Valentine's Day!

Eva requested that we throw a Valentine's Day tea party for a few of her girlfriends. I don't know where she gets these ideas :) Ok, of course, I'll throw a party for any reason, so I knew this would be fun! This was the first 'drop off' party that we have had so, well, I had to put the camera down as soon as guests started arriving. I tried to get a few pictures of the goodies that we made and the table.

 

Party Details

Fancy red and pink Valentine's food recipes/ideas:
Heart-shaped rice crispy treats made with strawberry marshmallows
Heart-shaped PB&J sandwiches
Heart-shaped wheat pasta with red marinara sauce
Maraschino cherries (just because!)
Red apples
Raspberry lemonade
Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing (both Gluten Free) with pink/red sprinkles
Raspberry hot tea
Red Izzes (adults only!)

Activities
The girls made heart-shaped Valentines to take home. I bought large red foam hearts that had a sparkly glitter border, smaller glitter foam hearts, even smaller puffy glitter hearts and heart stickers. 4 and 5 are great ages for actually sitting down and creating! I gave them glue and they got to work!

Goodie bags
I didn't actually put together goodie bags, per se. I bought goodie bags and filled them with the table decorations. There were two small pink painted flowerpots full of red lollipops and one filled with very tall heart-shaped lollipops. I put one of each in the goodie bag along with heart-shaped lip gloss, a red bead necklace, a fancy pink hanging heart crystal, a raspberry tea bag, fancy sparkly bling, a tiara and a heart-shaped fan.

And these were Eva's Valentine's that she, well, we made for school!

 

Last, but certainly not least...the cheapest dinner in the world to make at home:

Other things that we made, but didn't necessarily document...

Red heart shaped jello
We actually made a layered heart-shaped jello concoction, but it took more time and effort than it was worth. Next year, definitely sticking to the one layer of red jello!

Heart sandwiches
I always feel guilty when making shaped sandwiches because I have to throw away 30% of the sandwich (the border). So, this time, I made regular sandwiches and used a cookie cutter to put a design on the top. Eva wanted PB&J, so I used cherry jelly to make the heart shape. Mickey and Stella wanted grilled cheese - so after making their grilled cheeses, I cut out a heart shape from a slice of cheese and placed it on top of their sandwiches. Turned out great and didn't have to waste anything!

Pink heart bagels
Bought mini-bagels, covered them in strawberry cream cheese and carved a heart out of a strawberry to place in the middle.