valentine party recap

I think the party turned out to be great fun for everyone, though around noon that day I was doubting my sanity at having about 14 children (plus adults) in the house but I'm so glad we did this. I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to since it was a mad dash at the end to complete all the party preparations, but here's the overview.


Menu:

• Pizza
• Veggies and homemade dip (Reese peeled the carrots)
• Strawberry & banana fruit kabobs
• M&M cookies (I used a standard chocolate chip recipe but substituted the red, pink and white M&M's for chocolate chips, the boys helped with these)
• heart-shaped crisped rice treats (this so easy to do that I'll probably try this again. Also, I discovered brown rice cereal as a healthier option to the usual kind you see as it has no high fructose corn syrup or other sketch ingredients - just in case you want to boost the "nutrition" of these snacks ;) )
• heart press cookies made by Dave's mom

Gift bags:
I had some small white paper treat bags I had purchased a while ago so I had the kids color pictures on them and then fill them with a couple Dove heart chocolates, a stick of cinnamon gum and a little thank you message with scripture. I love finding simple projects the kids are able to help with, especially since this was meant to be their party.


Photo props:
I saw this cute idea on the Mac's blog and wanted to try it out. I ended up making them by downloading photos from Microsoft Clip Gallery (MCG) and after a little editing, they were ready to print, cut and put together. The only photo that wasn't from MCG was the bigger mustache which I got through Google images.
I printed them on white card stock and used wood glue to attach the popsicle sticks and bamboo skewers to the prop.