Happy Hunger Games!

Derek and Dylan decided a long time ago that this year, they were going to have a Hunger Games party!  Now the great thing about having two perspective 13 year olds, is that they are pretty capable of coming up with ideas and helping to throw their own parties.  These guys spend the last few months coming up with ideas and putting this party together, and it was a GREAT one!

Food was kind of easy.  These are the Hunger Games, after all.  My idea was to really stay true to the theme and not serve anything so the kids would be very hungry, but the twins convinced me that some food would be in order.  So we kept snacks simple and true to the theme: apples and goat cheese on rustic bread, and flamin' hot chips and cheetos.

Here is a copy of the invitation.  

We kept the decor simple too, after all, this party was all about the activities, not the decor.  We just hung a few streamers and a few HG posters.  But the one cool thing we did do was hang these parachutes from the ceiling. 

 Of course, the highlight of the display was the fire cake with Katniss' arrow right in the middle!

Of course, when they said they wanted to have a HG party, I loved the idea because it meant one thing: I'd get to be the Capitol's own favorite fashionista, Effie Trinket!

When the kids, I mean prospective tributes, all arrived, as was mandatory, the first thing they had to do of course was register.  They did this by signing their name and putting their bloody thumbprint on the ballot cards that were then taped closed with black tape and tossed into the glass jar.  Now we were ready for the reaping!

The kids were all nervous as we announced the district and then pulled the names of the tributes from each district - and boy and a girl from each, of course.

 Each tribute was given one of these tokens from their district to wear throughout the games.

The red berries were for a game we played a little later on during training where they had to try to identify the poisonous berries.

 As you know, the very first thing that happens after the  reaping, is that the stylists get a hold of the tributes and do their magic!  The district teams had 10 minutes to costume one of them with an outfit that represented their particular district.  The twins were in charge of this and had collected all kinds of fun materials for the stylists to use: foil, paper plates, colorful duct tape, toilet paper, plastic bags..., you name it!

 The kids had a blast and got pretty darn creative.

Cinna would have been proud, no doubt!  And I was glad nobody decided to set themselves on fire!

And what happens after the tributes have been to the stylists?  Why, they get interviewed by Caesar Flickerman himself!  Nate did a great job of playing Caesar with his tuxedo and blue slicked-back pony tail.  Dazzling!

The interview with Caesar was a game along the lines of "I cannot tell a lie." Caesar asked them about some ridiculously silly thing about them, (such as "I understand that when you are nervous you chew on other people's fingernails.  Is this true?") and they have to respond and explain it as if it is true without laughing or breaking character.  

 It was pretty funny, and the tributes all did a pretty good job of it.

And as we all know, after the interviews the real serious work of training begins.  First, the tributes were trained how to identify poisonous berries as in the pic above.

Then they played "Dodge the Careers, a game that the twins made up.  The tributes from districts 1&2 got to throw water balloon grenades at the other tributes who had to run past and try to snatch up backpacks without getting soaked.

 And what do you imagine were in those backpacks that were so important to those tributes?  Well, towels, of course!

 The next game in training was called Tracker Jacker Tag.  First the girls got to be the Tracker Jackers and were each given several sheets of round stickers.  They had to chase the boys and stick on as many stickers as they could.  The the boys got their turn to be the Tracker Jackers.  Whoever had the fewest "stings"won the round.

 Sadly, a few tributes didn't make it.

 The last part of training was practicing camouflage techniques by decorating some of Peeta's cookies.  We provided earth-tone frosting and pictures of various things in nature like tree bark, grass, and cracked mud and let the tributes practice their camo skills.

 Grass, bark, even flowers.  These kids could give Peeta a run for his money!

 When the tributes were all trained they were ready to be transported to the arena.  But before we left, we thought it would be best to sing Happy Birthday to the birthday boys while there where still enough tributes still alive to sing to them and share the cake.

 The flames!  Forget the cake. Everyone just wanted to eat the flames!

 Then we transported the whole group over to the "Arena." It was really our property a few blocks away where we will be building our new house, but for now it provided the perfect place to shoot and run.
Before the official Hunger Games began, my dad set up a archery range and let the tributes all have a chance to hit the mark.

 The kids LOVED trying their skills with a bow and arrow!  And what were they shooting at?

 Bags of apples, obviously!  I think everyone had a better appreciation for Katniss after giving archery a shoot! (Pun intended)

Finally, it was time for the Games to begin!!!

The tributes were placed in a large circle around a retention basin on our property, and down in the ditch was the cornucopia (a tent, actually) filled with and surrounded by all kinds of mortal weapons and supplies.

 And then the gamemakers shot the tiny little cannon, and the games had begun.

 There was a mad rush into the cornucopia as the tribute grabbed hold of anything they could get their hands on.  Others took a different strategy and just ran off as fast as they could.

 Oh the excitement!  Oh the carnage! This was life or death!

 Some tributes refused to go down without a fight. (How many weapons is too many, do you think? Geeze Dylan!)

 The action was intense and the careers were a force to be reckoned with.

 And every tribute used whatever skills they had at their disposal.

 Finally, just as the sun was setting, there were only two tributes left alive!  They fought to the bitter end! (And if you ask either one, they will tell you that they won. That is for the gamemakers to decide, I suppose.)
After all, this Hunger Games was not so much about who won, but who had the most fun, and I really think that from what I saw, it was one huge tie!

These are the numbered bags we prepared for the "feast"at the cornucopia, but we ran out of time for that.  But that was fine, because they all took them home as goodie bags.

