Happy Hunger Games!

Confession: I am completely obsessed with The Hunger Games.

Great book (trilogy actually) about a dystopian future where our country is now controlled by a few (called the Capital) who enslave the rest (the districts) and punish them each year by conducting the Hunger Games in which 1 boy and 1 girl from each district is chosen to fight to the death for the Capital's entertainment.

It's a wonderful series narrated by the protagonist, Katniss, a girl of 16. I *heart* Katniss. She's everything I think I am but, like, 50 million times cooler. (Last January my NY resolution was even to learn archery and be a bad ass like Katniss--I still haven't given up that dream yet). I am so in love with these books I even dedicated my pumpkin carving to it back in October if you remember.

I've been a HG fan now for 3 and half years but with the movie just being released it has gained popularity in leaps and bounds. My daughter and I have been on the band wagon awhile but it's amazing how many other people are now coming to us with, "Have you read the HG?" to which we reply, "OMGosh YES!" and go on to gush about how much we love love love 'em.

It's a growing phenomenon. Almost all the women at my work have read them and even a few officers are at least aware of them (one Corporal even mentioned how his wife is obsessed with them). My family calls me up, "Hey, have you read...?"
Ummmm...old news peeps, old news.I'm already obsessed.
But I love when people approach me about it cuz then I can go on and on and on about how awesome they are and they at least get it. This Christmas my father in law even bought my daughter the HG because he had read it and liked it (not knowing she already read them and we owned them). LOL

So, since we've been waiting for the past year ("we" meaning my daughter and I) for the movie to finally arrive we were ready when opening night came this past weekend. A whole group of us were going and since I'm a fanatically crazy person about the HG I decided to do it right by having a mini party before the movie to celebrate.

First, I browsed the trusty internet to find all kinds of HG themed things to do for my little potluck party. I made invitations for those coming over:

For the main course I made pulled pork BBQ sandwiches (since they were so easy to throw together) but luckily I figured out how to incorporate the dish into a HG theme:

Cheesy but whatever... I mean we're talking about a themed party so cheese is par for the course, right?

For those of you who are not aware of HG a lot of this will be confusing so my apologies (you should totally read the books-have I mentioned they're awesome?)

We had sleep syrup for drinks:

And Prim's goat cheese with Peeta's bread (spinach/artichoke dip with bread):

And for dessert we had "nightlock" tarts (the deadly berries):

For decoration my daughter and I hung parachutes up around the house, a poster on the front door to welcome those in, and some quotes we wrote on poster board just to get people in the HG mood!

It was a blast and really didn't require a lot of effort (except the posters) or money (about 10.00 in all for decorations) but made the night just a little more exciting and special.

So, if you haven't had a chance I recommend reading the books (books first-not movie!!) and remember:
 
May the odds be ever in your favor!!!