A Family Fun Dinner for V-Day
Does your family have any fun Valentine traditions? One of my very favorite family traditions from my childhood was when my parents would turn our dining room into a restaurant. They’d act like our waiters, let us order from “The Parent’s Place” menu, and even light a couple of candles. I thought it was the best thing EVER! So when I found Amy’s crazy dinner menu, it brought back so many fun memories. In fact, I loved the idea so much, I decided to make my own Family Valentine’s Day Dinner edition to share with all of you.
This Valentine’s, treat your family to dinner at…
“Cupid’s Crazy Cafe!”
That’s right! Turn your home into a special Valentine’s Cafe and serve up a delicious meal with our crazy menu! It’s seriously SO much fun, your kids will remember it forever, and with our free printable dinner menu, it’s super easy to do! If you love this idea as much as we do, you might want to PIN it to make sure you’ve got easy access to it for years to come!
Now, this is no ordinary menu! In fact, your kiddos won’t even know what they’re ordering. Instead of actual food names, you’ll be using Valentine code words. Trust me, it makes it so much more fun! Things are sure to get crazy when your daughter unknowingly orders dessert and a salad for an appetizer, and your son orders a fork and a drink.
Here’s how it works:
To begin, decide what you would like to serve for the meal. Then, assign each item to a code word on your “cheat sheet.” (You’ll need 8 items total.)
Once you have your menu planned, go ahead and turn that dining room into a restaurant. Pull out a nice tablecloth,
light some candles
, and set a menu on each plate.
And just to make it even more fun, how about some cute, Valentine crowns for everyone to wear?
Isn’t that crown just darling?! Sameeha, the talent behind The Inked Leaf designed a girl AND boy version just for us, and we think they make the PERFECT addition to your Valentine’s Day dinner. I mean, what kid wouldn’t LOVE having a special Valentine crown to wear?
Then when it’s time for dinner, welcome them to “Cupid’s Crazy Cafe” and instruct them to “order” by filling out their menu.
Make sure they use each of the 8 different items, one time each. So they’ll be choosing two items for an appetizer, four items for the main course, and two items for dessert.
Then just use your “cheat sheet” to serve each person, one course at a time…
And wait for smiles and laughter to ensue when your husband orders all utensils for a course, and your son gets to eat dessert before dinner.
Because at Cupid’s Crazy Cafe… anything goes!
We love your comments
Just wanted you to know that Cupid’s Crazy Cafe has become our Valentine’s tradition. We’ve been doing it for years. Thank you for helping us make memories with our kids. 🙂
Oh, that makes me so happy Dana! I’m so glad your family loves it as much as mine does. 🙂
I did this one year with my kids and they loved it! They still talk about it-we are going to do it again this year-what a great idea for family time.
Oh yay! I’m so glad your family enjoyed it and made memories!
Oh, my gosh, I love this idea & I know my kids would get a kick out of it! It is so creative & a great way to make Valentine’s dinner fun! Thank you for sharing!
You are so welcome, Kristyn! Hope your kids love it!
I’ve done different variations of this crazy dinner, but never thought to do it for Valentine’s Day. So fun!
It’s become a sort of Valentine’s Day tradition for our family. 🙂
I love this idea! Such a fun tradition to start!
Our family really has loved it! 🙂
Thank you! I started this a few years ago and it is now one of our most loved family traditions!
We LOVE hearing that! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. 🙂
As a husband and father, I can’t help but love this list! It is so important to include your children in things like this. I know that my little girl will just love this. Thanks for a great idea!
You’re so welcome! Hope your little girl LOVES it. What a great father you are.
love this so cute. but what do you do if your child chooses juice a fork napkin and spoon for their dinner course. or vice versa for one of the other courses. TIA
I think that’s only happened once for us, and we’ve been doing it for several years. We usually serve the “courses” really close together so it was no big deal. We had a good laugh and then they got their food really soon with the next course. It’s up to you though. If it’s a really young child, you could just switch it up and make sure they get some food.
I love these so much and used them last year! I would love to share them with my readers in a Valentine’s round up. Let me know if you have a problem with that. Thanks so much!
You’re so sweet, we’d love to be featured in your round-up. We just ask that you only use one picture from our site, give credit, and link back to our site. Thanks so much!
Thanks for posting! Can’t wait to try this. I was already making a nice meal for the family anyway, and this will be a fun way to present it. The menus are printed, just need to figure out all the specifics for my meal and we’ll be good to go.