It was an awesome party, and so fun to pull together.  Derek and Dylan had some great ideas and really worked hard to make their Hunger Games party a huge success.

I do believe the odd were ever in everybody's favor that day!


(PS, if you want to throw your own Hunger Games party, I have a more descriptive "How To" post about it on my other blog, Out of the Attic, here.)

Jones Reunion Revisited

In March we finally did something that was long, long overdue.  We had a reunion of the descendants of my mother's parents, Grandma and Grandpa Jones.

My cousin Erin (or first cousin once removed, if you want to get technical) is my friend on Facebook and we have been trying for a long time to try to get this put together, and after a bunch of messaging back and forth and several date changes, we finally made it happen!  We all don't live very far from each other (they are in the high desert, and we in the low desert) so it was very possible - we just had to make it happen.

When I was a kid, we had a get together with my Mom's family every year, usually right after Christmas.  It was a smaller group then.  Mom only has two siblings, a brother, Larry, and a sister, Norda.  Larry has no kids, and Norda had only 3.  On top of that, my mom is much younger than her brother and sister, which meant that by the time we came along, the few cousins we had were adults.  This meant that there were never any kids our age at these reunions, not until my cousin's started having kids, and then they were the same ages of my younger sister and brother, but us three older girls pretty much only had each other (and how much fun  is that?). 

Boy how things have changed!  Kids, kids, everywhere kids!  And the kids of one side of the family had never met the kids on the other side, so it was also a day of making new friends - lots of them!

Of course, my oldest boys were still in the same boat we were in as kid with no one else their age, but they didn't seem to mind.

In fact, Nathan loved it.  Or should I say, they loved him!  Those little girls just took to Nathan.  I asked him to make the lemonade and he was so sweet to let some of the little girls help.  He was so cute with his little cousins, and so gentle and patient  with them and they loved it!  Soon they were lining up to make lemonade with Nathan!  

Outside, other kids were making more fun!  The theme was a Western BBQ, so Dylan got into the spirit by pulling out our old lasso and rustling up some cousins.

Yee Haw!

Playing cowboys in the back yard.

The rest of us had a great time just getting all caught up with each other.  A lot has happened in the over 10 years since we have gotten together, good things and bad, and there was much to share,

and darling children to get to know,

and, as always when we get together with my family, food to prepare!  Good food is a family tradition - a good family tradition.

But this year we did something new.  Any guesses?

Homemade root beer!

Since we were having an old fashioned barbecue, I though root boor would fit the bill, but then got frustrated when I couldn't find mass quantities of bottled root beer.  Then a friend suggested we just make our own.  Awesome idea!  Some water, some sugar, a bottle of root beer extract, and of course, the magic ingredient - dry ice, and we not only had a cold, frosty, refreshing treat, but a show in itself!

Delicious!

What a great day! So glad my sister Mindy and her gang happened to be down that weekend from Oregon, and my brother Rick and family were here from Arizona.  In our family, we only missed (and boy, did we miss!) Natalee and family way over in Texas.

What a wonderful family we have!  What wonderful, good, strong, and faithful people.  I am so proud to be related to all of them.  We all strengthen each other, I think.

And sweet and beautiful children!  I love them all!

My Uncle Gordon, and the men of the Pratt family.  Watch out - they are all cops. (That is their family tradition, not ours.)

Did I mention the food?  Ranch beans and grilled peppers from Dad's garden to smother on the burgers.

And the cole slaw? Also from dad's garden.  Yummy stuff!

But the hit of the meal was, of course, Dad's barbecued ribs!  Wow, wow, wow!  Dennis tears off a few more and my cousin Glen couldn't get enough of them.

Yep, that is how we do it in our family!  We are serious about good food!

After the food, (and unfortunately, before the pictures) the kids all jumped in the spa for some wet and wild fun!

Meanwhile, my cousin Glenn was working on another tradition.  Even way back in the day when we would all get together, Glenn would always make homemade ice cream, and it was always delicious.  But this time, there was quite a twist!  Instead of making traditional ice cream with an ice cream maker, he used a huge cooler, some hand quizzed orange juice, some milk, and some dry ice to make some amazing orange sherbet! It was so delicious!  He actually smashed up the dry ice and stirred it into the juice and milk so that the sherbet actually fizzed in your mouth a bit like soda.  It was so refreshing on a warm day!

Another family tradition is born!

And if you have ice cream, well, you know you have to have yummy homemade cookies to go with it!

Everyone was happy.

And finally, the one tradition I remember from all of those family get together growing up was the piñata.  We always, always, always had a piñata.

Of course, we had to do that again this time too.  Unfortunately, when we where getting the piñata rigged up, it dropped and split open, so we had to so some major repair work to patch it up just so the kids could beat it up again, thus the blue painter tape.

Since it was half dead already, it didn't take the littlest ones very long to break it open.

Inside, my cousin Kevin and brother-in-law Ben, tore it up playing improve blues together on the piano.  They were really good and we really enjoyed their musical experimentation.

I had planned to do some family photos, but in the craziness, it didn't really happen.  I did manage to get a few pictures of my cousin Cameron's beautiful family.

And also my cousin Erin's darling family.

Thank you, Erin, for helping me get this all put together!  Everyone got along so well, and we remembered how much we share.   I know we are all so glad that we have finally gotten together again after all these years, and that we are going to make sure that we do this, (all of it - the root beer, the good food, the homemade ice cream, the piñata, the fun!) again every year, or more than that.  We discussed temple trips, and beach trips, and the ladies are all planning to go to a Time Out for Women next month together!

Three cheers for family and for the traditions that bind us together!  Hip, hip, hurray!