Name of the party / theme for the party

"No time to SIESTA, it's time to FIESTA".

Number of guests/who's invited

10 people/work colleagues

Food and beverages

When the guests came, they received a drink of sangria or cactus juice with lime (non alcoholic alternative). We also had nachochips with dips sauce (salsa, creme fraîche, guacamole and cheese dips) and stuffed tortilla bread (stuffed with salsa sauce, grated cheese and ruccola) which we heated in the frying pan and cut into pieces. Simple and tasteful!

On the taco buffé we had a lot of fresh fruit (eg mango, melon, kiwi, banana) and black beans, coriander and lime. We have modified tacos here in Sweden so we tried to get it a bit more exotic. The guests had to bring beverages themselves so it was a mix of what the guests drank. Some had the Mexican beer Corona and some brought red wine. I had a cactus cider and others had alcohol-free options.

For dessert we served a mango sorbet with lots of fresh fruit and topped it with colorful pansies. We also offered tequila (and of course salt and lemon) to those who wanted ...

Activities

Of course, my colleague (who helped me arrange it) and I had bought sombreros and ponchos that we had when we welcomed the guests (for convenience, the hat went off after a while ...). The guests got a drink and some snacks when they arrived while we waited for everyone to arrive to the FIESTA.

We had an "check in" when everyone had arrived - which we usually have at workshops at our job. We had laminated lots of images that's associated with Mexico. The pictures lay on the table and everyone had to choose a picture (without knowing why). After they had chosen a picture, they had to tell the other something about themselves that had a connection to the picture. It's an easy way to get to know each other better. We are a relatively new constellation of colleagues, so we got to know a little more about each other.

Then we divided the guests into two teams. After some "warm up" exercises (eg write down their hopes and fears with the evening, which became very funny and full of imagination ...) the first competition started while we prepared the taco buffé. The teams got a map of Mexico and should combine the correct number on the map with the correct city. It turned out to be quite hard to figure out...

Meanwhile the teams tried to mark the cities on the map we prepared the taco buffé. During the evening we had several activities. Among other things, they had to guess whose mustache it was on different pictures (I had copied mustasches on celebrities I found on the Internet), form as many words as they could from the word "sombrero" and then we had a music quiz later in the evening. When the races ended and we got a winning team, the prize was a Pinata. To get to the price (lots of candies) they had to hit it till it broke.

Details

Some of the details I used for the theme were a mix of different colorful things. A beautiful mix of different colors on tablecloths, pillows, blankets, bowls, pennants, lamps, etc. I also had colorful plates with motifs of sunflowers and hand-painted glass.

We also decorated with cacti and other large plants such as 'mother-in-law's tongue'. We tried to hang a lot of decoration balls, pennants, lights and paper lights in the ceiling. Of course, we also printed a Mexican flag and hung up. The best detail was probably the Pinata. We had bought one with the shape of a star and one of the guests came with a pinata-donkey.