My nephew enjoying the cheese fondue.

Chocolate faces!

Next up is Back to School Foster Family Fabulous Feast, which we will have next Monday before the kids go back to school on Tuesday. On the menu will be alphabet soup, ruler bread, cheese pencils, crayons for dessert (made out of Rolos and Hershey kisses). I'm also really excited for our decor! And, to end the night, we'll watch Schoolhouse Rock (of course!)

Foster Family Fabulous Feast-A Pirate's Dinner

July 31 was the perfect day for July's Foster Family Fabulous Feast! My wonderful and very creative sister gave me the awesome idea to do a pirate themed dinner and even gave me her decorations (so, yes, we can add super generous to her qualities). Love you, Kimberly! Since it was a rather boyish theme I figured what better day to do it than on my oldest boy's 4th birthday. Plus the pirate theme worked out very well for a treasure hunt for his presents!

Although my sister gave me the idea, with food choices, and decor, I did decide to go one step further and try to find a treasure chest since the food items were treasures.
Chicken nuggets=golden nuggets
Pirate's booty=pirates booty
Green and red grapes=red rubies and green emeralds

I love Freecycle for this very reason. Someone responded to my wanted post and had a pretty large treasure chest for me to use!

I put our black tablecloth on the table and used red plates. (At this point, Foster child #1 comes in and asks, "Ooh, are we having a vampire dinner?" Umm, nooooo. Seriously, where does she come up with this stuff?!?!?!) We also had 1 Mardi gras bead necklace (And another seriously, where did all the other ones go that I know the kids got for free and why would these not be something someone on Freecycle would not want to get rid of?)

I found a super cute craft project for the kids to make parrots for their shoulders here.
Foster dad and I had bandanas on our heads. (It would have also been rather easy to make eye patches and do fake goatees and mustaches, but the day was super busy with a trip downtown. Next time!!!)

My sister made signs that said Shiver Me Timbers and Ahoy, Matey (out of crumpled paper bags, with cut edges and pirate stickers). She also found a printable of a treasure map that she printed on brown paper and also made to look old (cut and burned edges).

Along with our treasure dinner,

we had pirate ships on the open seas (orange slices with pirate flags held with toothpicks on blue jello).

We tried talking pirate during dinner and when the phone rang I asked the kids if I should answer with ARRRGH. Of course, they gave a resounding Arrrgh back, so I had to. (I was fortunate that my guess of it being a family member wishing Foster child #2 a happy birthday was correct!)

After dinner we asked Foster child #2 how a pirate would know where the buried treasure was on a map. (An X marks the spot.) We then sent him on a treasure hunt to look for his birthday presents with his brother and sister closely behind.

We finished the night eating a Pirate Hat shaped cake found here,

and watching the Veggie Tales Movie-the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Thanks, Katefor letting us borrow the movie!

* Oh, and sorry Foster Dad for me not being cognizant of you not being in any pictures that night! He was there!!!

Foster Family Fabulous Feast-Mystery Night

Oh, how I have missed FFFF!!! The last one we did was April 1, and we had to wait to do this one because of busy weekends (and one thing I had to buy for it). It worked out perfect because we were able to share it with friends, which really makes it all that more special!

This month's Foster Family Fabulous Feast was Mystery night! I found the idea on Pinterest of creating a menu of 20 items with random names. Notice I am saying items, instead of food. That's because they had to get their utensils, napkins, and beverages also this way! Although lots of people described it as a good April Fools dinner, I knew it would be perfect for mystery night! The meal was served in 4 courses, but everyone had to pick which 5 items they would have during each course from the get go. There was to be no repeat of items and no discussing what they thought each item was. Items had names such as Titanic's Demise (ice), polka dots (peas), and round and round (Ritz crackers). I'm so thankful for my friend Beth who was my partner in crime in actually serving the food. I had 20 slips of paper laid out on my kitchen island and we placed the designated item next to the numbered slip. It made the serving part so much easier! (And in case you are wondering, we had our family members pick our foods, so that it could still be random to us.)

