The Olympics only come around every 4 years and there are some of us who like the thrill and the majesty of the whole Olympic experience. Of course there are Sports Fans that also love all the events and love to root for the "Good Old USA". So this year, I am going to throw a party on the opening day of the Olympics. The summer Olympics this year will be held in Beijing, China so I thought this would be a great time to pull out some of my favorite Chinese recipes.
Since I have a large family room with couches I figured I would make this a buffet so that my guests can sit comfortable in front of my TV set. I plan on decorating with all the different flags from the different countries that will be at the Olympics. This was easily accomplished by going to this website, http://www.anbg.gov.au/flags/nation-flags.html and saving the flag graphics to my computer. I will then print them out on 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper and make banners to go across my room by folding over the top edge of the paper and stapling it to a piece of yarn. I am going to make 4 banners to go across to the center of my room and then I will tie balloons in the center.
My centerpiece will be the same flags printed out smaller and stapled to balloon sticks and put into a vase with white carnations. I went online and looked up the mascots of the Beijing Olympics and found that they have 5 mascots so I will use graphics of these little guys to decorate my food table. It is as simple as paper-dolls when we were kids.
I plan on having at least one game to play so I thought that an Olympics Trivia game would be fun. I found this website that had a lot of Olympic facts that could be turned into a Olympics Trivia Game: http://www.topendsports.com/events/summer/trivia.htm
I went to the dollar store and found a black and white panda bear which I will decorate in red, white and blue for the winner's prize.
To decorate the dessert of almond ice cream I will either have sparklers that I stick in and light at the last second or I am going to use colored light sticks.
I hope this gives you all a great start on a party to celebrate the Olympics!
Editor's Note: The Beijing Summer Olympics will run from August 8 - 24, 2008. For more information, you can visit the official website here:
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Skip summer camp and bring the Olympics to your children this Summer! Plan several sports and wacky fun for a free week-long event of lasting memories.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I am planning a 08-08-08 adult Birthday party and I am looking for fun food and games ideas. It is a backyard/cocktail party with a possible Olympic theme since they start on that day. Any ideas?
Maybe some simple games that could be played tournament style with medals given as prizes, such as croquet or darts. You could decorate with flags from different countries. Have fun!
Have a marching in ceremony or a torch "run" where the torch is passed from one person to another. Have a "silly" contest...like nominate a gymnast from each team and see who can do the best Cartwheel, Nominate an ice skater, put on some music and have them do an ice skating "routine", have a volleyball game and see who can volley the ball the most times, have a jav throw, high jump contest, race, etc..
- Buy some lapel pins of flags from different countries. Think about the countries your guests are from and include a bunch of good ol' American flags.
I want to host an Olympics party in the summer; what zany, funny, easy "competitions" could I have that would appeal to kids and adults of various ages? And where can I get downloads of "medals" that I could laminate put on neck ribbons? Thanks for all any help you can offer!
I used to work in a nursing home and we did things like this fairly often as ways to make money for the Heart Asc. or other good causes.
One such time we took donuts, attached them to string and hung them from the ceiling. We had groups of 4 and the group that ate the whole donut first "won". Of course the trick is to NOT use your hands to help steady the donut. Anyone that was "caught" using their hands, were disqualified. This could be done as a boys against the girls, men vs. women, or same age teams.
For little ones, you could have Big Wheel races---set up a course in an empty lot and have one at a time, drive the course. The one(s) that do not knock any devices down, wins the medal. (in the nursing home, we used wheel chairs of course)
And don't foeget the water balloon toss--that's always fun, especially for the men.
A fun game we play at my family reunion is a Rolling Pin toss for the ladies. We draw a stick-like figure of a man and stick it in the groud many feet from the starting point. The idea is to toss the rolling pin and hit the "man" with it. The one that hits the man or comes closest, wins!
Don't know if this is the type of games you had in mind, but I do know they are always fun and full of laughs, too!
Sorry, I forgot to add----you may be able to go to www.freegifs.com. This site has many gifs that you can "snag". Maybe your local everything for a dollar store has something useful, too, that can be used.
I'm found a free party guide on www.highprincess.com/
