Oh, you want to know what happened?

Sorry to keep you all hanging, my devoted readers (I think I'm up to somewhere around 5 now). Well. Things seemed to be hanging by a thread -- we weren't sure if anyone was coming to our BBQ. Ironically, one of the other families appeared at church, but then didn't mention the BBQ at all to Dave and left right after church. So we were still in the dark on Sunday after church as to how many people were actually coming to our house.

But we told the one family, who lives on a farm (ie- 20 min out of town) to come on over, and I finished chopping and icing and doing all those last minute things, and then the phone rang. One of the other women called asking, "So, is watermelon okay to bring? Anything else we have to bring?"With a big sigh of releif I told her watermelon was fine. So the two South African doctor's families did show up, fruit in tow, and join our meal.

Dave scorched the burgers (there was no e coli anywhere in sight, let me tell you) and cooked all forty patties that were in the box, despite there only being about 12 people there (we are still eating hambergers). But the toppings covered it over well. My birthday cake for Dave -- my favorite chocolate cake recipie -- was excellent and well received, and everyone happily sang Happy Birthday to Dave. The meeting went well, with our busy families deciding it is realistic to meet for quarterly get togethers.

It was pretty fun. The conversation was light for the most part, but interesting -- about accents and how you get / keep / lose them, and weather and farming (I told you so) and why South Africa exports so many doctors, and how nice it is to have fresh fruit that is not oranges availiable again. But the atmosphere was relaxed and everyone had fun. The kids, for the most part, amused themselves. Andrew, miraculously didn't get in a single fight with any of the kids, despite there being a 2 yr old, another 3 year old, a 5 yr old and a 7 yr old present ( I attribute this to death's sandbox and about a million shovels). Aaron slept almost the whole event, as did the other baby, and all was good. Very encouraging and fun. We may even be able to invite some of the families over one on one and enjoy ourselves sometime.

So now, do I post this under social mishaps or not? That is the question.