How to Host a Bunco Party

I love a good theme party.

 

I'm also really big on parties that get people to interact and mingle. So naturally I was thrilled when my friend Amanda asked me to join her quarterly Bunco group!

 

The group consists of 12 ladies who get together four times a year for dinner, drinks, and an evening of energetic dice tossing. Each quarter three ladies from the group team up to host Bunco Night, and this time around it was my turn to co-host, along with Amanda and Alissa.

 

The night was a wild success!

Continue reading to learn how you can host your own super duper fun Bunco Party...
 

 

// INVITATION //

 

Make sure you have a full team roster by sending out your invite well in advance (we just use Evite).

 

 

The invite should contain all of the important event information like date, time and location. It should also include the dinner menu and a reminder to bring cash if your group has a buy-in requirement (ours is $10).

 

Send out your invite at least a few weeks in advance so you can track responses, follow up on late RSVPs, and track down substitute players as needed. It's important to have a full roster! Playing with a "ghost" is possible, but not ideal...

 

// FOOD AND BEVERAGES //

 

A few days before Bunco Night, finalize your menu, divvy things up between your co-hosts, and shop for ingredients. Our list included:

 

Red and white wine

Non-alcoholic beverage options
Light appetizers

Ingredients for a taco bar including a variety of toppings

Snacks for Bunco tables -- two per table (one candy and one "healthier" option)

Lucky for us, we were hosting shortly after Halloween, so we had lots of leftover fun-sized candy for the tables!

Don't forget to find yourself some super awesome co-hosts!

Some yummy light appetizers are great to have out while you're waiting for all the players to arrive.

And it wouldn't be Bunco Night without some vino...

A taco bar is a nice healthy, light meal that easily accommodates most dietary restrictions.

 

// PRIZES //

 

You also need to plan for prizes. Of course winning part of the cash pot is the ultimate goal, but there's also the opportunity to win other prizes, which the hosts supply:

 

Bunco Prize -- A $25 gift card to Nordstrom, Starbucks, or similar
Funco Prize -- A joke/White Elephant prize (can be a re-gift, or something from around the house)

 

 

// SUPPLIES & PREP //

 

Make sure you have the rest of your supplies ready before your guests arrive. Our group rotates a "Bunco Bag" from host to host, and it includes everything needed to actually play the game:

 

9 dice (three for each table)

Table signs (with directions for each round)

Note pads & pens (2 each per table for keeping score)
Score cards
Bell for head table
Necklaces for Bunco winners

Directions for determining winners
 

 

As far as setting up for the party, if you're playing with 12 people you'll need to have three tables with seating for four people at each table. Each table gets snack bowls, three dice, two note pads, two pens, and a sign that has directions for what happens at the end of each round.

 

Greet your guests at the door and make introductions. Because subs are common, it's likely that not everyone will know each other. Offer drinks and invite everyone to help themselves to dinner. Then try to make sure the game starts on time so the evening doesn't drag on too long (it's a fun evening, but usually done on a weeknight and we've all got to work!)

 

// LET THE GAMES BEGIN //

 

Bunco is an extremely fast-paced, high energy game. There are six rounds, progressing in order from one to six, where the number of the round serves as the target for that round's rolls. Teaming with a partner, during each round players alternate turns rolling three dice, aiming to obtain the target number. Players gain one point for each die matching the target. If the player gets three-of-a-kind of the target number (a Bunco), they get 21 points and the luxury of wearing the Bunco necklace. If the player rolls a 1-2-3, all their points are erased and they must start from scratch. If the player rolls three of a kind but not the target number (a Funco) they get five extra points. The round stops when a player at the head table obtains 21 points. Whoever wins the most rounds is the overall winner.
 

 

// WINNING //

 

In our group, several prize opportunities are available:

 

First Place -- $50 Cash

Second Place -- $30 Cash
Third Place -- $20 Cash
Last Place / "Biggest Loser" -- $10 Cash

Funco Winner -- Joke Gift

Bunco Winner -- $25 Gift Card

Most 1-2-3s Rolled -- $10 Cash

 

Unfortunately I didn't come out on top this time around, and only ended up taking home the tacky Funco prize (thanks again for that, Amanda). But it was a fantastic night nonetheless! Hosting this quarter's event with two of my favorite gals was also a blast, and I'm looking forward to next time!