So glad you like this idea! XOXO
Sounds fun! This may be a new tradition. I’m going to give it a try. Thanks for sharing. Happy Valentine’s Day!
You’re welcome, hope it’s a hit! Happy Valentine’s Day!
Unfortunately my printer ran out of ink 🙁 but I still used handwritten menus.
The children loved it and have already asked what will we do for our next holiday.
My husband appropriately said “what’s going on? this is crazy!” Lol but he enjoyed it as well. 😉
YAY- so glad it was a hit with the fam! 🙂 lol.
Love this – we did the Dracula’s Diner and my kids loved it. Sure they’ll love this one too!
Hope your kiddos loved this one just as much! 🙂
Oh my gosh, this is too cute! What a great idea!
I keep meaning to tell you that we really enjoyed this in our house. We changed some things up (doing Valentine’s Day for the family on the 14th of THIS month). We also made a “fancy” dessert we found here. https://www.funnytummycafe.com/2013/02/28/chocolate-mousse/ It was so great. Thank you for sharing all these ideas!!
You’re welcome! So glad it was a hit at your house. 🙂
Did this tonight with my family and they LOVED it! Was such a fantastic way to do something special and meaningful without breaking the bank! Thanks!
That makes me so happy!! You are welcome. Happy LOVE Day!
What a cute idea to get the family together. Love the colors… Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome! Enjoy!
Thank you so so much! I am printing them right now and so excited to do this with my kids tonight!
YAY! You are SO welcome! Hope you all have a blast.
Mine won’t open either in anything! When I even just open it to a link, it comes up as just a blank page. The crown works, but the menu doesn’t.
Elizabeth, sorry you’re having trouble with it!!! We want to make sure you get it in time to celebrate with your family tonight, so go check your e-mail. 😉
I was SO excited to do this tonight, but for some reason my computer won’t open it! It says, “It may be damaged or use a file format that Preview doesn’t recognize.” Any idea how I can open it so I can print it? Thanks so much!
Ali- So sorry you’re having trouble with the file! It’s a pdf format and should be able to open in Preview. When you click a PDF file, it will be downloaded to your computer and Preview will launch automatically and display the PDF file. If a PDF does not display in Preview, you can locate a PDF document and select Get Info in the File menu. In the Info window, click on tab: Open with. Use the drop-down menu to select Preview. Also click on: Change All… to allow Preview to open all PDF documents.
You could also open it in Adobe Reader (which is available for free online.) I’ve sent you an e-mail with a link to that. Let me know if it still won’t work for you. AND Happy Valentine’s Day!!
I tried it on a different computer and it worked! Thanks for your help. I’m so excited to do this. My kids will LOVE it! Happy Valentine’s Day!
I am so in love with this idea! You guys never cease to amaze in the creativity department! Thanks for sharing at Monday Funday this week!
Take care,
Trish
Awww… thanks Trish!
printed up and ready to go. Thank so much!
Oh yay!! You are SO welcome!
I love this! I can’t wait to do it with my family. It would be fun to have one for St. Patrick’s day!
Ooooh- that is a good idea!
Way cute, I love the crowns! Darling pictures too! xox
This is absolutely to cute. Thanks for sharing.
You’re Welcome! Hope you have some fun with your family!
What a fun way to celebrate the holiday together! Thanks
You’re Welcome!!
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS! Thank you so much for creating this. Sounds like so much fun!
You’re welcome!!! 😉
I love this! Thank you. I’m going to do this for my 13 year old and 10 year old sons. The 13 year old will think it’s corny at first, but once he receives his meal I’m sure he’ll change his mind. We have to eat supper anyway so we might as well make it fun!
You’re SO right!!! Hope you have fun with your boys!
Just wanted to let you know this was a hit! We had fun and it was my 13 year old son that asked if we could do it again the next night before his “main dishes” were even finished. I promised the cafe would open again at some point (on April Fool’s day perhaps)! Thanks again!
Oh I’m SO glad it was a hit. Thanks for coming back to let us know. Reading comments like this makes my day! A silly dinner like this would be perfect for April Fools Day! XOXO
we called these mystery dinners and it was always the 10th birthday party at my house growing up so much fun with a big group thorugh definietly a bit of work to pull off for a crowd.
What a fun tradition!!! Hopefully we took out some of the work with these fun menu printables. 😉
Love this! Thanks for sharing 🙂 The crowns are already printing. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day to you too!!! Hope your kiddos LOVE ’em!