Fore! '09

Last weekend we had what is turning out to be an annual summer event in our neighborhood: Golfing. Teams get together, come up with a theme and create a mini-hole around said theme. Last year was our first year and we had such a good time that it was often brought up on Bunco nights to do again. So we did.

This year we had about double the number of participants than last year which was very fun; we got to meet some new neighbors we'd only said a passing "hello" to.

Our team consisted of the Schroeders and Heckels. We partnered up with the Schroeders last year for our "Decades Theme". This year the Heckels were going to be in town. Both couples are great friends of ours so we were excited to work on a hole with them.


We came up with the idea of having a State Fair theme. Things really took off from there. As the week went on, we kept coming up with more and more ideas to add to our theme.

Mike and John worked on our actual game about mid-week. I think Matt had started back to school that night, though he probably would have wished to be helping out in the garage during a rainstorm instead. Really, watching these two guys fiddle with how this was going to be put together was rather entertaining. John's an engineer - he's a bit of a planner by nature. Mike's second career choice should have been an engineer. I'm surprised this design didn't include schematics as a first step.


They had a couple practice shots. It was a lot harder than we thought. By Saturday we had all decided it was just easier to toss the balls into the buckets rather than chipping. But, we were still using whiffle golf balls so it was okay.


By Saturday I had the kids working, including Jonda's oldest. Child Labor laws? Nah....


The kids made cones for us to put the cookies that Jonda spent all Saturday afternoon baking. And I'm KICKING myself for not getting a picture of these set up because they were SO cute (and tasty!!). (Sidenote: Click here to jump to Kristy's blog where she includes far better pictures than I have!)

We had our entrance....


Complete with welcoming mascot....


The Mighty Midway....


On our "Midway" we had signs posted. The swings were the "Flying Trapeze" and the slide was the "Giant Slide". Across the grass Mike had blown up a bunch of floats that he laid in there and we had a sign that said, "Bumper Boats".

Of course, no fair is complete without the food, and for those attending the MN State Fair, you know that food has to be on a stick!


Kristy was able to procure a variety of sticks for our food samples and Jonda has a large box of popsicle sticks. We spent Saturday evening putting all the food together including fruit, meatballs, little weiners. Kristy arrived having made "Rice Kristy Balls" on a stick. Drizzled in chocolate. Yum!

And you may notice the popsicle stick on the bottle of rum. All drinks were on a stick as well. Mike glued popsicle sticks to the beer cans the night before. You heard it here first: Beer-on-a-stick. We are hoping to get into next year's fair with it and make our millions.

And I must say - I didn't have anything to do with the food other than shopping so it was all very edible!

The game was four holes total. The others were so fun with their themes - it's great to see everyone get so into this - even the guys!

We had a couch potato hole. Here they actually set up their deck like a little living room, complete with a couch, end tables and two TVs! One t.v. played "Caddyshack" and on the other TV we all took turns playing Wii Golf. (Jake was quite jealous the next day when we told him!) Their team dressed in pajamas or "laying around" attire and provided a necklace for each participant: a small red potato on a string.


Another hole was titled "The Salsa Hole". Here they provided us with a complete meal of chicen tacos, the fixings, and tortilla chips. There was also some Tequila to get that full Mexican feel. Here the official rules state you had to wear the sombrero and take 10 shots. They had a sombrero in the center of the yard and rings painted around it with point values. What's great about this night is everyone just goes with whatever happens to be the rules. So there we were, wearing potato necklaces and sombreros and we were totally normal.

Our neighbor decided to make his potato necklace quite the creation and added onto it at every hole.

Oh! Who are these two happy people?!? And still fairly sober...

The final hole was titled, "Big Sexy Hole". Before we rate this as blog as NC-17, you should know it was named after one of the team participants. Before you wonder what the heck kind of neighborhood we live in, you should know that I have NO idea how he got this name. But it's his none-the-less.

There was only a mild resemblance between the real "Big Sexy" and the game named after him.

Afterward everyone adjourned back here. Awards were presented from the Couch Potato Hole: winner received a bag of potatoes and a potato peeler.

And those potatoes on a string didn't go to waste. Several were layed around the bonfire to see if we could get them roasted. I don't think anyone actually tasted them though.

There might have been an appearance by two neighbors in Speedos. They might have changed into these suits in the dark of night on our driveway. Kristy's mom, who was babysitting across the street, might have seen them in all their glory. She might have told Kristy it made her laugh.

I don't know if that should be construed as a commentary on the boys, or Kristy's mom's good nature.

Anyway, everyone stayed around for a few hours of swimming in 90 degree water that felt so great. It was another fun year for the Golf Game and we are already looking forward to 2010!