i'm feeling very olympic today

Friday night were the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, and so of course I had to have a themed party! I have always loved the summer Olympics. I think my love for it grew even more when we were able to go to the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 and see the women's gymnastics individuals and team finals. Anyways, I decided a few weeks ago that I should throw a party, and from there things got a little nuts. 

I started my planning with the food. Obviously. I wanted to have different appetizers from different countries, so I started looking through Pinterest to find the perfect ones. Once I had the food planned (antipasto plate: Spain & Italy, chipotle chicken tostadas: Mexico, cucumber and avocado summer rolls: Japan, Asian pork meatballs: China, bangers (from Whole Foods) and mash (tater tots I tossed with season salt): London, pulled pork sliders (the pork was from Franklins BBQ): USA, vegetable hummus tart: Greece) I started working on the food flags. I wanted to make one that labeled the food in English and in the language of the country, and their countries flag that I drew. I bent them and put them in one of my medicine bottles to make them look like they were moving. They turned out pretty cute!

The food all laid out

After I had the menu planned, I had to figure out decorations. I had talked to my mom about it and she was on it! She sent me a box full of awesome stuff. There was a magazine about the US athletes, one of our Olympic flags (yeah, you read that right, ONE of our Olympic flags. I don't know what family needs one, but two flags. Apparently we do), a London flag, stickers, and copies of games we could play. I decided to pull all of the pages out of the magazine and use them in every single frame I own. I also brought my US flag home from my classroom to use, and pulled out the extra decorations for the 4th of July parade I was in. My friend Sarah had some random medals that she gave me that I used to give out randomly throughout the night. 

Welcome to the Olympics!

 The backside of my door.

 Above the tv

 Drink table.

 Food table

 Game area

Bathroom decorations. By the end of the night there were more messages on the mirror in lipstick.

My friend Patricia was in town and she helped me finish up the food stuff which was an awesome help! Luckily I had made most of the food the day before, so day of I mostly had to put things together and warm them up, and set everything out. She definitely was one of the medal winners for being awesome! I was so excited for everyone to get here and see their reaction to my insane awesome looking apartment. I also loved that without me saying anything, everyone was dressed in red, white and blue!

 Go USA!

Derrick and Katie brought ingredients to make red, white and blue martinis, but it didn't stay separated like it was supposed to. So instead everyone took a purple shot to start off Opening Ceremonies.

 Getting ready. Larry was really excited.

 I don't think I missed anything...

When all of the countries started coming in we figured it was time to play some games. (Well, mostly Katie because she really wanted to win a medal.)

Checking to see if the answers were correct. I don't just hand out medals to whoever gives me their paper first! This is serious stuff guys.

Some of the winners! Alli: Fastest Word Find, Derrick: Fastest Crossword, Katie: Fastest Olympic Sport Match.

It was a really fun night! I'll now be spending the next two weeks glued to my tv, eating leftovers and sitting in my still decorated apartment. Go USA!