May the odds be ever in my favor...

 

Live & Learn -- How To Paint Chevron Stripes

After spending far too much time on Pinterest I became obsessed with painting a wall of Chevron stripes in Baby Boy's room.

But whenever I would mention it to someone, they would gasp and begin to tell me horror stories about how their mother's sister's daughter's cousin tried to paint Chevron stripes and it was a disaster. Obviously this made me even more determined to try it. So I read several online tutorials, hit up Home Depot for supplies, and tackled the mighty Chevron...

The first step, of course, was to decide what colors I was going to use. This may have been the hardest part of the whole project!

I ultimately went with grey and white, and as you might recall, my mom came up one weekend and we got all the walls in the nursery painted grey in a single morning. However, knowing what a perfectionist I am (and she never wants to let me down!) my mom wanted nothing to do with the Chevron stripes themselves. That, she left up to me...

This was unfortunate, because the first part of the project involved a lot of math, which isn't really my strongest subject. But I made it work...

My wall was 138 inches wide and I knew I wanted six Chevrons across, so I divided 138 by six and got 23 inches -- that would be the width of each Chevron. But I also needed to know where the middle of the Chevron was, so I could measure down from there to complete the shape, so I divided 23 by two and got 11.5 inches. 

138" / 6 = 23" / 2 = 11.5"

Voilà! Chevron math complete! 

Beginning in one corner of the room, using a level and a pencil, I lightly marked each point of the first Chevron and then used painter's tape to connect the dots. Then, using those dots as guides, I used a level to measure down 11.5" from each original dot to create the Chevron below, taping as I went.

Remember, when placing your tape you need to consider whether you want it on the "inside" or the "outside" of the Chevron. As you can see below, stripe A looks thicker than stripe B. This is because stripe A would be painted white, so I put the tape on the "outside" of the pencil marks. But for stripe B, which would remain grey, I put the tape on the "inside" of the marks.

From here it's just a little game of connect the dots. I did the row on the right hand side of the wall first to make sure I knew what I was doing and that everything spaced out correctly, and then I continued marking and taping horizontally until I was done with the whole thing.

As you can see, because I put the tape "inside" or "outside" of the dots depending on which stripes I planned to paint, the lines don't look like they are all the same width... but they will be! Trust...

But see all that overlapping tape? This was a problem...

Of course with the tape overlapping, your Chevrons aren't going to have nice sharp points, so now I needed to use an X-Acto knife to trim the points of the tape inside the Chevrons that were going to be painted white. I didn't need to bother trimming the points inside the stripes that were going to remain grey.

From what I read online, everyone's main complaint about Chevron stripes is that the paint tends to bleed underneath the tape on a textured wall, so I knew I needed to do something about that. I did some research and found a tutorial about how to avoid this problem, and this method worked pretty well...

Using the original grey color, I used a paint brush to seal the tape to the wall. This way, if any paint seeped underneath the tape, it would be the same color as the original wall and it wouldn't show.

After allowing the grey paint to dry, I carefully used a small brush and, stroking away from the tape toward the inside of the Chevron, I lightly cut in the edges of each stripe with my white paint. I went about an inch or so inward, removing the tape from each Chevron as I went. It's important to remove the tape while the paint is still wet to prevent cracking or chipping.

I repeated this process for each Chevron, and whenever I had one stripe done (because I have no patience) I would switch to a small roller and fill in the entire stripe. I was just so anxious to see what it would look like!

Because of the colors I chose, one coat of white paint wasn't enough to cover the grey completely, but even after the first coat was finished I knew I was on the right track... everything was looking great! And can you see that after the tape was removed, the Chevrons are all equal width? Told you...

My strategy of sealing the tape wasn't one hundred percent perfect, and I did end up with a little bit of cracking and bleeding at the edges of some of the Chevrons, but not much. I used small artist brushes to touch up both the grey and white edges wherever it was needed.

After a final coat with the small roller, my Chevron stripes were complete.

And I think they turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself!

This project could probably be done in a single weekend, but I spread the project out over a few weeks because that's what worked best with my schedule. Initially, it took about half a day to paint the room grey, then a few hours to measure, mark and tape the wall, and probably another half day to cut in, paint, and touch up the Chevron stripes
.

Totally worth it for my baby boy!

What do you think?

This has been another edition of

Live & Learn Thursday!