Oktoberfest '11...

Wow!  It's been quite a while since my last post... Sorry about that dear readers!  Suffice it to say, it's been quite busy around here...  My class has been keeping me extremely busy (I think I'm up to writing about 10 -14 pages of papers per week... yuck!!),  I started subbing full time, plus all of the fun-filled fall activities that come with this time of year, and our weekends have been busy with traveling and home improvement projects... Lots of stuff going on to say the least!  And, unfortunately, it hasn't left much time for blogging. :(  But, I do promise to try to get better about it, especially with the holiday season approaching and all of the fun things that go along with that! :)    So, please be patient, and hopefully I'll get back into a normal routine before too long. :)

So, let's do some catching up... Back in October, Brian and I decided to host an Oktoberfest party!  We wanted to show our friends and family how to celebrate Oktoberfest the German way! :)  So, we promptly decorated our house (actually our garage! :)) in an Oktoberfest theme, made some authentic German food (yum!), played some of those famous Oktoberfest tunes, dressed up in our dirndl and lederhosen, and purchased a couple kegs of bier... And, then it was time to celebrate! :)

And, celebrate we did!  A fun time was had by all! :)  So, thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate with us!  We hope you had as much fun as we did!  We look forward to seeing you all at the same time (well, hopefully during the actual Oktoberfest time! :)), same place next year! :)  Prost!!

Wilkommen zu Oktoberfest!! :)

The set-up...

Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of all of the food as once the party started, we kind of forgot...
But, we had the table covered with food such as homemade kasespaetzle (which was quite tasty for our first time making it! :)), obazda, delicious bratwurst, homemade German potato salad, brezeln, and some yummy German chocolate cake... Amongst all of the German food, we also made sure we had some all-American style food as well... Which consisted of artichoke dip, pinwheels, and lots of yummy dips and chips! :)  

The music... :)

Lots and lots of brezeln! :)

German chocolate cake... Yum! :)

Authentic German bier... :)

Maria and Ken were happy to celebrate Oktoberfest with their German neighbors! :)

Renee and Jessi trying to keep warm in the garage. :)
It was quite chilly in the beginning, but once those heaters kicked into gear, it became toasty warm in there! :)

Brian and Maria prosting! :)

Damon and his girlfriend... 

Ken, Marianne, and Scott...

Renee and Dan...

Jessi was having fun reliving her time in Germany! :)

Ian, Natalie, and Andrew...  

Steve and Jessi felt like they were right back in Germany! :)