This party is on FIRE! (literally)

Chris has been in Jakarta and Singapore the past few days and won't get back for a few more. He always hates when I mention he is gone while still gone but I challenge anyone to travel all the way to Timor and then get past our guards and gate... seriously lets see you try. Anyway, since he has been gone I have tried to make the time go by fast with lots of fun activities and outings. Last night my friend Jodi and her little girl Mackenzie (whom the boys love) came over and we camped in our backyard. We bought cheapo tents that pop up, NO assembly required, from the local grocery store. The kids were soooo excited. I of course was prepared for a sleepless sweaty albeit fun night. I blew up our air mattress and shoved it in the tent while saying "I'll MAKE it fit" (it was fun having a little girl around who caught the Cinderella reference in my childish humor). It was only 5pm but Sam was already asking to get his jammies on.

It was rough being so far away.... from the grill.

The poor kids were subjected to Jodi and I yelling "ZIP THE TENT!" every time they went in and out, thats all we needed was to contract malaria while going on a fake camping trip. We had fantastic grilled chicken for dinner while the kids had hot dogs and chips. Then Jodi single handily got the fire going for s'mores. Sam and Liam LOVE doing s'mores, although I really have no idea if they have ever EATEN one because they always light their marshmallows on fire.

Sam even flicked his across the yard while trying to put it out ha! We had the bounce house going and the kids got pretty sweaty so we decided we needed some home made ice cream, mint chocolate chip. YUM! When it was time for bed Abby headed inside and I brought out the baby monitor. We read MacKenzie all our favorite books and then snuggled into our tents. Sam's head hit the pillow and he was OUT, it was 10 PM by this point. Liam on the other hand talked and rolled and sang and poked until I finally said "I am going to put you in your bed if you don't stop" This totally back fired and then he was begging to go in his bed, dang it. He eventually fell asleep only to wake up dripping sweat needing to go to the bathroom. I took him and then put him in his nice cool bed. Then I had to decide wether to stay in with Abby and Liam or go back out with Sam. I was really torn since Sam wakes up every now and then with night terrors and I didn't think I would be a very good hostess leaving my shrieking son with Jodi. So i literally DRAGGED his heavy limp body out of the tent and put him in bed with me. By 2am I finally got to sleep. The next morning we had a pile of pancakes and OJ and then went out to clean up our mess. I put some water in the ashes (which had been out for more than 9 hours at this point) and then dumped them in our trash. The girls headed home and I went in to feed the kiddos lunch. I went to wash the dish's and looked out our front window and saw a HUGE fire. This will tell you how used to seeing weird things I have gotten. I literally thought "hmm that's weird that our gardner is burning trash in our yard" Then it hit me that is was Sat. and there was no gardner today and I had dumped a bunch of ash into that same trash can about two hours ago! I ran like a crazy lady to get Sam and Liam in the house (they were playing on the deck like nothing was happening) and waved frantically to our guard who came running back. I dashed into our house, it seemed like it took FOREVER to yank the fire extinguisher off the wall. I had it charged and ready to go in seconds. We stood there for about five minutes putting out little flare ups and then he doused everything with water. Apparently it was STUFFED full of dead grass and leaves etc. I immediately called Jodi thanking her PROFUSELY for having the fire extinguisher demonstration earlier that week. Talk about a blessing. Had I not had that class I would have been hopeless with the extinguisher. If it had been 10 minutes later we would have all been napping and it would have gotten out of control. So many little things that make such a big difference. The boys were of course thrilled to watch Momma put out another fire. We all were fine... but the trash can is toast.

This was not REALLY the excitement I was going for ha! Chris if you are reading this you should give us a call, lots has been going on haaa!