'Stone Soup' gathering

Jack sits in the shallow lake waters to have a bit of a rest.

Yesterday morning at work, Ann called me to invite us to a 'Stone Soup' gathering at her house that night. 'Stone Soup' gatherings are not planned parties - they are last-minute get-togethers where everyone who comes brings something to share, and we just toss it all together. I told her we'd be a bit late because I'd be at work until 6pm, but we were definitely coming!

When I got home, the boys were already so excited to go to the "beach." We packed up all our stuff, and we arrived at Ann's house on Chris Lake just minutes before 7pm. I brought hotdogs, buns and chocolate chip cookies to share, plus milk and Cokes for me and the boys. Ann's husband, Brad, was already manning the grill, so he tossed the hotdogs on for us.

The boys had been to Ann's (aka. "Rudi and Ty's") house before, so they knew exactly where to run first. They played for about 10 minutes while Ann introduced me to everyone there - probably 20-some people or so, and kids of all different ages. Then the boys changed traded their shirts for life vests (they'd already come dressed in their swim trunks), and ran out the door onto the deck and down to the lake.

They swam and played for the next hour and a half or so. Three older kids were in the water with them the whole time, and I was so tickled that the entire group of kids was playing "the Harry Potter game." Each kid had found a stick from the lake's edge, and they were using them as wands and dueling, yelling out any spell they could think of. A.J.'s favorite spell was 'Serpentsortia!', while Jack's spell of choice was 'Expecto Patronum!' Heehee. The oldest kid was 12 years old, and I could tell he'd already ready Book Six because he kept using 'Oppugno!' and 'Sectumsempra!'. :-)

Jack would run out of the lake every half-hour or so and play with something else. There were several playhouses and huts on their beach to play in, lots of toys, shovels, tables and chairs, two large picnic tables, a tree swing near the garden, horseshoes and poles, a beach volleyball court - too much to choose from! His friend Rudi was running around everywhere with a big leaf of rhubarb in her hand - she ate several ALL NIGHT LONG - and I just couldn't believe it!

Once it started getting too dark, I called the boys up to eat. We washed our feet off in the small wading pool on the deck first. We all ate our hotdogs, and I also had a piece of homemade chicken pizza that someone had made. Brad had built a nice fire in the pit, and we then all settled down next to the fire to roast marshmallows and make S'mores and sing along to Charlie Daniels, America and almost-anything-else-you-could-think-of songs played on the guitar by one of his friends. It was such a great night - so relaxing.

( And here are more pictures. )

Playing in puddles.

There's nothing quite like an impromptu game of 'Ring Around the Rosies' in the afternoon rain...



(More.)

Itchy.

Last night at the lake, little gnats of some sort kept landing on me, but I didn't think much of it. This morning, even, everything seemed just fine. Even when I took my shower and then put vaseline on my feet (repairing the sandal damage of the summer) and put socks on, all was still copacetic.

All day long though, my feet have been extremely itchy. Just now, I finally reached the point where my feet were so hot I just couldn't stand to wear socks any longer. I pulled off my left sock first and was SHOCKED to find this! Holy cow! No wonder I was itching! I have 28 bug bites on that one foot alone!

I guess maybe the extra heat from my socks and vaseline brought all of the 'poison' from last night to the surface. Whatever the cause, I'm itchy!