So, here’s our new April Fool’s Day tradition.  The No Manners Dinner.

We had friends in Ohio whose Christmas Eve tradition was to have a huge family gathering for a meal of spaghetti.  The catch was that each person got the “dishes” and “utensils” they would eat with in a brown paper bag.  Inside would be things like a pot lid, salad tongs, and a ladle and they would all have to do their best with what they got to eat their meal.

Naturally, my kids beg on a regular basis to have a No Manners Dinner of our own, but Christmas Eve just never felt like the right time.

But April Fool’s Day is perfect!

We had breakfast for dinner, of course, and instead of hiding each person’s place settings in bags I just let the boys set the table in whatever manner they chose.

Waffles, berries, and whipped cream from a steamer basket with a rubber spatula, anyone?

Or off a cooling rack with shish-kebab sticks, maybe?

How about with big tongs from a pot lid?

How about drinking out of the gravy boat?

Tonight certainly wasn’t the ideal night to do something new and crazy.  We were gone all afternoon with our homeschool group, Brenna was swimming until 6, Jonah had to be at Cub Scouts at 6, Barry got home about 5:40 and had to leave again at 6:45– but today was the day I needed to make it happen.  It’s all about the memories, right?

And so, it happened.  The kids didn’t stop talking about it all night– about how when I left to run Jonah to scouts and pick up Brenna from swimming they put salt in my quart jar of water, about Brenna eating sausage with a whisk and how it was actually fun to eat out of a cupcake pan because there are so many compartments.

It was worth the extra effort, which really wasn’t extra at all, just a little more fun.