Last year we went to the Oktoberfest at the Puyallup Fairgrounds with Josh, Chris and Rosa. We had a lot of fun, drank lots of beer, took pictures and even won money playing some of the games. Ben didn't want to pay an outrageous amount for admission, food and beer so he and Josh decided to host their own. This plan went into discussion around July and August. Ben created a Facebook, invited several people that he thought would be interested in it and then polled everyone who was interested in coming to see what date we should set it for. We had about 25 or so people that were interested and some wanted October 5th and some wanted October 12th. October 5th won.
Ben, Josh and I made a video and posted it to our event page. PROST!
Here is the written entry from the Facebook post:
"It's that time of year again, the leaves are falling, summer is leaving us and all the white girls are craving their pumpkin spice lattes...But there is one thing that the changing season brings that we all look forward to and that is Oktoberfest and BEER!
Are you tired of paying big money for beer tickets and surfing the large crowds of dumb idiots at the other Oktoberfest evens around town?
Do you still want to play the same beer games, enjoy the same food and atmosphere as the big events?
Well, look no further. We are hosting Oktoberfest at our place this year where you can enjoy all the festivities of the big events around town at a much cheaper price. There will be beer, food, games, music and friends to enjoy the night with. No lines. No fuss!
If you are interest in coming to our little gathering of German debauchery, please RSVP sooner than later so we can build a guest list as we are planning on having at most 25 people on October 5th from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m.
We are asking that our guests pay a $7 cover charge to help fund the keg price that will be present and full of delicious German Oktoberfest beer, if you do not plan on drinking and just want to come and hang out and visit, you don't have to pay a cover charge to get in. If you can't drink beer due to whatever reason and still want a beverage alcoholic or not, please bring your own drink of choice. Some games we will be playing (hammerschlagen) will require dollar bills to be wagered prior to play. I will list all the games that we will be present in the comments with video links so people will have an idea on how to play them."
Because we live in the Pacific Northwest and it is autumn the weather might not cooperate as we would like it to. We had to think of ways to keep people dry but also be able to utilize the backyard for our games. I checked the weather constantly hoping for a cold dry night. I did manage to find some pop ups just in case we needed to use them. Ben bought two large tarps as well. We told our guests that they should be prepared for any type of weather and that we will have a fire pit going sometime during the evening.
Ben ordered a keg from Dick's Brewery in Centralia and he and Josh picked it up the day of. Ben bought a bunch of brats to BBQ, I bought the rolls from Costco, Josh made a turkey, Heather made German potato salad, we had several drinks, munchies, dips and veggies. We definitely had plenty of food to go around. We had napkins, plates, Solo cups and silverware. The stage was set as far as food and drink were concerned. I even bought some pumpkins and some autumn-ish decorations from the dollar store because no one seemed to sell Oktoberfest stuff.
It was tricky obtaining all the games. I managed to secure a corn hole set from mom's dentist office, Ben also got a set from the fire station so we had four boards, we had everything for beer pong and we needed log rounds for hammerschlagen. My parents had just cut a bunch of trees down on their property and had some log rounds. We would just have to ask Dad if we could have two of them for our game. Ben bought the special hammer from Lowe's.
As the day got closer, we started to figure out where we wanted all of it. We looked at the kitchen and yard schematics and came up with a pretty good plan. The dining room table will be pushed up against the wall to allow more room to go in and out of the house from the backyard, the games will be set up outside so corn hole could be played easily with hammerschlagen and beer pong without people getting in people's way when playing. We had a pretty good flow. We figured out how to project the music to outside and we had to borrow the chicken lights and extension cords for better lighting. The back house light alone just didn't light up the yard all that great.
The only bummer we had was that it rained the night before and I didn't think it would dry out as fast as I wanted it to but the silver lining was that it didn't rain the day of or while people were here. Unfortunately, because the ground was still wet, when people came in and out of the house it tracked in a lot of dirt, mud, fir needles and leaves. I was constantly sweeping the floor just so it didn't get out of control. Erika made a sign for the bathroom because we didn't want people puking in the bathrooms. The sign was hilarious and by the end of the night the bathroom was puke free.
We spend the day of cleaning, gathering food, all of our stuff we needed and I cleaned up the cat room so Michael and Elaine could use the futon. I moved all the cars towards the fence and parked them as close to each other as I could. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of room for everyone in our yard and out in the street. If people could carpool that would be less cars to deal with. As soon as I got the last car in place, Michael and Elaine pulled up. Since they were spending the night I put them near our cars since they weren't leaving until the next day. Josh and Heather came early because they had most of the food and needed to carve the turkey. Our driveway literally looked like a miniature parking lot by the time everyone was here.
Everyone started showing up around 6. It was a good thing we had most of the stuff done because most of the guests arrived an hour early! They were apparently ready for beer and food! I grabbed the brats and we boiled them since we had to make so many of them all at once. Most everyone was here by the time the brats were done. We spent about an half hour or so eating before we started the games. One of Ben's friends from Lowe's, Tony went to buy some more drinks and a push broom for our back stoop. We needed at least some of the leaves and fir needles to be brushed off from yesterday's rain that never dried. We appreciated the gesture.
I spent some of my time making the rounds talking to the array of people that showed up. Some of my friends came, my family, Ben's mom and Ed, some of Ben's friends from Lowe's, etc. I can't believe almost 25 people showed up. It was a full house and I made the rounds talking to various groups of people and thanking them for coming. While I was busy being the host, I made sure there was still plenty of food, drinks and I occasionally swept the floor to keep it from getting really bad.
At one point I went around and took some photos and even played some hammerschlagen and corn hole. I didn't win at hammerschlagen but I did win a round of corn hole. As it got later, several people thanked us and went home and others stayed behind for a little while longer. Ben's friends from Lowe's were rambunctious and I don't ever remember meeting them. I spent some time inside talking to a group of people before I went back outside to start the fire pit. It didn't take me long to get it going because I am pretty good at starting fires.
We sat around the fire talking about various things and I also brought out the makings for s'mores. Everyone seemed to love that idea and in a matter of minutes most of the s'mores stuff was eaten. Around 2 a.m. is when most of the people decided to go home and they thanked us for a great time. I took Doug and Jenn home because they were not fit to drive. By the time I got home, Ben and I did a little bit of cleaning just so we had some room to make breakfast in a few hours. We got ready for bed, made sure Michael and Elaine were comfortable and went to bed. Today was really long.
The next morning we got up around 9ish and I made some food for everyone. We had an assortment of muffins, I made bacon, pancakes, eggs and had chocolate milk and orange juice. When I bought the stuff I wasn't sure how many people would be spending the night. We will have a lot of leftover muffins and chocolate milk. Michael and Elaine thanked us for having them over and we told them they would have to come down again. They left to go get their kids from the grandparents house and then take them to the pumpkin patch. I don't know where they find the energy after last night. I would be dying if I had to take kids anywhere after staying up too late and drinking.
Ben and I spend the rest of the day cleaning the house. A lot of sweeping, vacuuming and mopping. We watched various football games as we cleaned. The Seahawks didn't play today because they played Thursday Night Football and beat the Rams at home. It was quite the game and Tyler Lockett caught an insane pass from Russell Wilson. It was pretty much the catch of the season and number one on SportsCenter's top 10. Halfway through the day I think I sat on the couch and fell asleep accidentally. Tomorrow was going to be a rough day at work.
Next Adventure: Columbine
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