The 1st EVER, 4th Annual American Brew-A-Que

Happy July 4th!  Happy Birthday America!  Happy day of rest and reflection for how thankful we are to live in this country!

For the past 3 years, we've taken July 4th to travel to Chez Craig and celebrate the American Brew-A-Que with Todd, Candice and friends!  There's always a brewery tour (except for last year when it was so dang hot and Candice was about to pop Paisley out and the Brew-A-Que could be cancelled at a moment's notice), a good ole American cookout and a corn hole tournament complete with the winning couple taking home the Golden Hole!  A prize one is to cherish for a lifetime!

Since Todd, Candice and Paisley moved to Texas and we love the Brew-A-Que so dang much, we hosted it this year.  What an undertaking!  Candice, you win the prize for best party thrower EVER!  I don't know how you did it and sometimes with parties on back-to-back weekends!

Thank goodness my husband is a kid at heart and got excited!  Shopping for decorations was so much fun since he was ALL in!  Of course, we had to have the spray-painted American Brew-A-Que sign and the Corn Hole Bracket.  We don't have any tools, so thank you Todd for your help building the Golden Hole, which I had so much fun spray painting!  We spent all day on the actual 4th, preparing for the party.

By the time Saturday got here, I was ready for fun!

First stop was Lonerider Brewing Company.  The tour was only about 20 minutes and our tour guide stunk to high heaven and seemed to be a little hungover himself, but it was a pretty standard brewery tour!  We were able to sample some of the brews.  My favorite- Shotgun Betty!

Next, we made our way to the house, where the final preparations were put in place and friends started arriving.  Kevin fired up the grill and we all ate and enjoyed each others company!

Then the official Corn Hole Tournament started.  Kevin gathered everyone around and made a fantastic speech acknowledging our forefathers (Todd and Candice of T & C Productions) for their hard work over the years.  We stated the official tournament rules and then the games began!

Before the final championship, we took a break for dessert...The Lemon Berry Trifle made it's 2nd appearance!

Then it was back to the street for the final game.

"SAND BAGGIN" won it all, however, Kevin reported to me that "Da Sweat", who changed their name mid-tournament to "We Didn't Marry Them For Their Cornhole Skills", won, so I "engraved" the wrong name on the Golden Hole.  Luckily, "SAND BAGGIN" was okay with a cross-out and I "engraved" their name underneath!  I think it's fitting since they'll know until the end of time who they beat to win the Golden Hole!

The party pretty much wound down after that and by the time the last folks left, we were EXHAUSTED!  Thank you Lauren, Tina and Jamie for your help cleaning the kitchen!  That was such a help since we left everything else until Sunday to clean!  

We've rested up now, so it's safe to say I'm already anticipating 2014- The 1st Ever- 5th Annual American Brew-A-Que!  Won't you join us?