summer season kick-off

Yesterday was Memorial Day and we celebrated the kickoff of summer with a little backyard get-together with some close friends.

Of course I had to take a few chez-sucre-chez photos:



And then I relaxed a little bit and stopped moving our guests' coolers and backpacks out of frame and joined the party, but I missed getting in on the action of the wiffle ball game.


I don't know how or when it was introduced to us, but my family is pretty into that game "washers." We have tournaments and everything each summer. Last year Brian made us a pair of washers boxes and I embellished them with one of those wallpaper rollers.


When we do these backyard party things, B takes care of the dude things like the fire and the sports, while I dance around the kitchen baking up treats. (This time around it was these pretzels and the Smitten Kitchen salted-caramel brownies.)

(A note on things in B's toolbox: Dark Igloo lighter, matches from Maggies Crooked Cafe in the Catskills - best pancakes ever, and custom-made camera strap, out of frame mostly, which I ordered from Etsy shop Mesa Dreams.)

B also collected the veggie-hot-dog sticks:


What boys don't love sitting by a fire whittling sticks?

Cutie-pies Addison and Vivien came over and created their own little camp; it was pretty darned cute.


Luke found a tree to climb:


The last time we had people over for a fire was a few weeks after Easter, and we roasted Peeps and sandwiched them between Easter chocolate and graham crackers. I think the kids were expecting s'mores again this time, so our friend Ron ran out and got all the fixins.


And that was the day! At the end of it, we all grumbled and remarked about how it didn't feel like a Monday and that nobody was looking forward to jumping back to work the next day. I wasn't exactly my most productive today.... but I'm looking forward to kicking butt the rest of the week! Only three and a half more weeks until Renegade...