The Old North State Themed Party

I had so much fun helping to throw a going away party for some friends who will be starting graduate school in Greensboro, North Carolina.  We are sad to see them leave this Yankee state, but happy also ... because we'll be in good ol' NC a couple times before the year is up so we'll get to stay connected with them!

The party theme we settled on was "From Connecticut to North Carolina with Love."  

I'll be the first to admit that I was excited about the state themed party, but couldn't figure out how to make it work beyond fixing a North Carolinian menu - really, just my favorite southern foods (stay tuned for more on that ...)

And then I started looking around my house, and realized that about 75% of what's on our walls and bookshelves is tied in some way to our roots in NC.  So, I drew some arrows pointing that out ... 

And then, I printed off some outlines of the state and stuck them around the house in various places.  I even taped them to some skewers and used that to label the food.

Veggies & Dip, Ya'll

And then, finally, I made up a game (that we never got around to playing) of stats about North Carolina that I got from Wikipedia.

Here's the menu for our North Carolina themed party (recipes forthcoming):

BBQ sandwiches
Funeral Rolls
Pimento Cheese
Sausage Balls
Lil' Smokies
Watermelon
Veggies and Dip
Fresh Lemonade
Minty Sweet Tea
Banana Pudding
Blueberry Boybait




I am so thankful for these friends and the chance to send them off to their new state!