Eclipse Girls Night

Wow, neglected much?? March was a pretty wild month for our family, but I promise to do a better job of updating more frequently! (For my one faithful reader...not even one? Oh well...) At the beginning of March I hosted an Eclipse girls night. Pretty much just an excuse to get people together to watch the movie!"Love Is Forever" is actually one of the songs on the soundtrack for the movie so that's why I used it for the banner.Of course, a heart broken in two for the ends of the ribbon. Which team would you choose?Then, for wall decorations, I took movie quotes and put them on paper from the paper stack "Immortal Love." (Found it at Joanns.)For decorations around the rest of the room, I used black, red, and white. I found big fake diamonds at Hobby Lobby that were scattered all over the room along with red glass gems.The first thing the guests had to to when they walked in the door was decide what team they were going to be on. I made name tags that everyone had to wear.These were the prizes for our games. I wrapped black and red tulle around little bottles of lotion and tied them with white ribbon. I chose scents like Twilight Woods, Enchanted Orchid, Dark Kiss, and Sensual Amber.Our first game was a trivia game that I found online. It was from the books, not the movie. If I had the time, I would have made my own but it worked fine! Our other game was Twilight Pictionary. My friend put it together and chose scenes, people, or terms from all three movies for the clues. It was awesome! Then, everyone on the winning team won a prize!The food!I made gourmet caramel apples (you know, the forbidden fruit) and, if it's okay for me to say this, they turned out delicious!My friend who put together the pictionary game also made these fabulous red velvet cupcakes! Notice how Jacob's cupcake wrapper has wolf prints and Edward's has something akin to the Cullen crest? Genius!Veggie platter with a quote that says "...we call ourselves vegetarians, our little inside joke."Another genius detail from the above friend; we had Italian Creme sodas to drink and instead of just having boring cherry and strawberry, we were able to taste the blood from a grizzly bear and a mountain lion. I favored the mountain lion.

Survivor Girls Night

Okay, I hosted this girls night months ago and it was so much fun! It's taken me way too long to put a post up about it!Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Survivor. I had been thinking/planning this night for several months before it finally came to fruition.Along with a veggie tray, fruit tray, and drinks, I had some Survivor-esque food to go along with our theme. I bought fresh coconut that I cut up (I was shocked when I found out there were girls there who had never tasted fresh coconut before!), I made fried plantains (which were a little weird but went along with the theme), I made rice and put it in plastic seashell dishes, and, my crowning achievement, a volcano cake!

After we had eaten I had everyone draw a "buff" out of a bag to determine which tribe they would be on. Once everyone had a tribe, they all split off to decorate their "flags" (aka poster boards) with their tribe names that they made up. After the poster boards were finished it was on to the first challenge!The first challenge consisted of a map, phrase, and flag for each tribe. We tacked their tribe poster boards onto the deck outside and everyone stood on their tribe mats (just towels laid on the ground). I gave each tribe a map and, on my go, they opened them up. The maps led them to three different areas around my yard where they had to find three different bags with words to the phrase they all had to put together. Once a tribe had all three of their bags, they had to go back to their mat and then open them up and start working on their phrase.

United You Must Be

To Win Immunity

When they thought the figured it out I had to double check to make sure it was the right one (there were three different ways it would be put together) and once I gave the okay the tribe had to tape the phrase to their poster board, grab their tribe flag, run back to their mat, and stake the flag into the ground. The first two tribes to finish were able to move on to the next round!The next challenge was set up with each tribe standing in a line with each person being an arm's length apart from the person on either side of them. They had to blindfold themselves and then they were each given a small plastic cup. On each end of the line for each tribe was a bucket. On one end there was a large bucket filled with water and on the other end was a smaller empty bucket. Being blindfolded, and not allowed to talk to each other, they had to transfer water from the large bucket to the small bucket using their cups. The first tribe to fill their small bucket to overflowing won!

I didn't want anyone to feel left out so the tribe who didn't finish the first challenge still got to be involved. I split the losing tribe up and put half on each tribe doing the water challenge. Their role was to verbally help the competing tribes if they were having trouble finding each other. So, the competing tribe could talk, but the losing tribe members became "callers" who could help but only by talking, they weren't allowed to physically guide anyone's hand. (Phew, did that all make sense??)

After the water challenge was over we all went back inside for a Limbo competition! Originally it was supposed to be the tribe who won the water challenge competing against each other for individual immunity, but everyone wanted to participate and who was I to stop them from having a good time??The person who won was awarded with an Individual Immunity Necklace!

And then, it was outside for our Tribal Council! (And by Tribal Council I mean relaxing campfire in my backyard.)

Miss America Party

Having a Miss America party is a great excuse to have a girls night and there's no requirement that says you have to be interested in the pageant!

One of the best things about a party is the food being served. Food will inevitably bring people together! Having a fun dessert, like this cupcake cake decked out in it's own tiara, is a fun (and edible) way to show your guests what an awesome hostess you are.
If you know who your guests are going to be ahead of time, having pre-made sashes for each one will make her feel special! Focus on one attribute and then find an interesting and unique word to fit her. It also makes for a great commercial-break filler to go around the room and have everyone read off her sash name after which you'll read the definition for the word. A great source to use? Thesaurus.com!

A fun activity to have for the evening is your own Q&A/talent portion. Prepare the talents and questions ahead of time and each guest will then draw a slip of paper out of a bowl to see what she will be doing. Tons of fun and you'll be surprised at what people are willing to do! If guests are too uncomfortable being the center of attention, have an option open that they can choose one or two people to perform with them. A few ideas to get you started:

-Recite the “Star-Spangled Banner.” (Especially funny when the person who chooses this one doesn't know the song that well!)
-Find a partner and perform a ballroom dance routine around the room.
-You’re famous for impersonating Michelle Kwan, show us a few of your best figure skating moves.
-Perform a dramatic reading of “America the Beautiful.”
-Perform an interpretive dance telling the story of Jack and Jill.
-You’re a famous fire baton twirler, show us one of your favorite routines.
-Perform a 10 second ballet routine.
-You’re a famous opera singer, perform “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” like you would on opening night.
-If you were to write the next song that topped the music charts of 2010, sing a few of the lines that would be written in the song.
-If you had to choose, which cartoon character would you like to be and why?
-Your best friend just bought a new outfit and hasn’t even taken the tags off yet. She models it for you because she loves it so much. You see that it isn’t flattering on her and would never have let her buy it if you’d gone shopping together. What do you say?
-Would you rather direct, star in, or write the screen play for a movie?
Another fun ongoing activity is to have poster boards around the room with Miss America related questions. Guests could write their answers down at any point during the evening and then the answers would be read off before they leave.

And, for some fun competition, have brackets for the guests to fill out to determine who they think will win. Guests would have to guess the Top 15, Top 10, Top 5, and then, of course, Miss America herself! Award 1 point for each correct guess in the first round, 2 for the second, 3 for the third, and 4 points for anyone who chose the winning contestant.

This is guaranteed to be a night that will not be forgotten!