My husband love the show Total Blackout! If you haven’t seen it before, it’s a game show where contestants enter a room filled with complete darkness. I mean, you can’t even see your hand in front of your face! Scary, right? Well, not only do they have to complete in total darkness, but they compete to identify various objects using their other senses. Some items are harmless like a stuffed animal, while others are gross or scary! When the lights are out, your mind can play tricks on you. The best part, is that the show is hosted by Jaleel White (a.k.a. Steve Irkel! :0) We like to come up with fun dating ideas combined with at home dinner ideas for a group of couples. It’s fun to spend time together with friends sans kids, and we always have a great time! Recently, we hosted a “Total Blackout” themed dinner party, and invited a few of our favorite couples! First, I sent them all one of the AMAZING invites designed by the brilliant Tasha from Whimsicle Design Studios. Aren’t they cool?!
Before our guests arrived, we gathered various supplies for each round, as well as thick blindfolds to complete the Total Blackout effect. I used long strips of black fabric and doubled it over a few times to make sure no light got in. We decided to do three rounds of competition just like the show. After each round, one couple who had the slowest time would be eliminated. The prize? A gift card to their favorite restaurant! You could totally play for bragging rights, but we like to add some incentive. When our guests arrived, they happily enjoyed dinner, not realizing what they were in for!
We didn’t do a themed dinner menu since we were busy gathering all the items for the game, but you could easily pull together a Total Blackout themed menu. Think blackened chicken, or black-eyed peas, or search online for other blackout-themed at home dinner ideas. Once everyone was done with dinner, the game began. The first round was all about using your sense of smell. They were timed and had to identify items like cinnamon, garlic, sardines, and bleu cheese. Anything with a strong recognizable odor would work for this round. You could really cater the rules to whatever works best for your group, but we had the wives and husbands take turns identifying objects, and put a time limit on the round in case they had trouble with one or more items.
The next round was all about touch! This was where it got funny! Watching grown men scared to touch something was a hoot. I wish we would have video taped it!! We used items like doll hair, frozen french fries, pickles, and even our son’s pet gecko – Bob!
The last round was the taste round, and we tried to pick items with a distinct taste. We didn’t want to make it too easy, but wanted it be fun at the same time. Everybody was laughing and having a god time, so I would definitely consider the party a success! It was one of our best double date ideas yet!