To cap off the night we played Clue Jr. (which I found at the Winnetka rummage sale for $1!!!) It is the item that I needed to wait to get before we could have this month's FFFF.

Can you guess what some of these items are?

Here's an answer key:
1. ice
2. mashed potatoes
3. gravy
4. goldfish crackers
5. ritz crackers
6. ham
7. pineapple slices
8. peas
9. fork
10. napkin
11. water
12. marshmallow
13. knife
14. apple
15. chocolate syrup
16. ice cream
17. lemonade
18. meatballs
19. chicken noodle soup
20. spoon

Me giving the directions for the meal. Notice the blanket I hung up to keep the kitchen private?

The kids busy making their selections.

Some of our lovely guests!

Foster child #1 is all smiles because she got ice cream during her first course! Fortunately she had a spoon to eat it with!

Poor Foster child #2, only got a pineapple slice to eat in the first course! There wasn't too much complaining though!

Foster dad was smart and used his crackers to eat his mashed potatoes since he didn't have any utensils!

Foster child #2 digging in. Remember he had his fork and spoon during course 1! The best quote from the night came from Beth's oldest son, who asked "Mrs. Foster, do I have to use my best manners to eat tonight?" I asked him if he had any silverware (he didn't) and I said, "I guess not! You need to eat! " He then dug his face right in similar to Foster child #2 here. Beth didn't know what was in store for tonight except that it was FFFF. She had told her kids to use their best manners, which they did, despite the circumstances!

In course 3, Foster dad helped Foster child #2 eat his soup with his knife.

No utensils or napkins made this course a rather messy one for Foster child #1 as she enjoyed chocolate syrup!

Foster child #3 was too young to understand and appreciate the meal, so we just gave him his favorites. Here, he is enjoying his last course - ice cream!

Clue Jr. with our guests. It was Mrs. Peacock who ate the cake at 1:00 pm with chocolate milk!

Foster Family Fabulous Feast-April Fools Day!

We had a crazy, silly Foster Family Fabulous Feast in honor of April Fools Day!

It wouldn't be silly without some disguises!





I also purchased whoopie cushions that were waiting on the chairs for when the kids and Foster Dad came in! (This was the only time they were allowed to say fart at the dining room table!)

Our meal consisted of cheeseburgers, cupcakes and juice.








Or did it?

Foster child 3 trying in vain to drink his juice out of his silly straw!
It was red Jello.


Foster Child 1 was not fooled at all with this dinner! She knew the cupcakes, which were served first, were really meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting (which I added yellow food coloring to, to make it a tad more frostingish.)


Foster Child 2 chowing down on the sweetest cheeseburger he's ever had! This idea came from my sister and was yellow cake mix made in 8 oz pineapple cans for the bun, with sesame seeds sprinkled on top too, with brownie as the meat, and frosting dyed yellow/orange for cheese.

Foster Child 3, who would not touch any of his meatloaf cupcake, shouted "Burger, burger!" when I brought them out. He probably couldn't understand why I wouldn't let him have any, not realizing it was dessert. Since it was a special occasion, I did give him a small bit, to which he then shouted, "Cake! Cake! More cake!"

We ate dinner while telling knock knock jokes thanks to the Land Of Nod's website, which has knock knock jokes by their product descriptions. One of our favorites:
Knock, knock?
Who's there?
Cows go
Cows go who?
No, cows go moo!

We also played Cootie, a game I bought this week at Target for $1.79, thanks to coupon stacking! I figured it would be perfect, since the object of the game is to create silly bugs.

We ended the night by watching the Ultimate Silly Song Countdown DVD featuring the Veggie Tales. We all had our favorite Silly Songs, but the best quotes came while watching the "I Love My Lips" video and Foster Children 1 and 2 both proclaiming, "But he doesn't have any lips!"

It was a very silly night with lots of laughter, joy and silliness!