Monday, July 30, 2012

The Hunger Games Party - Games and Prizes


The above photo is myself as Primrose Everdeen and my sister, Kari, as Foxface. I put my hair in braided pigtails and wore a white shirt that I felt was Prim appropriate. I didn't have a skirt, so gray pants was it! My sister has the red hair for Foxface, so she put on a black shirt we figured was "games" worthy and then put a Five patch on her should for the District she is from.

Moving on to the games we played!

I had a Hungry for Trivia Game, where I asked questions that were somehow related to The Hunger Games (either the author, the actors in the film, etc.) but weren't book-related for the few people at my party who hadn't read the books. A couple examples-


Q. Liam Hemsworth plays Katniss’ friend Gale. Liam’s older brother is also an actor. What superhero does he play?

A. Thor
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Q. Lenny Kravitz plays Cinna and Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss. What movie did Jennifer Lawrence star in alongside Lenny Kravitz’ daughter?

A. X-Men: First Class
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If you want to hold your own Hunger Games party, feel free to email me or leave a comment below with your email and I'll send the entire list of Trivia for your use!

The other game we played was Real or Not Real? If you've read Mockingjay, then you understand the meaning of this. I wrote down a bunch of "facts" on notecards and I read them aloud, as we went along the circle. If the card said "You like boys" and you do, you say "Real" and you get the card. If you don't like boys, you say "Not Real" and the next person has to say Real or Not Real until the card is given to someone or nobody gets it. If nobody gets it, I set the card out of the pile and read the next card. If you get the card, I read the next "fact" to the person right after you and off we go! I tried to mix up the "facts" so it fit various people. I put things like "you'd live outside of the country" and even "you like pizza." Easy and fun! It's a fun "getting to know you" game, so I suggest you use it for any party or gathering! Of course, the person with the most cards in their hand at the end is the winner!
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The Real or Not Real photo above is NOT mine, but you can get these free printables courtesy of Tattered and Inked. I wish I had them when I did my party, but unfortunately, I just found them!
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The Prizes!

I'm sorry to say that I did not get a photo of the prizes, which I'm pretty bummed about as I thought they were fun. I picked up a sucker at Michael's that had an icing type of bumblebee on it and called it a Tracker Jacker pop with a little tag around the stick.

I had a couple bottles of self-tanning lotion, so I wrapped some red poster board around it and called it Capitol Color (for the kooky styles of the Capitol).

I even had a copy of the book The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher because it said it was good for fans of The Hunger Games!

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Voila! That was my Hunger Games party. The decorations, the food, the games, the prizes, and even the "costumes" for a couple of us!

Keep following the blog...I have more parties and crafts coming up!

Monday, July 23, 2012

The Hunger Games Party - Food


The Hunger Games Party - The Food

all photos are by my family

The above photo are what I called Capitol Pills. I got them from the dollar store and they are simple white mints that came in money wrappers. I figured the money works for the Capitol, and also in Catching Fire, the Capitol folks eat and eat and eat, then take a pill and throw up, and eat and eat and eat some more.


These are bugles, which I called Mini Cornucopias. I got the regular and the cheddar and seperated them into two bowls and they made a fun little snack before dinner/dessert.


I got mini cans of Sprite and some cotton candy tubs (again from the dollar store) and called it Trinket Toppers. You put some cotton candy on top of your sprite for a kooky hair look a ala Effie Trinket. Unfortunately, our cotton candy melted into the sprite right away, but people seemed to enjoy just eating the cotton candy too!

My sister really wanted a cheese ball for the party, so she made this and I titled it Prim's Goat Cheese Ball. No, it's not really goat cheese, but I figured that wouldn't be as appetizing! If you aren't aware, the character Prim (Katniss' sister) has a goat and sells cheese from her.

