My Favorite Restaurant

I love traditions and so do my kids.  My favorite Valentines tradition is the special restaurant my kiddos put on.  They go to great lengths to make the evening special and memorable.  Here is a quick peek into the “Kaleb, Bree and Annika Restaurant”  I love the name the kids came up with, it makes me giggle and reminds me of my brother and his naming skills:)  Anyways, the guest list included our family and our next door neighbors.  It makes me happy that the kids want to invite our neighbors to their special evening!

I enjoyed the my time at the Kaleb, Bree and Annika Restaurant so much that I forgot to take pictures.  Here are a few of the preparations and decorations.

Annika created a table runner and place mats buy stamping with a heart cookie cutter.  I love how they turned out!  Cookie cutter stamping is one of the easiest ways for kids to stamp.

The kids taped the Valentines they received from friends  to the wall.  The sign is an old crib end with the legs cut off.  I have plans of eventually painting it with chalk board paint, but until then I tape butcher paper to it.

The menu that the kids came up with makes me smile (written on the other crib end).  The kids took orders on what type of pizza everyone wanted.  It was so fun listening to Kaleb call our neighbors to confirm thier reservation and to see what toppings they wanted on their pizza.   With help, the kids made individual heart shaped pizza’s.

I had a few hearts left over from the kids valentines and made a cute garland.

 They had set the table with china and I think they lit every red and white candle that they could find!  Smile!

I love the name tags!  Especially the heart at the end of each of the names.

More heart garland and some fun heart shaped balloons that mom sent the kids in their Valentines package.  They also asked Chuck to hang a curtain to separate the living room from the dining room (something that I do from time to time, it is cute the kids picked up on it).

The kids did an amazing job of peeling the carrots, washing the fruit, setting the table, helping make the pizza so much more.  I am sure that as each year passes I will have to be less hands on in the kitchen, however even though it is the kids restaurant there is still a lot of parent involvement.  We joke sometimes that it would all go a lot quicker and smoother if we just did it ourselves, but definitely not as much fun for the kids!

One of my favorite moments of the entire evening was when Bree and Kaleb offered their arm to seat the guests!  It was so precious.  I love all the cute planning they did to make the evening feel special and they worked really hard to get everything all organized.  I hope that this is something that they will want to continue for years to come!  Now I just have to work on a later bedtime so they can help with the clean up as well:)