Family Dinner and Movie Night- Finding Nemo

Dinner time at our house is rarely fun. The boys are actually good eaters but my husband works long hours during the week and is often gone during dinner time. This makes for a tired mommy by this time of day and I am usually get ready to get everyone feed, bathed, and to bed.

However, I could not help but be inspired after reading the fun Dinner and Movie Nights by Jaime at Momma's Playground. When we found out that Papi would be home for dinner on Wednesday night, we planned our own. We used the movie "Finding Nemo" as our theme because we are studying the ocean right now and because it was available at the library. :)

First, we prepared our placemats. For two of the placemats I wrote NEMO and other designs in glue and the boys covered it will sand.

After they dried, they looked like this.

For the other two placemats we made more handprint clown fish. We also used this to make Father's Day cards. Diego continues to be fascinated by the relationship between the clownfish and the anemone so I used my hands to make the anemone (in green.) He told me the other day that he was a clown fish and I was like anemone and then hugged me afterwards. I (think?) that was a complement.

Next, we took out our shells from our last trip to Florida and examined them closely.

We decorated the table with a large beach towel as a tablecloth and other ocean-related items that we found around the house.

We prepared the meal which consisted of "ocean water" or blue Kool-aid with fish and star-shaped ice cubes, fish sticks, and shell-shaped macaroni and cheese.

Finally, we enjoyed our meal (with shades on, of course, since we are at the beach) and watched the film. It was a big success and I am sure that we will be planning another one soon. I am also proud that besides the macaroni and cheese it cost me nothing. I just used things that I found around the house and a free video from the library. :)