4th of July Review

We had what appears to have been a successful 4th of July party last night. There were 15 adults and 9 children. Earlier last week I was planning for a much smaller affair, but it seemed there were a lot more people out there without plans than I had expected. No problem - the more the merrier. It was our first official party since moving here and seemed to be reminiscent of many of our old parties in Kansas City, only with more children. Our new house lends itself well to parties. There are two big porches for various conversation points and an acre for kids to run wild in, which kept them in view, but out from under foot. Nice.

It was classic American barbecue party fare. Big Daddy spent 12 hours on Saturday smoking a brisket (on the grill, of course - it's not slang for something he did a lot of back in college...). He also did up some chicken thighs and wings to perfection. There were baked beans, cole slaw, homemade pickles and grilled vegetable antipasto. Friends brought pasta salads, more grilled veggies, homemade bread, fruit salads and desserts - a fresh berry trifle and blueberry pie. We had made a couple of quarts of ice cream on Sunday afternoon to go with the desserts. Yum.

As the sun went down the kids chased fireflies and caught them in a big jar. We let them go later to fly off into the night. Big Daddy and his fellow ex-boy scouts lit a fire in the new fire pit and we all took bets on how long it would be before one of the boys threw something in to burn (not long...). As the sky grew darker, we hauled out the pirates' booty of fireworks. In North Carolina, by law, one can only have little stay on the ground fountains. We bought our illicit bounty in Tennessee and transported it across state lines (don't tell). Out here in the boonies sky rockets were lighting up the sky in all directions. We're outlaws, I tell you. It was a great ending to the night. Kids grew sleepy, parents kicked back, and the non-parents relaxed before their drives home.