For Nora’s 11th birthday, we hosted a “Wacky Dinner.” Here’s how we did it in case you are interested for your own families. It’s a great activity for a family dinner on a weekend or parties.

We first learned about Wacky Dinners from our friend Francine about 20 years ago. I could not remember how to do it exactly, so Francine coached me. Thanks Francine!

So here’s the concept – you give the guests a menu that has all the items written as riddles. On the menu, the guests write which menu items they want to receive with each course – and you can have three or four courses.

Here was our menu:

Menu Item	Clue on the Guest Menu
Goldfish crackers	Swimmers
Snack Mix	Nora Can’t Stop
Cubes of cheddar cheese	Squares
California rolls sushi	Wish They All Could Be
Deviled Eggs	Wicked Breakfast
Mini pizza	Big Enough for a Chipmunk
Tuna Salad on a Cracker	Never Swim with a Bicycle
Hummus and Pita Crackers	Smooth as a Baby’s Bottom
Macaroni and Cheese	Curly Squirty
Shrimp Cocktail	Going for a Dip
Carrot sticks	Underground icicles
Cucumber slices	Round and round
Applesauce	Pulverized with Love
Strawberries	Nature’s Hearts
Grapes	Not Quite Wine
Red pepper slices	Like a Lipstick Smile
Gherkins	Important for Every Meal
Square of Seaweed	From a Mermaid’s Notebook
Tomato Soup	Bubbling Lava
Birthday Cake	Why We Came
Vanilla ice cream	Jack Frost
Jello in a cup	Jiggly Wiggly
Rice Krispie square	Chewbacca
Square of Hershey’s Chocolate	Missing His Friend Graham
Chocolate Syrup	Mud in the Rain
Raspberry Yogurt Popsicles	Sun-burned Yogurt
Whipped Cream	I’m Beat!
Butter Crisps	Try Not to Explode
Petit Ecolier Cookies (Shortbreads with Chocolate on them)	Petit Écolier or the Little School Boy

That was actually too much food – the girls got too full. I would cut it in half. We just had so much fun coming up with the clues, and we thought the servings were so small, they would need a lot of stuff.

Also, we found plating the first few courses was a bit stressful with 10 items in each course – better to have something like five.

Nora did this sketch of the Wacky Dinner and I love it so much:

She also did a sketch of the girls at the mall doing a scavenger hunt – another activity the girls enjoyed.