DIY Valentine's Day Dinner!

So every year on Valentine's Day (at least for the past three years!) we host a fun 'Cupid's Cafe' Dinner for the kids. 

I figured that even though Valentine's has come and gone, it'd be fun to share with you what we do to help inspire fun ideas for next year!
You can never be too prepared, right? 

The first year we did this, we were trying to think of something special to do with our two oldest (they were 5 then) and when I found these amazing printables from the Dating Divas, I knew I had struck gold. 

We printed the menus, set up a fun table and let the kids have fun being the 'adults' while we served them.

And we will never, ever get away without doing Cupid's Cafe again.

I'm pretty sure. 

They told us this year that when they are older, they will served us Cupid's Cafe!!

How fun :) 

So because it's become a fun family tradition for the past three years, I thought it high time we shared a peek into a fun Valentine's Day dinner that is so easy & fun to pull together!!

I don't typically decorate the house for Valentine's- like change my mantle decor and all that.

But I have a box full of decor to transform the dining room into a special Valentine's Getaway for our dinner.

I love buying something special each year to add to it. 

And bonus, after the kids go to bed, you & hubby can light some candles and enjoy the set-up too!

This year, I made some cute name-cards and labels for the glasses. 

All the little details make everything so fun :) 

I printed out the cute menus from The Dating Divas site and had them waiting near the plates for the kids to order from. 

Those darling 'Love' and 'Xoxo" signs were in the Target dollar bin. 

What makes the dinner 'crazy' is that the kids place numbers in the bubbles for each course and me and the hubs have a cheat sheet that we fill out what goes with each number. So their appetizer course they may put number 3 & 7 which goes with our numbers that means a napkin and dessert. 

So anything goes in Cupid's Cafe!!

Of course, we had our littlest member this year which meant that she had her first 'meal' in her high-chair. 

Of course, she's a milk baby so she really just watched brother and sister enjoy the food but she got a tiny taste of pink mashed potatoes just for fun.

She had her own tiny plate, name card and a dressed-up bottle just for fun. 

This year, I wanted to add something fun to the chairs to dress things up a bit. 

I found these cute packs of felt hearts at Hobby Lobby and strung them on some yarn. 

I used a hole punch to punch the holes in them so they could string through easily. 

I added some cute ribbon & a chalkboard label from Michael's in the middle heart.

Since I can't draw a straight line, I used my Silhouette to put their monogram on the labels. 

The plates were ones I've picked up over the years either from Target or Kroger.

I got the cute polka dot straws at Target. 

My favorite (and most easiest!) part was creating a table runner with some wrapping paper. 

Those mini rolls at Target are perfect for running across a table so I usually snatched them up. 

This polka dot paper was absolutely perfect for our Valentine's dinner.

Just roll across, cut and you're good to go!

I found the Happy Valentine's Day sign and 'Hugs and Kisses' sign both on clearance at JoAnns this year.

And I whipped up the glittery heart blocks in a couple minutes. 

Throw in some milk glass and Valentine's roses and you're all set. 

The kids filled out their menus to let us know which dishes to bring out when. 

Our menu was as follows: 

Steak (cooked by the hubby!)

Fruit & Cheese Skewers

Pink Mashed Potatoes (they are big hit every year!) 

Cupid's Floats (from Somewhat Simple) 

Heart-Shaped Toast

Red Velvet Brownies (from Somewhat Simple) 

We added sprinkles to the ice cream on the brownies and heart picks to basically anything we could to add a little Valentine bling to everything.

The kids love everything being dressed up- even if it's as simple as sticking in a paper heart topper to serve it with. 

Baby girl loved watching brother and sister enjoy everything. 

She enjoyed a tiny bit of potatoes and then threw her valentine blocks off her highchair every few seconds. 

Little Miss and Little Man enjoyed every second of it. 

I'm so glad they are still loving it every year!!

I'm one of those crazy moms that absolutely loves decorating and throwing parties so this is such a special thing for me to do for them every year. 

Plus it gives me a good excuse to decorate with sparkles, hearts and everything pink & red.

Which just doesn't happen very often :) 

I hope you enjoyed the sneak peek into our Valentine Family tradition!

What's your favorite Valentine's tradition to do each year?

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