Ward Activity- Septemberfest

Once there was a girl who was obsessed with bratwursts.  And when this girl (who happened to be very hungry at the time) was assigned to come up with an idea for her ward's fall social, she decided to come up with an idea that would center around her love for brats.  :)  And so Septemberfest was born!  

...That really sums up how I came up with the idea for Septemberfest- a desire to eat brats and drink rootbeer- what could be better? :) 

We used similar themes and decorations of Oktoberfest- lots of good German food, blue and white decorations, but our biggest difference- homemade rootbeer instead of alcoholic beverages.  In general, we highlighted the German themes of Oktoberfest rather than the drinking, and since it took place in September (not October), we called it Septemberfest.

Here are the details (and again my apologies for lack of pictures!  I was in the nursery so I forgot to sneak in and take pictures)...

Who: All adults (*Provided a nursery, details below)

Dinner: Brats (my fave, but unfortunately expensive!  So we cut the brats in half which helped them go farther and was also nice for people who had never tried them before and just wanted a small taste), supplemented the brats with a tender Oktoberfest pork roast that turned out great and was much cheaper!  Also German potato salad, sauerkraut, soft pretzels, stroodle, and a chocolate sauerkraut cake (sounds disgusting, but it was actually a big hit and no one believed there was sauerkraut in it!) And last, but not least- homemade root beer.  Click here for some of the recipes.

Entertainment:  There was a short comical, German melodrama performed with ward members.  Also had fun German music playing in the background.

Decorations: Hung up blue and white streamers (popular colors of Oktoberfest).  Also had fall pumpkins and leaves as centerpieces.  Kept it fairly simple since we were focusing more on the food.

Nursery: We really wanted to get as many adults to come as possible!  So we heavily advertised that we would be having a nursery with snacks and fun activities so that way- adults with kids wouldn't feel inconvenienced and the kids wouldn't feel left out.  So we brought some of the themes from the activity to the nursery!  We hung a few streamers up in the nursery and the kids already felt like it was a party.  (Love how easily amused kids are!) :)  We started the evening with the kids by showing them a globe and briefly talking about how Jesus created the earth and how there are countries all around the world.  I loved the kids' responses when I asked them if anyone could tell me the name of a country.  I think there was one legitimate response intermixed with others such as Texas, Utah, and Disneyland. :)  We talked about Germany (since that was the theme of the adults' party.  Again, this was all very brief, no more than 5 minutes).  Then we gave each kid a piece of paper and crayons with the instructions to come up with their own country name and design a flag for their country.  When they were done, we let each kid show off their flag.  Then we had everyone represent their country in our own mini olympics.  We had the shotput (throwing cottonballs), the javelin (throwing straws), diving (standing on a chair and dropping a lego minifigure into a cup).  And last, but not least, the pedometer race.  We tied pedometers onto each child's head and gave them 30 seconds to see who could get the highest number.  This was classic to watch.  :)

The kids loved the little activities.  They kept asking to do each event multiple times.  After our Olympic events, we took it easy and watched the beginning of a movie and ate snacks.  

Our Septemberfest fall social was great!  The food was delicious and I was a happy girl eating my brats! :)