It’s no secret that we love to throw parties at our house. Our biggest party is our annual Friendsgiving celebration which takes place the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We go all out for Friendsgiving every year with a theme, two babysitters to watch all the kids in our basement, and we clear out all the furniture in our great room and rent nice tables and chairs so we can have a nice adult dinner. We usually host around 30 adults and 20 kids!
This year, though, due to the coronavirus, we decided to have Friendsgiving outside and move the date to October. We had to pivot quickly with this change of plans before the weather turned too cold, so in early September we picked October 3rd as the party date and began preparations.
My goal for this year’s celebration was to make it a party for the whole family to participate in, rather than separate the kids and adults. I came up with the theme of Oktoberfest. I could not find many resources or ideas for throwing a backyard Oktoberfest party like I envisioned, so I gathered ideas here and there, and it turned out beautifully! We strung 250 feet of bistro lights around our patio, deck, and fence for ambiance, we created a fire pit area with lots of hay bales and blankets for seating and all the best s’more fixings, we had games for everyone including squash bowling, pumpkin ring toss, and life size jenga, the signature drink was an apple pie moscow mule, and we had sausages, soft pretzels, and hot apple cider for dinner. Even though our attendance was much smaller this year, we had a blast as usual! See all the details here:
I had the invitations designed by an artist on Etsy:
The signature drink was an Apple Pie Moscow Mule (see recipe here from The Cookie Rookie):
After dinner, we all gathered around the fire and played the games:
I usually accomplish some type of DIY project around the house before Friendsgiving each year- this year, since it was outside, I painted the kids’ playset and it turned out exactly how I envisioned it:
When it got dark, the kids played with glow sticks and knocked over the lifesize jenga game:
The lights helped make the night magical and fun was had by all!
-L