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:
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.