Goat Fest 2011

My socks have been rocked.
So a little background info for those that have no clue why the hubs and I host a party called Goat Fest.  Three years back we attended a series of services through Willow Creek Community Church entitled "Celebration of Hope."  At one of the services we were given a book;  Hole in the Gospel, by Rich Stearns. If you want to be challenged, read it.  We had no idea what we were getting into by opening those pages, but we are grateful we did.  After reading the book and deciding that we wanted to give in some way, and my husband came up with this idea about raising money to buy goats for families in developing countries through World Vision.  To read and to see what a goat can do for a family, click here.  What better way to raise money than throwing a party.  So, Goat Fest was born.  We have had so many learns along the way
Year one we learned you shouldn't let people pick their own shirt color, or you will run to 8 Hobby Lobby's to find a large teal shirt.
Year two we learned that no one likes to stand by a grill.  So don't buy burgers unless you are hiring a chef.  We also learned  how deep a folding chair can sink into the ground if it was muddy out.  Whoops.
This year we learned to not switch screen printing ink when the cheaper brand worked so well last year.
We were so blessed to escape the 40% chance of rain and have a beautiful fall day.  Crisp air with the "apple orchard" woodwick candle burning strong in the living room. I pretty much get giddy over fall scents making my house feel like fall.  My husband says it's fake fall.  I'm right he's wrong, end of story.  Candle stays.
We think about 70 people passed through our garage and I tried to soak in as many moments as possible. We sold over 50 T-shirts. There was mingling, crazy children, adults using the craft table, and collapsing moon walks.  And it was all good.  I did not spend nearly enough time behind my camera, but I did manage to get some shots throughout the day.

Opening Shop:

 Want to learn how to screen print?  First take a long time cutting out a stencil with an exacto knife.  Try not to scream too many bad words as it feels like your first finger will surely fall off.  Then place it on a shirt.

 Then smoosh the ink through the screen (very technical).  And presto...you have a shirt.

 Except for when it doesn't work precisely and then you break out the itty-bitty paint brush and go at with my perfectionist's heart.

 After cleaning my house I was frustrated that I still do not yet have a closet door.

 So I honed in on my inner Bender and found a staple gun and some curtains.

 Problem solved.  (The brown and grey might not be a perfect match, but it looks wayyyyy better.)

 The tables along the left of the garage are a combination of our broken closet doors and our 30 gallon containers filled with crap.  Up-cycling at it's finest friends.

 Our moon walk village prior to the collapse of the house on the left.  Luckily no children were injured in the process.

 Big kids + Small Bounce House = Fallen Castle

 So many friends and family came.  It was glorious.

 Family all around.

 We ended up ordering 8, 18 inch pizzas.  That is a total of 2035 square inches of pizza in case you were wondering.

 Eventually we brought the campfire to this circle.  Some idiot forgot to find sticks/skewers for marshmallow roasting.  So there were no s'mores.  Another lesson learned.

 Not sure who enjoyed the craft table more, the kids or the adults.

 My hubs likes putting his finger in his ear.  Not really, I just didn't take very good pictures.

 I call it "bags."  Some call is "CornHole."  Call it what you may, it was played.

 My dad pretty much owned my sister.

 I felt it necessary to sugar the kids up prior to sending them home.  Your welcome parents.  Do come again.

 And nothing like a campfire to end the night.  Jon is catching flies and Mark is sleeping. You would have no clue that there is a rip-roaring game of catch phrase going on here.

 At least the girls were thinking hard and bringing their "A" game.

And so concludes another Goat Fest. We raised over $2,000, which is 27 plus goats.  A rocking party for a great cause.  You should come next year.  We are also thinking about having a 5K with a post party to mix it up :)  Happy weekend, I have a house to re-clean.