Finnick's Garlic Knots. I actually came up with this idea on my own, which I was pretty proud of myself. A local pizza place makes garlic knots and I LOVE them, so that started the thought process and I found a recipe online and had my sister make some. The character of Finnick knots and unknots a rope over and over again as a means of coping, hence the garlic knots for Finnick!

This is Haymitch's Drunk Punch. I don't drink alcohol so there is none in it, but I wanted something to fit Haymitch and a "Drunk" Punch seemed nice since he drinks all the time in the books. Plus, this is a punch I've made for other parties with friends and it goes over well. It went SUPER fast this time!


I wanted to include Rue somehow, as I love her character so we went with District 11 Fruit Salad (Hand-picked by Rue). It was a light addition to my meal plan...especially with dinner!


Speaking of dinner, I went with cheeseburgers and hotdogs and called it Gale's Game since he hunts in District 12 with Katniss. Normally, when I have parties for friends, we just do snacks and dessert items, but I planned out a whole meal around the Gale's Game idea.


Peeta is the "Boy with the Bread" so we had to have a bread item for him. Instead of making homemade bread or getting roles, we went with Peeta's Pretzel Bread, which is really good. My sister (again) wanted the Spinach Dip to go with it, so I made it Caesar's Spinach Dip...mainly because spinach is green and I thought that fit Caesar's eclectic blue/green style.


This was a last minute idea. My sister and I went to a graduation party a week before, I believe, and they had these cookies (but with kiwi). We made them (sugar cookies, cream cheese frosting, and blackberries/rasberries for the top) and called it Nightlock Cookies, in honor of the infamous berries that kill you with one bite. Don't worry, these are non-toxic and oh so yummy!


We had to have an item in honor of Katniss Everdeen, so we went with Girl on Fire Cupcakes. Simple vanilla cupcakes with yellow and orange icing on top to look like fire. We then added crushed up oreos around it to be the coal!

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Most of these ideas were created by me, but you're obviously more than welcome to use them for your own Hunger Games party. If you have any food-related questions, just shoot me an email or leave a comment below. I'd love to hear what you think about this food and maybe even what you did or would do for your own HG-related gathering!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Hunger Games Party - Decorations!


I love throwing parties for my friends and this past May, it was my birthday month, so I essentially threw my own b-day party...but with the awesome Hunger Games theme! I'm going to try and get all the HG posts up this week so you can see just how I set the whole thing up.

Today, I'm going to start with the decorations. It was very simple. I didn't feel the need to go all crazy. I essentially found funny Hunger Games-related pictures online, printed them off, and then taped them to red cardboard (red for the girl on fire of course). After that, I just spread them around my living room and voila! Simple decorations that can easily entertain the guests.

You Know You're Obessed with the Hunger Games... poster (found these online)



Voldemort approves of President Snow...

I have about six or seven more of these type of things, but I don't want to overcrowd the post with similar things. You get the idea. If you want the links to where I got these, I think I still have them, so just let me know!

Now, some other decoration ideas...I looked up songs that people felt fit the books (that weren't on the actual movie soundtrack) and made a list of two playlists that I taped to my stereo. One is songs that fit the series in general and the other is a fire-themed playlist.



Next, if you've read all the HG books then you know that Katniss and Peeta put together what I call a scrapbook, but it's a mix of information about friends and things they want to have on hand. So I got a small red scrapbook and put out some supplies for a Katniss and Peeta's Scrapbook Station. Nobody used it, but it was still kind of cute. If you have a party with just girls, I think it might go over better...have everyone work on pages and then add your party pics later. That was my plan but I guess I'll just do the scrapbook on my own! haha



Finally, I had a fire pit for when it got dark out so we could roast some s'mores. I went with the idea of a Girl on Fire (pit) just to be a bit quirky. I even had "Roast President Snow" for the s'more making, but I never got a picture of that sign. My bad!


There you have it...my simple, yet fun, Hunger Games decorations. Keep watching the blog this week for the food (I went crazy on this!) and the games/prizes! I'll even share a picture of me as Primrose Everdeen!