Eat, Drink, & Carve Party!

We are in the midst of prepping for our Eat, Drink, & Carve Party coming up quickly!  I am so excited to have a wonderful group of friends over to celebrate the season with us.  Hosting events is something that makes me incredibly happy.  I like to offer up a place for friends to gather to laugh and take a load off! 

My husband and I really enjoyed Friendsgiving last year but this year we decided to forego Friendsgiving to do this fun little October bash instead.  Today I'm highlighting our skeleton if you will of our gathering.

Remember I'm a list maker and this event called for no less than sixty-seven lists...just kidding.  Sixty-five.

Eat

As the party's name states the first thing we have to discuss is the eating part.  We're doing this in mid October and when I personally think of October I think of chili!  Who doesn't love a good chili?  You can make it for any food preference (vegan, vegetarian, traditional, chicken, etc, etc...)  This year I'm making two crock pots of chili.  I'm going traditional but offering up spots on the table to my guests should they want to showcase their awesome recipes.  

If you are making chili you better have the fixin's to go along with them.  I may have stole that word from KFC or Bojangles...not sure?  When we eat chili we like to have corn bread muffins or crackers, sour cream, and lots of cheese!  I'm making home made corn bread muffins for this event because I freaking love them.  I also prefer my cornbread to have a sweet taste so I have to add in some of that horrible white sugar!

Did I mention this event is open to kids?  Yeah it is.  I may hate myself for that at some point but I do like to include the little humans when I can.  I know my kids love chili but other kids may not.  No worries...I'm going to make some pigs in a blanket for the non chili eaters.  If they don't like that then they can go straight for the corn bread muffins or the dessert table.

Bourbon? Why, yes!  I love this recipe!

Ahhh dessert table!  This is a pumpkin party so naturally I have to have something good and pumpkiny waiting in the wings!  I'm going traditional and serving pumpkin pie!  Who can resist it?  OK maybe you but not me!  I'm looking forward to dessert!  I'm also going to make some sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies for those who are not very pumpkin oriented (weirdos!)

Drink

This event is BYODOC.

What?

Bring Your Own Drink Of Choice :)  I plan to have a bit of bourbon on hand, a couple good bottles of Cabernet, plenty of H20, and juice boxes for the kids.

I had toyed with making a crockpot coffee drink but decided against it.  However, I may whip up some mulled cider.

Carve

Since our guests are in charge of their coolers I am taking care of the pumpkins.  My goal is one Jack O'Lantern for each couple to work on and one small pumpkin for each child to paint.  This is my current struggle - where do I get the pumpkins from?  I'm having to keep a close count on our RSVP list so that I get enough pumpkins!  

Since I'm not a ninja or whoever it it that uses knives like mad I'm asking our friends to bring their own carving tools.  (Will anyone be cool and bring a dremmel tool?) We are supplying the paints for the kids.

Decorations

I like to decorate but for these events I do not do much at all.  We have a couple tables to put out for the food and then will transition them over to carving/painting tables.  I'm so glad our local Hobby Lobby has adorable fall party decorations!  

I love these bowls for the chili!

Luckily, the time will not have changed when we have this little shin dig.  I hope for day light until at least 7!  Since our backyard is pitch black we're working on lanterns and of course a good bonfire for some light.  I have not ruled out stringing some lights up around a tree and the chicken coop!  Yep, I'm a rural girl!

Ambiance

As I just mentioned we're planning a bonfire.  There is no better conversation than the ones you get into while sitting around a fire pit with a good drink and a good crowd.  Here's hoping the kids can enjoy one another (peacefully) and maybe watch a movie when the festivities are winding down and the adults can thrive in company of their peers!

I think this is the time to pull out the cookies and mulled cider!

So there you have it....my skeletal outline of our upcoming Eat, Drink, Carve party!  I cannot wait!

Are you hosting any fun events in October?  I would absolutely LOVE to hear about them!  Share them in the comments or link over to your blog if you have one!

xoxoxox-

Amanda

P.S. All these are pins from my Pinterest Board!  Check it out just go find me at apbullard!

Today I linked up with Beth @ Our Pretty Little Girl's