When we first viewed our house over two years ago, we knew it was the perfect house for us. Little did we know that we also moved into the best neighborhood with the Holy Grail of neighbors. We are very lucky that there are multiple families around us with kids the same age as ours. And, most importantly, we all like to have FUN! We love to have fun so much that many of us have built in bars in our basements.
A few months ago, we organized a neighborhood pub crawl. I love having date nights with other adults and to indulge in a few glasses of wine. But I don’t enjoy big crowds at the bar, paying for overpriced cocktails, and someone always has to be the designated driver. The solution? A “pub” crawl between all of our neighborhood houses! The benefits? A wonderful adult night out where we can talk to each other without having to shout across a bar and nobody has to drive so we can all indulge in beverages! Plus, it is way cheaper than a night out. It was such a success that we decided to do it again next month. Interested? Here are some simple steps to help you plan your own.
Step 0 – Know Your Neighbors: If you haven’t already, introduce yourself to your neighbors and get to know them. You can use contributor Caitlin’s tips for welcoming new families to your community to introduce yourselves. A neighborhood pub crawl is the perfect icebreaker activity to bond with your neighbors, especially if the drinks are flowing freely! Make sure to get their e-mail, phone number, or find them on social media so that you can contact them later on. By the way, you could also do this as a moms only or dads only event too!
Step 1 – Set a Date: Give a choice of about 3-5 dates and have everyone vote. You might not be able to find a date that works for everyone {surprise! parents are busy people}, so pick the date that makes the majority of participants happy. Hopefully, yours will be as successful as ours and those who couldn’t attend the first one can join in on future crawls!
Step 2 – Find Babysitters: We decided on a 7:30 PM start time, so it was a sans kid event. Find a babysitter well in advance, so that you can be worry free and completely enjoy yourself. Since we usually all get together with our kids, this was a great change of pace and allowed us to really get to know each other and let loose.
Step 3 – Set a Schedule: Once you know who is participating, create and distribute a schedule for the night. The amount of time at each house will depend on how many couples are participating and your start and end times. We started at 7:30 PM and planned to end around 11 PM. Since we had 5 different houses we allotted about 30-45 minutes at each house. Someone should be in charge of keeping the group on track. Be sure to also let the babysitter know when the group will be arriving at your house, so they know when to expect you.
Step 4 – Food: Each hosting house should have food. I don’t know about you, but give me a glass of wine and I’m all of a sudden starving. The first houses could have appetizers and the last houses could serve dessert. It’s best to prepare it earlier in the day so you just need to take it out, especially if there are only 45 minutes at each stop – you don’t want to have to waste that time getting the food ready. Some of the food on our pub crawl included mini chicken salad sandwiches, chips and dip, cheese and crackers, and cannoli dip. It was nice to have stuff to pick on as we went to each house.
Step 5 – Drinks: Each house should have drinks {and water} to offer the group. It can be as simple as bottles of wine or prosecco or a few different types of beer. My husband and I got pretty serious about it and we even had a signature drink for our stop. You could even have a theme at each house. For example, margaritas and coronas with chips and salsa or wine with cheese. When you send out the schedule, make sure to tell everyone to bring their own glass for the night. This way, you can bring your drink to go when it’s time to walk to the next house and each host doesn’t have a ton of glasses to wash later on.
Step 6 – Enjoy: Have fun and enjoy an adult night out without the hassle of going out! Bonus tip, whatever the end time is scheduled to be, add on 1 hour to that and tell the babysitter that is when you will be home, because I promise that time will pass by too quickly and you will be having so much fun that you won’t want to leave early! If your neighborhood pub crawl is a success, why not try a neighborhood egg hunt in the spring?
What fun events have you planned with your neighbors?
