August hospitality, and Happy Birthday to Sean

August has been quite the month for gatherings at our house.
It started with a neighborhood barbeque. Chuck has wanted to host something like this for a while in order to get the whole neighborhood together to get to know one another. It just makes good sense. Plus he's involved in the emergency preparedness for our area, and one of the basics is knowing the people around you so you can work together in an emergency situation. You get to know who is skilled at what, who has what, etc.

It was a perfect day for a little grillin' and outdoor socializing.

I didn't know anyone, and it seemed that all of the people who showed up didn't really know anyone either and they've been living here for a lot longer than I have. Most of the homes aren't really close to each other, and we live on seven acres, so there's not a lot of talking to each other over the fence kind of action.
It was a lot of fun. Chuck grilled brats (pronounced brauts, as in those German sausages, not bratty children) and made his famous beans, and everyone brought a little something from salads to delicious desserts.
I kept thinking we needed name tags, because I'm awful with names and now I can only remember a few of them. But at least I would recognize the people if I saw them now.
One of the people who came is the lady who sells eggs down the way. It's so convenient to be so close. We get eggs from her at least once a week.
Another reason we hosted this little party was to get to know the kids in the area. We were hoping some kids Sean's and Lilly's age lived around here and they could play together. The ones who came were older, so we still don't have playmates here.
They all catch the bus at our corner, and we get a lot of rain here. Chuck and Brian, one of our closer neighbors, got together one afternoon and built a bus shelter for the school kids.

It took all day, but they got the bus shelter completed.

Chuck painted it with his sprayer, and then we had all the kids and adults who showed up to the barbeque sign it and leave messages on the walls with Sharpies. The men who were here dismantled it and loaded it into the truck, then put it all back together at the corner that afternoon.

We all got the chance to write on the walls.

We hosted a family barbeque the next weekend, and made it part of Sean's birthday celebration. He likes to be very involved in the planning and setup of his parties, and we have a tradition with the cake. He decorates his cake.

Happy Birthday to Sean!

He loves to spend time in the kitchen, and also loves to be creative. He wanted to use every attachment that came with the icing. He made the decoration in the middle to "make it interesting," and we all agreed it looked like Chinese writing. He enjoys the language and I'd like to get him back into it.

One of the desserts was provided by Aunt Bennie. Sean loves her Cherry Yum Yum, and she offered to bring it to this family function. I think it was one of his favorite birthday gifts.

We hadn't had Bennie's Cherry Yum Yum for years.
It's a layered dessert with graham crackers, pudding and
pie filling cherries.

Sean opens his train set.

Chuck got him a really nice electric train set. They had a good time setting it up in the gazebo.

I used to buy the stuff for a themed party and get the cake to match. We've done construction theme with a cake that had diggers and dump trucks (Matchbox cars) on it, and crumbled Oreo's that looked like dirt being excavated, etc. We've done the Spider Man theme with a tabletop decoration, matching plates and even masks for all of the kids at the party. (That one was a huge hit, BTW.) For the family barbecue I dug out some old stuff that we never used. We happened to be flying our pirate flag at the entrance to the driveway, and I happened to have some pirate plates, treat bags, and napkins. Sean decided to go with it.

He wanted to have his party with friends at the Reptile Zoo, but I wasn't crazy about the idea of taking food items into a place where salmonella is rampant. I thought of having the party at a nearby restaurant, but wasn't sure it was necessary.

We skipped the cake and decorations for the friend party, and just invited a few of his friends to come with us for an afternoon at the Reptile Zoo. We invited four and two could make it. It was a fun day, and the boys had a great time.

Kyle, Jacob-Joshua and Sean had a turn holding snakes.

The tortoises were out in the back yard. We've seen these guys in action before,
but it was a treat to be able to hang out with them again. Kyle had never been to the Reptile Zoo.

August has flown by. School begins this week, and the weeks that follow will be filled with meetings and activities. I'm involved with the school, with the non-profit that supports public Montessori, and with Sunday school at church, which also begins later in September.