MidCentury Matcha Mama
Shark Week
First time celebrating shark week, since we're primarily at home I wanted it to be a fun, sensory rich experience for my toddler!
First up was this shark feed game I saw on Pinterest. I started with a very large cardboard box that one of his birthday toys came in. I used a utility knife to cut it into a triangular shark shape, cut triangular fins on the side, and cut an upside down mouth on either side.
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I then painted the box gray, and cut some white card stock for the teeth and belly. As you can see this shark already got some wear and tear in from play, not the most sturdy but cheap and quick to make!
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Jack LOVED feeding the shark. We laid out all his sea creature toys on a blue towel (the water.) We demonstrated the first time, then one by one he started dropping in all of his toys. We found a chomp soundbyte video to play each time he fed a toy. He had a ball, it was like Christmas morning for him coming out to the playroom and seeing the creature. Even days later he loves feeding it anything he can find, I've found it's an effective cleanup tool!
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The box was large enough for Jack to hop in and get "eaten". We then found I could fit in it too! We had fun playing "rescue mommy from the shark" by punching it. The cardboard bent some, but for the nearly non-existent cost I was happy.
Sharkuterie
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For dinner I made a "sharkuterie" board. We watched episodes of Shark Week on our local beach during our feeding frenzy. Who knew the central coast had SO MANY shark attacks and encounters?
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This was a simple board with different meats, cheeses, and nautical nonsense. By nonsense I mean goldfish crackers, Kalamata olives with an almond slice for the "fin" stuffed in the top, shark fin cookie cutter cheese shapes, mozerella wheels with sun-dried tomatoes draped over to look like life preservers, and finally my attempted bitten off arm made of goat cheese and a mozerella hand, with draped prosciutto to look like hanging flesh. Poor taste? Maybe. Tastes delicious.
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The blue drinks were mixed Mountain Dew Frostbite (a shark on the can!) with Malibu rum. Plenty of ice and even plentier tropical Swedish Fish candies in the glasses.
Shark Eats
Cookies, cupcakes, pancakes, watermelon, quesadillas, and cocktails. I certainly got my money's worth out of my shark fin cookie cutter!
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 Blue hawaiian punch, coconut water, and gummy sharks. Add ice and a drop of red food dye. Shark mani too! |  Shark fin cookie cutter was my best friend today. The pancakes, cookies, cheese, and watermelon all shaped from the simple tool. |
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 A few days after I used leftover buttercream to decorate some cupcakes and used white chocolate baking squares to cut fins for the top. |  Shark sipping and Animal Crossing |
 Fin and shark sugar cookie cutouts decorated with blue and grey buttercream. (Buttercream is never as pretty as royal icing, but tastes so delicious!) |  Jack loved olives so I jumped at the chance to make olive eyes on these shark quesadillas. I cut the watermelon to look like a shark jaw and teeth, with fins swimming around the bowl of watermelon chum. |
Make o' Shark
(Creating and sensory play with my baby shark)
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Things got a little messy creating these footprint sharks. I made homemade paint (equal parts salt, water, flour, and a drop of food dye.) Jack had a ball painting, stamping, putting on stickers, and coloring the background of his paintings.
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Voila! The finished product, with some plastic wrap added to give an underwater/ aquarium effect.
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Finally, we ended shark week with some ice play. I froze the remaining gummy sharks in ice cubes and put them in a bowl of water along with Jack's sea creature toys for him to fish for using a slotted spoon. He enjoyed splashing and fishing, and only the ice melting freeing the gummies cut our playtime.