For the record...

I'm going to try my best to "catch up" this weekend with the blog and write about all the things we did at the Season 3 Premiere.

If anyone has any ideas from their own parties, please share!  I'm always looking for ideas for the next event!

S2, Game 4 - Scavenger Hunt

The biggest event of the season two premiere was a scavenger hunt.

I based the clues from Catelyn's journey through the Seven Kingdoms.  Because she seemed to move around a LOT through the first season, following her would kind of refresh everyone's memory about the events that took place.

I chose five different locations around my parents' house (did I mention it was held there?  it's an old farm with many fields... PERFECT location!) and hid wooden boxes that I painted in each location.   Everyone was given a different clue pointing to a different location to start.  The goal was to find the boxes which contained more clues and to bring the final box back.


THE CLUES:

THE LOCATIONS:


1.  There was definitely nothing I could find that would take the place of a heart tree.  I ended up drawing a terrible picture of a tree with a face and propped it against one of the biggest trees on the property, close to the house.  It was the easiest clue to find simply because everyone could see it as soon as they stepped off the deck.  In hindsight, I maybe could have come up with something better, but I somehow still like my terrible artwork (sorry to all the real artists out there).  I hid the box on the ground, just behind the posterboard.  

2.  "The king of this land" was simply my grandfather's house.  The box was hidden just inside his front porch door which is how everyone enters the house.

3.  The driveway to my parents' house is pretty much a dead end except that it kind of intersects another road with a small gravel area.  The mailbox is at this intersection.  Because the game was on a Sunday, I felt safe hiding the box inside the mailbox.

4.  Our version of the "aerie" was an old kid's play area, complete with metal pole and a slide.  Dad had long since converted it into a hunting stand, and it is located in the middle of a field.  Funny enough, the thing was actually called the "Eagle's Nest" and looked kind of like this.  I placed the box out in the open on the top level so everyone could reach it without having to climb in.

5.  The best part of the scavenger hunt (for me) was sending everyone to the old wooden bridge on the property.  I hid the box underneath it, and it watching everyone's face as they solved this clue was priceless.

One of the "rules" I had listed was that everyone had to mark the locations on a map once they solved the clues.  Everyone was so tired from running around, that pretty much fell by the wayside.
The winners were my sister and brother who had a clear advantage in that they grew up there.  My (at the time future) sister-in-law and my other sister and her friend ended up walking slowly through the whole thing once they realized they would have to travel some distance.

Distractions

If you haven't heard, each episode of Game of Thrones this season earns higher ratings than the last.

My personal opinion?  Best season yet.

Haven't had time to blog about this year's Day of Thrones.  It was a big success, but unfortunately(?), we had so much fun that no one really thought to take any pictures.

Hoping to catch up soon.

S2 - Game 1, 2, & 3

GAME ONE
For the first game, participants were given a list of houses.  They had to find things in real life that represented various house sigils and take a picture of it.  Again, I appointed my parents as judges.  I did not give them any pictures to compare, but I did give them explanations as to what the different sigils were.

(pictures coming later)

GAME TWO
The second game was a round of the Game of Thrones Living Card Game.  I must admit, this was only the second time my family and I tried to play this game, and we stink.  I'm going to have to find someone who actually knows how to play and learn!

GAME THREE
The third "event" was simply a crossword puzzle that I designed to also refresh people's memories about the first season.

Game of Food for S2

I ended up cooking two meals because people came to the party in shifts; this meant that not everyone participated in all games, but more on that in later posts.

Because I am completely unoriginal where food is concerned, I turned to the internet and found Inn at the Crossroads.  What a great site!  Who didn't want to try some of the food GRRM describes (in such detail)?  I also love that the recipes are referenced by book.

Luckily, the people at IatC have a great variety of dishes to try.  Some of the recipes even have a Middle Ages version vs. a version people might try today.  Some of the food is waaaay over the top for me... I am in NO WAY a foodie so I have to find easy stuff to make.  Anyway, there are lots of great pics too.

PS: If anyone wants to send me a copy of IatC's official book, I would really love it.  Thanks.  :D

Meal #1

Breakfast (brunch) at Winterfell

We had soft-boiled eggs, sharp cheese, some expensive bacon, and fresh bread (purchased, not made!) with honey and jellies.

To the right is a picture of the aftermath.

I had never made soft-boiled eggs before, and some of them did turn out to be a little bit more hard-boiled than I intended.  Still good and simple!



Meal #2

Meal two was a bit more involved only because of the chicken.  It was the first time I have ever used a rotisserie chicken (and I used three), and it was a pretty cool experience.

Honeyed Chicken
Spinach and Mushroom Salad
Baked Potatoes
Lemon Cookies (spoiler alert... These were the worst freaking cookies I ever made, and it was totally my fault for using too much flour. You can see them in the middle of the table.  They're the white lumps that merge into one big white pile of crap.)
Meade


Anyway, here's a pic of before.  The "after" picture is just too messy.

I have to admit, while it was fun having some meade in those cool goblets my dad owns, I REALLY didn't like the taste of the stuff.  We'll be passing next time.

S2 Invites

Last year, I sent this in an envelope to my guests:

I printed them out, chose a different direwolf for everyone, and mailed them out without specifying where to send RSVP's.  Somehow, everyone knew...


After a couple weeks, we all were sitting around the table at my parents' house when I presented everyone with the following scrolls:

I got a little bit more creative with the scrolls, deciding to age the paper a bit.    I used thicker ivory resume paper.  I did not cook the paper in the oven, but I did take a lighter to the edges while each sheet was still wet.

The second scroll introduced the first game for the day, actually a pregame.  I convinced my parents to act as judges because they're the perfect combo; Mom does NOT like the show and doesn't have any preconceived notions, and Dad likes the show and has read the books.

Inception

I have always loved dragons, knights, and wolves.  When I found George R.R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire when I was in college, I was convinced that there could not be a better story or characters in the world.  Fortunately, I wasn't the only one!

I have been enthusiastically watching HBO's Game of Thrones, and I was able to convince most of my family as well as some of my friends to join me.  Now, several of them have picked up the books as well, but I'm not sure anyone I know is quite as obsessed.

When the premiere date for season 2 was announced last year, I read various Facebook posts, Tweets, and Blogs about parties people were having.  I had also been reading about all the promos HBO had done for both the first and second season and wished that I was close enough to New York, Los Angeles, or even London to see everything first hand.  It didn't take long for me to realize that in order to participate in a GoT Event, I would have to create one myself.

Day of Thrones was born.