Friday Family Fun Night- Shapes and Colors

Happy Friday everyone! I am so sorry that I made you wait an entire week for Friday Family Fun night. I decided that it makes more sense to post each Friday's activities a week later so that the "Friday" post, actually gets posted on Friday.

So, LAST Friday, we created our evening around Shapes and Colors. My preschooler has been working on all the various shapes and colors in school. Honestly, she has had them down for a while, but it is fun to reinforce what she is working on at school in a fun way at home. So this dinner is probably the most colorful meal I have ever placed in front of my family. But first, our activities. 

I am sure you all have wonderful books to read about shapes and colors to your children. We read a few of our favorites. "Mouse Paint" by Ellen Walsh and "Pete the Cat" by Eric Litwin. I prepared for our art time by cutting out shapes of different sizes and colors out of construction paper. I decided we would make a snowy scene mural together. That in mind I cut many sizes of circles in white, triangles in orange and green, black rectangles, red octagons etc. Then we got out the large roll of painters paper that we love so much, glue, scissors, crayons and water color paints and went crazy creating our family snowman style. Or as we named it "SnowBerts!"

YES! I did the art project with my kids! It is FAMILY fun night! I really enjoy spending time being creative with my children. Plus, I got to really take advantage of the teaching opportunity as we took all the shapes I had cut out and turned them into a picture. 

And now, our beautiful dinner! 

Pan Baked Chicken with Fresh Strawberry-Mango Salsa, Sweet Potato Flowers, Pineapple and Banana Circles, Broccoli, and Blueberries. So many colors, and so delicious!

"Strawberry-Mango Salsa"

2 cups Fresh Strawberries Chopped

1/3 of a Fresh Mango Chopped 

1 Jalapeno chopped very fine (seeds removed)

Fresh Cilantro finely snipped 

Juice from 1/2 of a Lime

Prepare ingredients as listed above. Stir together. Yes, it is that easy! And this was incredibly tasty served on top of our cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts. 

"Sweet Potato Flowers"

Thinly slice sweet potatoes into rings that look like chips and place in a bowl. Toss with1-2 teaspoons of olive oil and sprinkle with a touch of cinnamon. Spread chips in a single layer on cookie sheets and place in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes on each side. Remove when Sweet Potatoes are soft. While cooling, cut chips with a small cookie cutter to make fun shapes. Simple and tasty.

Now the really fun part is presentation. The picture below is of the exact same food presented without the rainbow effect. It is still pretty... but didn't excite my children as much as the rainbow presentation in the picture above.  

Ultimately the point is to have fun while eating foods that strengthen the body! Enjoy this meal as a family! 

                                                   Have a WONDERFUL weekend!!