Small Children, Sharp Objects and Fire

What a great combination!

Several weeks ago we gathered with friends for a campfire dinner. While David built the fire,
the two other dads managed the archery station. All the big girls (Molly, Caroline, Della & Morgan) and
Mary took turns shooting arrows at the targets in an attempt to pop all of the balloons.

Katherine and her friend Emily wandered around checking out the fire building and
the boys. The little boys were playing nicely inside (thankfully away from the sharp objects), and the big boys ran around, often coming dangerously close to both the fire and the arrows.

So that's the kids and the dads. What were those mothers doing while this was going on? "Chatting," as Katherine would say, with her fingers moving together and apart like a mouth opening and closing. Where she gets her wit I do not know. Actually, we were chatting and getting the ever important food ready for consumption.

There were so many of us that we ate in waves. The first wave included the middle-sized kids and the dads, then came the other kids, and finally, (no surprise here) the moms ate quietly in the kitchen!!

After eating, we sat around the campfire for a long time before gathering the courage to hand out newly sharpened marshmallow spears to the 11 children clamoring at the fire's edge.
They ate all the marshmallows in 10 minutes flat without anybody being impaled. It was a good thing.

After the sugar fix, the kids dispersed. Then one by one the girls came back. They treated us to numerous skits
and songs before heading off to the warmth of the house. It was so cozy being by the fire that we just sat and talked for what seemed like hours. We were sure it was 10 o'clock, but went we started to clean up and take things inside we realized it wasn't even 8!

We had so much fun that we've invited ourselves back for another campfire...soon!