Last Minute Valentine's Dinner and Tree Tutorial

We hadn't planned on doing anything major for Valentine's Day.  The kids all had class parties and with O-man's third birthday less than a week away, I was fine with just that.  I had been a little disappointed when the girls requested dollar store cards to give their friends, we usually make them together.  That "free" time enabled me to make them each a new pink dress out of my t-shirt stash.  JuneBug's didn't get completely finished, we couldn't decide on how we wanted to finish it up, so she wanted to use one of my scarfs as a belt, she's forever adding her own touch.

In between their class parties, I ran over to Dollar Tree to get a few things I needed.  St. Patty's Day had pretty much already pushed St. Valentine out, but I noticed a few bags of rose petals and some pink and red plastic champagne flutes.  As Gru says in Despicable Me... Light Bulb!

Pasta was already on the menu for dinner, I'm not about to spend money on plastic disposable glasses, but I remembered I had a bottle of sparkling grape juice and the makings of Shirley Temples, why not jazz up a regular Monday night dinner a bit for Valentine's Day?

And the rose petals?  Well, for $2 and an episode of Mickey Mouse Club House, I had had a table scape!  I've seen quite a few "Valentine's Trees" around blog land and had intended on making my own but time escaped me (what else is new, right?!?!?).  At one time I felt the need to stock up on these cardboard tree sets that never got used.  So here is what I started with:

Starting at the bottom of my "tree tower..."

All right, Mom's turn O-Man.  Glue the petals around, working towards the top.

Let your assistant think he is helping. 

Make several, stick them in a cardboard box.  Head outside and appreciate the 40+ degree weather that was FINALLY melting the 6,000 inches of snow and spray them with glitter spray paint (just watch out for the high winds or let me know when we should wear our matching glittered jeans together)

Plop some chocolates into mini muffin wrappers and onto a couple pillar candle holders for a super easy table scape.

I let the girls make the pasta and sauce (aka pour into pot and stir).  They were thrilled to drink their pink and red drinks out of real wine glasses, we stuck with a plastic cup for O-Man.  I also added red food coloring to some cheddar garlic bread I made in the bread machine.  IronFish got a kick out of that.

I hope you enjoyed your Valentine's Day as much as we did!  I think eventually I will use the base of the tree kit, but this worked for now.  I've had a vision of a whole forest of trees as Christmas decor, since these are just red and white, they will definately work in my plan.  I have a whole file saved of tree ideas for next Christmas.

Peace be with you,