Wacky Wednesday Dinner Night

Sometimes I feel like my family can be so silly.  So they inspired me to have a "Wacky Wednesday" night at dinner time.

On Wednesday morning I gave everyone an invitation to our Wacky Wednesday Dinner Night.  On the invite it specified some of the dinner details.

{Click here to print your own Wacky Wednesday Dinner Night invitations}
The day, time, and place are left blank for you to fill in.

On the invitation it specified to wear "wacky" clothes.  For example, wearing mismatched socks, backwards pants, inside-out shirt, one pant leg rolled up high and the other down, multiple layers, mixing clothing styles, etc.  Everyone came up with their own wacky ensembles then came to dinner.

We each took turns modeling and presenting our wacky outfits.

Some were pretty funny!

Then we read a Dr. Suess classic called Wacky Wednesday.  It's a quick read, so we read it before dinner. 

At dinner, I wanted to make things "wacky" so I set the table by putting things in weird places.  Some things were upside down (including the pictures on the walls) and some were in odd containers (like the blender for holding sugar and the Halloween bowl for the casserole).

I hung a few items from the ceiling and light fixture that weren't normally hanging there and used different objects as our seats instead of our regular kitchen chairs (like an exercise ball).

I also added some unusual silverware to the place settings (like using a measuring cup instead of regular drinking glass).

All this wackiness made for lots of laughing during dinner time.  My kids loved discovering all of the wacky things I had set at the table and we all had fun trying to eat dinner in such a wacky way!

Make Your Own Muddled Madlib

My husband and I love to play games together; we both came from game-playing families.

When we get together with my husband's family, one of their favorite go-to activities is Madlibs.  They usually pull out the games just before or after dinner, while everyone is gathered together.

Madlibs make a great activity because they are easy, portable, and fun for any age.  They also provide a great opportunity to have a little grammar lesson too!

For those who don't know, Madlibs are silly little stories with blanks that the reader has to fill-in. For instance, one Madlib sentence might look like: 

"The other day, Sally walked    (adverb)    to school with her favorite      (noun)     ."

So, in this sentence, your job would be to think of one adverb (like lazily) and one noun (like trumpet).  Sometimes the sentences end up a little awkward, but most times they are hilarious because your story will take on very unexpected twists and turns.

The more creative you are with filling in the blanks, the more wacky and crazy your story will be! 

You can buy inexpensive Madlib booklets at the store (in the puzzle book section).  If you write the filler words in pencil or on a separate sheet of paper, you can even reuse the same Madlib booklet over and over - and create a new story every time!

Madlibs can be done individually or in a group.  If they are done as a group, each person takes a turn filling in a blank so that everyone has a chance to contribute.  We always brainstorm and write in all the missing words first and then someone reads the story out loud for everyone to enjoy.

*We also had the idea of creating our own Madlibs out of some of the children's stories that we already have.

{free activity + fun for the kids = happy mommy & daddy!} 

We chose stories that we've read over and over before.  Even our favorite bedtime stories can get a little dull sometimes so it was fun to mix it up a little. 

If you want to try creating your own Madlib simply choose a story you've read before and take out one word in each sentence.  To keep it simple you can remove only nouns or verbs.  If your kids are old enough, they can help you think of the replacement words, or you can make them up as you read along.

If you brainstorm the replacement words in advance, one suggestion is to write them on post-it notes and stick them to the pages rather than retyping the entire story.