Mealtime Activities: Backwards & Upside Down Dinner

 By Deborah Pace Rowley

To spice up a boring dinnertime routine, try this creative idea from an old issue of Family Fun Magazine. Have a crazy dinner that is backwards and upside down. You can incorporate as many or as few of these suggestions as you want.

Invite everyone to wear their clothes backwards or to come in their pajamas to dinner. Take some funny pictures to document the event. You could even try putting a shirt on your legs and a pair of pants on your arms.   

There was a lot of laughing as the kids came up with these great backwards/upside down outfits. The girls were hilarious using their skirts as shirts and jackets as pants. 

Eat underneath the table. 

Eat your foods upside down. Serve potatoes on top of the gravy. Plop meat pies onto the plate upside down. Serve hamburgers with the bottom bun on top. Put the brownie on top of the ice cream for dessert or serve pineapple upside down cake. You can even drink upside down by cutting a small hole in the bottom of the juice box or drink pouch and inserting the straw.

Or eat your foods backwards. Start with dessert, next serve the main course and vegetables. End with some fancy appetizers or crackers and cheese.

Print the menu backwards or upside down. If the menu is printed backwards, provide a mirror and teach your children how to read it. 

Speak backwards. “Pass the butter” becomes “Butter the Pass.”

At the end of the evening, play a board game backwards. “Chutes and Ladders” is perfect. It is much more fun to zoom backwards “up” the slides than it is to slide down them.