A few weeks ago we hosted a big BBQ for family and friends to celebrate a couple of special birthdays in my family. It was the end of April when the weather was really up and down with sunshine one day and pouring rain the next. We got a mix of both on the day so we had to be prepared! I thought it would be interesting to write about the BBQ as I don't know about you but i'm always worried about things like . . . what music do we play? Have we got enough food?
Food
Aside from the usual burgers, sausages and salads we had a load of sweets dotted about the place. We'd picked up a tub of flumps from the wholesalers and my brother had given me a massive box of skittles (we're talking 2.5kg here!) and they went down really well with the kids as you can imagine. Although most of the flumps did end up on the floor as we spent most of the night trying to throw them into our mouths! By the way . . flumps are not easy to clean from the kitchen floor the next morning!Drink
We'd bought a selection of beer, cider, wine, spirits and soft drinks and made up a couple of drinks dispensers with Pimms. Pimms has come back into fashion in recent years and is basically Pimms mixed with lemonade and lots of fruit. Another drink I love to make is the Hugo. I discovered this when I used to work in Italy and is made with another current trendy ingredient, Elderflower. It's quite a sweet drink but is very refreshing. I posted the recipe and pictures for the Hugo here if you wish to try this. Let me know if you do!Music
We just stuck on a recent chart hits CD I'd bought recently. It's this one we've got which was fine for the day but to be honest i'd probably skip a lot the tracks if I was on my own! You can't really go wrong with chart music at a BBQ though, as there's bound to be some tracks that appeal to everyone.At night when everyone was getting merry we had a Ministry of Sound 90's album and an 80's album that went down a storm. Let's just say some shapes were thrown on the kitchen floor! We played all this on the radio/CD player in the kitchen but some sort of wireless device would have been better so we could have had a bigger choice of music to play. The chart CD did get popped on repeat a few times so being able to play music via my phone or laptop would have been handy. Something like these Panasonic Multi Room Speakers would have worked well, one of them is even waterproof which would have been perfect for the weather we experienced!
Decoration
We're not decorative arty type of people but my Mum did make some bunting and I attempted to make the outside table look pretty, using flowers from the garden. That's about the extent of my creative talents though!
The Weather
We were fully prepared for the unpredictable weather and on the day we experienced sun, rain, warmth and cold. We'd put up a gazebo on the decking and had a chiminea going throughout the day and night. It was a coats on all day sort of weather!Activities
This may sound a weird one but when there are kids in attendance and people are staying all day and evening sometimes they need entertaining. We had croquet on the grass for the children, although this turned out not to be so good as it got pretty dangerous when the kids were swinging the clubs around! We've got chickens down the bottom of the garden and the kids loved seeing them and feeding them. They were fascinated to see where eggs come from! Lastly we had archery. My Dad had bought it a couple of years ago and it was perfect to bring out that day. People loved trying to beat each other, although the chickens did nearly get hit many a time!We had a really good day, although hosting is hard work. When you know everyone in attendance it is hard to get round everyone and I know I lost my drink a million times!
Have you been to a BBQ recently? Or any tips or tricks to hosting one?
(This is a sponsored post)
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