Theme party #2: Black and White Party

Just a month after our Downton party in April, we had a Black and White party for Michaela's birthday in May.  It was a labor of love, born of 3 years of conversations.  Michaela once went to a Black and White party back in Scotland, and she’s always dreamed of doing one in our house.  We have an open area that’s mostly black and white already, and so we started discussing what it would take to pull off an all-B+W party.  It took some doing, including painting a green wall white.   (Neither the green nor the white was a great paint job, but it’s not a conspicuous wall.)  We borrowed a bunch of black sheets from school, which uses them near the stage during plays and concerts.  Along with a bunch of old white sheets, they served to cover several doors and chairs, a couch, and a few small tables for food.  

Each guest had to dress entirely in black, white, or gray.  We also asked each person to bring a black, white, or gray snack to share.  The guests got really into it!  We had everything from chocolate-covered marshmallows to coconut ice cream to dragonfruit, which is white with black seeds.   On the back left, you can even spot Michaela's homemade cupcake stand.  The drinks were my favorite part: she photocopied all the soda labels so that they were black and white.  It was so surreal looking at them – my brain wanted to add back the color!  We had old black-and-white commercials running on a projector, and then watched a classic black-and-white comedy: “You Can’t Take It With You.”  A big hit was some photo booth props we found online.

I don’t feel like a natural-born hostess, and I don’t usually crave large-group gatherings.  But I really had fun, not only at these events but also while planning them.  Hosting together been a great way to bond with my housemates, and I’m looking forward to future theme parties.  Any suggestions?

Theme party #1 - Downton Abbey

I’m not exactly a party animal.  My four housemates and I are usually in for the night by like 6:30.  It’s rare to find us watching a movie (on a weekend, duh!) without a pile of grading on someone’s lap…or a few someones.  Our house is more like a nunnery than a sorority.  And most of the time, that’s really OK with me. 

However, it’s been a fun surprise to get into hosting theme parties together.  We’ve hosted two in the last several months.  The first was in honor of (most of) our favorite show, Downton Abbey, a BBC period drama set in England during the 1910s-1920s.  Michaela, Annalisa and I have been watching it all year on our black-market DVDs.  ($1.50 a disk, no bargaining necessary.)  Michaela went ahead and watched the Season 3 Christmas special on TV while home in Scotland, and she warned us that it was a bit of a downer.  We decided we needed to end our Downton drama habit on a high note, in good company.  Plus, we needed to take advantage of the paper dolls Michaela had stumbled across online. 

My favorite paper doll because all her expressions are THE SAME!

I printed out the paper dolls and added some other characters so we could invent and perform a sequel to the Christmas special: “Holiday in Cambodia.”  I did a bit more digging online and discovered a “name that Downton character” quiz game, which I turned into a team activity.  I also took some classic Dowager Countess quotations and transformed them into a fill-in-the-blank competition with three levels of difficulty.  (Can you tell I’m a teacher?)  The quiz questions and answers are below if you'd like to see them.

A bunch of us Logos ladies met at a local restaurant that has a private room with a projector.  (Good thing I’m not the only Downton nerd in town.)  We ended up not using the paper dolls, but we DID have a lot of fun with the games and just hanging out together.  Since we’re in Cambodia, there were technical difficulties with the projector.  So we returned to my house to watch the long-awaited Christmas special.  It’s true, it’s a bit of a downer.  But we didn’t let it get to us – laughter and fun dominated the evening!

Click on "Read more" if you'd like to see the quiz game.

Beauty in the mess

Both are there.  Which one am I looking at?