Amazing Race Valentine's Edition

Here it is. The day where it all comes together. This was a month in a half planning. We all dropped off the guys at the beginning and came back to my house to get started. We had to move the couches from the front room to the other room so that we could set up the tables. My sister did a quick vacuum and then we started setting up.
Here are Marie and Cherie cutting up the potatoes.
Susanne got to preparing the tissue paper pom poms. They turned out SO cute. She did such a good job.
Kristine started cutting out the candy bar wrappers and then putting them on the Hershey Bars. You can tell she's a lot of fun. Miss goofiness.
Just a picture of the prep.
Karen (on the right) was the hostess of the race and had part of it at her house. They cut up items for the guys to dip and then took it over to her house. Anita did it too. So the choices that the guys had to dip are: Strawberries, pineapple, bananas, Angel food cake, brownies, marshmallows, pretzels and Pringles.
Tiani is our little decorator and she did such a good job.
For one of the games we had the guys do we first had to kiss the paper with lipstick on. Then the guys had to guess which lips belonged to their wife. It was making everyone laugh to do this. Especially when I was taking a picture of them doing it.
Here are a couple shots of the tables. I think they turned out really cute. I got most of the items to decorate from the dollar store. Woo hoo!
We also used plastic plates and (real looking) utensils. I had a whole box of goblets so we were able to use those. The decorations (from the dollar store) we used were: square glass mirrors, red plastic table cloths, round glass dishes, glass stones, and rose petals. The candles were Parylite so they didn't come from the dollar store. Also the very center pieces (big candle and big glass vase) came from my sister.
A little side view of the room.

To go with the theme of Valentines, I made up some heart shaped butter. The molds I used to make the hear shaped ice cubes were used for the butter. They tuned out awesome.
So, here are what my husband dipped in chocolate for me. He got two out of the three right.
Here is what each girl wanted:
Anita - Cake, strawberry, banana -
Me - Brownie, strawberry, cake - Mine got two right. (As you can see from the picture.)
Marie - Strawberry, pretzels, Pringles
Cherie - Strawberry, banana, pretzel
Kristine - Strawberry, Pringles, banana
Tiani - Strawberry, pineapple, banana
Susanne - Strawberry, pretzels, brownies

I forget who got what right. Maybe I'll ask the girls and see if they remember.
Just a glimpse of what the baskets looked like after the guys came back.
So here is what our "Heart's Desire's" were:
Anita - Trivet
Cherie - Scrapbooking
Susanne - Jewelry (you can see what she got from the picture below.) It lights up!
Kristine - Vase
Me - Apron or splash guard (I got a frame.)
Tiani - To be a mother - She got a plastic egg. That made us laugh over.
Marie - Chocolate
Here is a close up of the ice cubes. The fruit punch with the Sparkling Cider was a yummy combination.
I got pictures of all the couples next to the sign. Here is us!
All the girls!
I had to put this in. You know the lip game I was talking about?
Well some of the guys were REALLY trying to make sure they got the right lips. Ken was studying Cherie's lips for awhile. I think I got a few pictures out of them.
Glen had Karen kiss his cheek so he could cheat. Really, he guessed before he had her kiss him and he was actually the only one who got it right.

Karen was our hostess for the night and Glen was our videographer. What an awesome job he did too. He had some funny commentary the whole time. Made us laugh a lot.
So, here is what the room looks like. Tiani also has flower petals on the window sills and candles lit. The ambiance of the room was really nice.
What we put on the garage door so the guys could see.
Our lovely couples eating. I took a lot of pictures but one of the things I didn't take a picture of was the plate of food. You can probably click on the picture and see it up close if you want to see the food.

This was the dinner we ate:

Tri-tip cooked over wood in a smoker.
Roasted potatoes
Rolls
Spinach apple salad
Caesar salad
Sparkling cider with fruit punch ice cubes
Cheesecake with heart shaped strawberries, chocolate syrup and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.
After we ate we all went into the other room and watched the video footage. I had to get a picture of everyone laughing at the music video that the guys did. They chose "Can't Touch This" and we were all impressed at what the guys came up with and also that they let loose and made it funny.
Just the other decoration we did. Each one has the terms of endearment we call the other spouse (and them to us.)
What was written:

S+J
Handsome love Beautiful
Schmoopy love Wiffee
Mrs B. & Mr S.
Lovey Bear loves Lovey
Slick loves Scatt
Aaron + Marie 4ever
Man + Lady Forever
So, here are the cards the guys made. See!?! Didn't I tell you they had the mad scrapbooking skills? They all did such a good job. Bryan was telling everyone that he was so good because he got my scrapbooking skills through osmosis.

The guys came in the house with these wonderful wild flowers that they tied up with grass. Pretty clever huh? They did such a good job with everything. I think they love us or something.

Just a closeup of the candy bars.
All in all, the date was a smash hit. The guys did everything so well. Better than we expected. I'm hoping to get some pictures of the guys while doing each task so you can see. We do have a bunch of video and that will be fun to go through. Woo hoo!