I’m not going to lie. I’m kind of a nerd. I did far too much reading and not enough socializing growing up, which is probably why I spend my day behind a screen instead of dealing with actual people. But anyway, my friend Arielle told me I should read books a very long time ago and I put it off for too long. I finally read them about six months ago and totally fell in love. Arielle is throwing a Hunger Games premiere party on the 23rd of this month and I asked her to share her plans with you today! Enjoy!
One of the things I have figured out as an adult is I love to become obsessed with a book series. While nursing my first born I read all of Harry Potter in a week, then read it again, and then bought all the movies, and then spent hours (days/weeks/months) obsessing over how the rest of the movies were going to turn out. Then there was Twilight and all the steps above were repeated again. Finally while pregnant with my daughter a friend of mine loaned me the first Hunger Games book and told me that I would love it since I loved Twilight. I put off reading it for a while because even though I became obsessed with the Twilight series I deep down knew that it wasn’t the most well-written series and, let’s face it, Bella could be flat out annoying. I wasn’t looking for another teenage angst love story.
When running out the door to an OBGYN appointment I grabbed the first book to take with me just in case I ended up spending the entire day waiting for the doctor. However, when I started sobbing in the exam room I put it away before the doctor recommended therapy for PPD before I gave birth. (Please tell me that I am not the only mom that cried when one child sacrificed herself for the other). After that moment I knew I was hooked.
Know that all previous obsession steps were repeated, fast forward to the news that the movie was coming out, and that it was going to be filmed in North Carolina and amazingly enough filmed in the town that my brother now lives in. So I packed up the kids and my mom and drove three hours to the casting call. After waiting for forever in line to turn in our headshots I then went back home and waited not so patiently for my phone call were I was going to become a movie star—or at least tell me that I was going to get to stand in a crowd in some random scene. Alas no such call ever came. It’s not all bad news though; my brother got to be an extra and actually is in . So at least I have one family member that became a movie star and yes I will squeal like a ten year old girl when I see him on the big screen.
So I guess you could say that with my obsession a Hunger Games party was inevitable. I originally talked to a few friends and was afraid that I would clean my house, make food, and have two people show up. But, those two people that I knew I could count on seemed excited though so I went ahead a created a Facebook event and planned on nerding out with a few people on March 23rd. The event started with ten people being invited and I told them to invite anyone they wanted to—hoping that I could get more like fifteen people to show up and make all the house cleaning effort worth it. As of today I now have thirty-eight people coming and that number just keeps growing!
Party Food
I have tons of plans for the party and hopefully they will all turn out. Everyone is supposed to bring a Hunger Games-inspired dish and I am a little bit of a control freak in that I have assigned a few people specific dishes. My mom is making venison stew. My little brother (the movie star) is bringing shrimp (yes I know this is more from the second book, but we needed a good snacking food). I am making a sheet cake with Rue’s lullaby written on it and covered in yellow flowers. That’s it for the made up ideas. Now on to the ideas I found online.
A friend and I are making Mockingjay Cupcakes from fictionalfood.net. They look amazing online—we will see how ours turn out. I also have another friend that is making statement sugar cookies also from fictionalfood.net. I also wanted to make hot chocolate, but feel that the description in the book sounds more wonderful than just the run of the mill hot chocolate so I have plans to make liquid truffle to make the decadent chocolate impact that much more amazing. I have found a recipe online for that as well. Fictionalfood.net has many other amazing recipes as well and I really hope that people embrace the fun of this party and go all out.
I also bought some colorful liqueurs for some of the adults and plan on serving them with ginger ale in martini glasses. I got X-rated which is a nice pretty pink as well as Hpnotiq which is an amazing bright blue. Yes it does bother me that they have to spell it so weird. However it looks really pretty and is supposed to taste good. I will also have some red and white wine since it’s mentioned so much in the books. If I have time I will also throw together some Kool aid for those that want a pretty drink, but don’t want alcohol. Since we have to go to the theater and stay up through a 9:45 pm movie I somewhat doubt that there will be too much alcohol consumption.
Party Decorations
As far as decorations go I found an amazing website that has amazing printable posters and invitations for free and I plan on using these around the house. Other than that I’m unsure what else I can do. I tried making some homemade decorations and they did not go so well.
Fun & Games
To make the party a little more interesting I made up a trivia quiz and am charging a dollar to participate. The winner gets the pot and since the list of attendees keeps getting longer it could become quite a prize! I hope that I was able to make a quiz that is hard, but not too hard (I left out the question matching the districts to what they produce). Once again we will just have to wait and see how it goes.
From now until March 23rd I will be even more obsessed with everything Hunger Games and spending every kid-free (or kid-light) moment trying to come up with more ideas for the party. I am insanely excited (if you hadn’t picked up on that yet) and can’t wait to enjoy Hunger Games inspired food, and finally get to see the movie. Until then, Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favor!
Do you have any ideas for the party? Would you go to a party like this?
Arielle Brents is a SAHM super nerd who is working hard at raising her four year old son and two year old daughter to be just a obsessed with nerd fun as she is. She has been married to her husband, Robert, for almost 6 years and they live in Kingsport, Tennessee.
for Arielle’s Hunger Games Pinterest board!
HOW WAS THE PARTY? READ THE WRAP-UP POST NOW!
