Lord of the Rings Date Night

*For more movie-themed activities check out my website: http://funfilledflicks.com/.

Look what my hubby ordered:

All three Lord of the Rings movies in Blue Ray (extended edition).  Oh boy!  We have been re-watching the movies before we go see the new Hobbit movie.  Last night we were going to watch the Two Towers movie, so I thought, "Why not make our movie night into a date night?"

When my hubby walked in the door here is what he saw:

 You could get fancier than that, but I didn't have the time.  I put our fuzzy, green blanket and brown, round pillows on the couch.  It was our Hobbit-hole to watch the movie.

We headed to "The Prancing Pony Inn" for dinner.

Here's what was on the menu:
Drinks - Ale or Water (we actually had hot apple cider because I didn't have time to pick up ginger ale or root beer)
Appetizers - Fruit (apple slices) and Cheese (cubes of cheese on toothpicks)
Main Dish - Sam Wise's Potatoes (baked potatoes and toppings)
Dessert - Elven Lembas Bread

This is the recipe I used for the Lembas bread.

Elven Lembas Bread
2 1/2 c flour
1 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
8 T cold butter
1/3 c sugar
2/3 c milk
1/2 t lemon extract

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  Chop butter into mixture with a pastry cutter or knead in with your fingers until you get a crumbly mixture.  Add sugar and mix.  Add milk and lemon extract and stir with a fork until dough forms.

Roll the dough out 1/2 inch thick.  Cut out 3 inch squares and transfer to a cookie sheet (I sprayed mine lightly).  Criss-cross each square from corner to corner with a knife.  Bake for about 12 minutes or until set and lightly golden.  Makes 12-16.

http://www.entropyhouse.com/penwiper/costumes/lembas.html

*The website above has a print out for a leaf for you to use to wrap the Lembas Bread in.

The Lembas Bread wrapped in the Malorn leaf.

Lembas Bread and MORE Lembas Bread.

My kids liked it.

Mmm!  One bite is enough to fill a grown man for a day.  My husband commented that it actually was pretty filling.  It would have been really tasty with some icing on the top or some chocolate to dip it into (but of course we didn't do that last night because that would not be true to the movie).  

Once the kids were in bed we started the next portion of the date.  We played Battle for Middle Earth (a.k.a. RISK - my version).

This is the game board with the RISK pieces (the black were the bad guys and the grey were the good guys).

I took a map of Middle Earth, gave it a few distinct territories (Yes, I know they are not exactly true to the map--sorry all you purists).  Rohan, Gondor, and Helm's Deep were the good guys' territory.  Mordor, Isengard, and the Dead Marshes belonged to the bad guys.

Battle for Middle Earth
Object of the Game: Take over/save all of Middle Earth.
Player Pieces: Good guys - Soldier = Man of Gondor, Horseman = Rider of Rohan, Cannon = Ents
Bad guys - Soldier = Orcs, Horseman = Nazgul, Cannon = Cave Troll
How to Play:

• Decide who will be the good guys and who will be the bad guys.  
• Each person gets 40 infantry pieces to divide between their territories.  
• As you watch the movie look for the things on the movie list to get more infantry pieces.
• After the movie is over roll against each other until the other player is wiped out.  

Movie List: Add a soldier when:

• Merry and Pippin get up to some shenanigans
• There is a panoramic scene (no characters in the shot)
• Legolas is looking off in the distance
• Gimli grumbles about something
• There is a close up of the ring
• There is an intimate moment between Frodo and Sam
• The word "precious" is spoken
• Aragorn does something sweet (good - 1 Man of Gondor)
• Gandalph goes serious wizard mode (good - 1 Rider of Rohan)
• Tree Ents destroy Isengard (good - 3 Tree Ents)  *Note that we were watching The Two Towers movie, so you can change this to be different critical moment for whatever movie you are watching.
• The eye of Sauran is shown (bad - 1 Orc)
• A large army of Orcs is in the shot (bad - 1 Nazgul)
• The outer wall of Helm's Deep is blown up (bad - 2 Cave Trolls)

*First player to call it out gets the soldier unless the event is specified for a certain team.  

I got a lot of ideas of what to look for from this website:

http://geektyrant.com/news/2012/3/9/lord-of-the-rings-drinking-game-drink-yourself-into-middle-e.html

Starting the game.  My hubby chose to be the good guys.  I made him choose a side before he knew what was going on.

Even though I had an ENORMOUS army in Mordor, my rolling skills stink and good won out in the end.  What a fun night-in!  My hubby thinks I'm pretty weird, but no one can accuse me of being boring.

Some other fun games/party ideas to try:

Clue Party

Witch Pitch Party Game