Oktoberfest ‘07 was a fun, food-filled event. After days of rain, the sun came out yesterday and dried things out enough that we could have 30+ people both inside and outside. Good thing, because I can fully attest that 15 children, while much smaller than their adult counterparts, take up far more physical and auditory space.
We had a bounty of food, and the table and kitchen counters and stove top were fully loaded.
The children played outside until dinner, then ate their dinner on the back porch, and then played more. After dinner, we gave all the children glow sticks so that they could chase each other in the dark. It certainly made it easier for us adults to see them.
“Who just ran by with the green and yellow glow sticks?”
“I think it was Graceful.”
“No, Graceful has blue and purple.”
“Oh, then could it be….”
While the children were running around like a pack of wild animals, the adults were in the kitchen eating and drinking:
We had two kegs, something German and something else that was also brown and full of hops (I’m not a beer person, so the details escape me):
When we moved into the house, the original fridge conveyed. We moved it down to the basement and shortly thereafter Pete converted it into his own little brew pub. To say that it is popular with some of our friends is an understatement.
During much of the early part of the evening, little baby Ava spent her time like this:
Yes, that’s really how she slept and it was a source of amusement to a lot of people.
Once it got too dark for the children to play outside, we started a movie in the Jenworld Family Theatre, which looks like this when it’s empty:
Yes, we recently obtained actual movie seats and there is of course a story about them.
An old theater here in town closed and the seats were being given away last month. Pete saw an ad in the paper for free seats and we thought we’d check them out. For some reason we thought they’d be wooden. Instead, they were upholstered in a shiteous brown/orange/black tweed and just utterly FILTHY. Before we could even clean the seats, Pete spent some time scraping off gum from every nook and cranny. After that nasty task was done, we scrubbed every square inch of the seats, including underneath. Twice. Then, I cleaned the upholstery. Pete spent a couple of weeks designing the platform and then had the wood cut at the hardware store. It took him two evenings this week to assemble the whole shebang. We still need to stain the wood, but we’ll get around to it at some point.
So, getting back to last night, the children LOVED our little movie theater. I even bought those red and white boxes for the popcorn to give it a more authentic feel. Here’s what the screen looks like:
We’ve had the screen and AV set-up for a while, but people would just sit on the soon-to-leave-our-house sofa or on the floor. (Yes Pete that sofa is GOING as quickly as I can Freecycle it.)
So the children watched a movie while the adults hung out upstairs and ate and talked more. This is the part of our gatherings that I love because I have finished cooking and preparing food and can sit down and just enjoy my guests.
On a final note, a few weeks ago I bought Halloween t-shirts for the girls and me. Graceful’s is orange and Elegant’s is black like mine. Elegant and I wore matching head-to-toe black outfits yesterday, including our shirts:
I debated putting the photo up because I never like how I look in them and this one’s no exception. I can find about a dozen things wrong with myself, but I also know we all tend to most critical of our very own selves, myself included. But, I love the way Elegant’s smile is so big and the way she just exudes joy from her every pore.
The Oktoberfest was so much fun that we’re going to do it again and hope to make it an annual event. Now it’s time for me to focus on Halloween, because I am so not done with Elegant’s R2D2 costume.
And how did all of you spend your Saturday evenings?
