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Yesterday was quite a busy day. We had a new Pastor at church, so we went to see him at the early service. He's Great - Hooray! Then Eric went to work on the yard at the new house, while the boys and I visited Grandma and Grandpa at their church, then lunch, naps, a kick-off party for Mom2Mom, and then we hosted a party of our own.
A GROUND-BREAKING PARTY!
That's right, today, they were going to be Breaking Ground for our new house on our lot. To Celebrate, we cleared a bit of space, and started a bonfire. A Big Bonfire. The first big bonfire for the new lot, new house, new property. Then we brought the bare necesities: beer, water, marshmallows...and a Port-a-Potty. (Though I never did use it.) The weather was warm, but not gross, and the bugs were plentiful, but not overwhelming. It was Nice.
Here are my Top Ten photos from last night.
1. First Stick - Sticks were abundant, and Eric told the kids to collect them to throw in the fire. Chris really enjoyed this assignment. We weren't even totally out of the car before Chris dug in on it.
2. Pirate Seat - Sam thought it was pretty awesome to crawl up into big brother's Pirate Seat to sit. He was very proud of himself for getting up in it. I think he's going to need his own seat before we go camping because as adorable as Sam was, Chris was not down with sharing.
3. A Good Stick - Chris did find a good stick for roasting marshmallows, long and lean. He was quite proud of it.
4. First Marshmallow Roasted - I tried to show him how to roast marshmallows, but the heat of our giant fire proved too much for him, so I roasted for him. I think last time we did this, he didn't like them, and just ended up eating marshmallows raw. This time, he ate, tentatively. But he liked it. I only roasted two for him. He was getting in the bag and eating them raw instead.
5. Thank You Erica - I must thank my sister-in-law for this vision of lovliness, the "Alternative S'more". She's a Genius! She told me she prefers her s'mores to use a Reese Peanut Butter Cup instead of Hershey bar. Brilliant.
6. Friends, with chocolate My friend Elizabeth and I experimented on this Alternative method of smore making. Oh.my.gosh. SO GOOD. There was no sharing. We may never go back to just a plain Hershey bar again. And (here's a perk) instead of just a bunch of leftover plain chocolate, I have leftover Reese Cups. Chris doesn't like them, and Sam can't eat them...lovely reese's just for me.
7. Makeshift Kitchen With all the stuff I was bringing to the lot, and Eric had taken my van leaving me the Focus, I couldn't fit any sort of table apparatus. I was worried about where we'd set up smore makings. But I just used a couple of these handy stumps. We started calling it the kitchen. Chris was getting his own marshmallows, by stepping right up, and he could even keep Sam in graham crackers. The other big stump housed our guacamole. In between we had bugspray (and buggy wipes).
8. The Living Room - I fully intended to print up a map/model of the house, I just didn't get around to it. So I was asked where things were going to be, where the house was, etc? So I was pointing out the driveway, which was the only entrance off the front that Eric hadn't silkscreened in yet, and the living room, which was going to be in the front. Turned out we were all sitting where the living room was going to be.
9. Friends and Fam and Fire Along those same lines, the big bonfire was where the kitchen was going to be. Some of it anyway. The fire was BIG. Eric and the guys kept adding brush to burn, which made it tall. He started it where there was a log so large he couldn't move it. His theory was that if he burned out the log, it would be light weight enough to move it. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. This morning, the still-smoldering log was too hot to move, and so was still there when "The Guys" arrived. They took a look at it, and said, Oh, we can throw that in the pile when we pull the stumps.
The other homework Eric was working on, during the party was that he had to get a trench dug (finished about 6 p.m.) and a silk screen staked in the trench, so as to keep the dirt/mud in for Erosion Control. In addition, all the big log hunks (and brush) had to be out of the area. Eric was falling more and more behind on those two as the evening progressed. Eric spent most of the party working. How Blessed we were when our family and friends just leapt right in to help out. Here you can see Eric, Dad, Ben (Bryn and Shay) all of whom helped cut logs, move brush and sticks. I was just amazed at how our friends and family jumped on in to help. After the kids gave out and our littlest helpers (they really were helpful!) had to go home along with helpful parents; another friend called her husband for reinforcements, and Mom, Eric, Roy and Brian stayed out there until Midnight getting it all done. On a Schoolnight. Amazing!
10. Burning Line When the boys added brush to the log fire, it was so beautiful. Someone said they'd never seen branches burning like that. Perhaps it was the green wood; so sad to cut these trees down when so many of them were healthy, or maybe it had just rained a bit the day before. But the flickers of flame and light were just so beautiful. And when the fire would catch a thin branch, Oy.
We're going to love having more bonfires here in the future. Many Many More.