Farkle Family Bonfire

Tonight we had a bonfire at my mom's to socialize with all the fam while my Aunt Bev is visiting from Florida, she leaves tomorrow to go back home. It was kind of a bittersweet evening.

It started with me biking to my mom's with Chase in tow in his bike trailer, 7 miles or so and 35 minutes later we arrived, 8:25 pm to be exact. 25 minutes past Chase's bedtime but he had a late evening nap so that he would stay up later. When we arrived everyone couldn't believe I biked over, but really it's not that far, we do 4.5 -5 miles just about every morning, what's two extra miles?

Well, while we were dousing ourselves in bug spray, we looked down the driveway and pulling in is my Uncle Allen in his mobilized chair. Yup, he too "drove" to mom's from his home about 3 miles away. It was the quite the scene, he's got his chair in full speed and my mom is following behind him in the car. It was a real Farkle moment as us Farkles would say, I pull up in my bike and my uncle pulls up in his mobilized chair. 315ers just don't do things like everybody else. Why would we? That takes all the fun out of life.

So all the Farkles are were there: Shawn, Tristan, Aubrey, Cara, Makayla, Caleb, Corey, Aunt Bev, mom, dad, me, Chase, Chrissy D (not technically Farkle but close enough), my Uncle Allen, cousin Brenda and her son Brian and later on my cousin Lindsay, her boyfriend and little boy Nolan. Oh and Brad came way later, he had work to do on the race car that needs to get done by Friday.

Here we all are, it's late and we're having a bonfire on a weekday, so naughty.

The evening started with three of grandkids playing in the pool while the other two, Chase and Caleb, looked on. Chase was more into the ducks and balls that were laying around. After we dried off the shivering children and put clothes back on, it was time for the bonfire.

It's about 9:00 and everyone is just chillin' while waiting for Cara and Chrissy to return with the pizza. The kids munched on some chips and cheese puffs, Chase was loving the cheese puffs. Being the freak about food mom that I am, I of course had to read the ingredients and sodium content. Cheese puffs are the worst. But these weren't half bad, white cheese and they're baked. So annoying sometimes, I know. I did offer him pizza but he just said "no."

Around 9:30 I noticed Chase walking around like a "drunken" baby I like to call it, and that's when I know it's bedtime. He was in good spirits but definitely tired. Off to bed we went. I washed all the bug spray off, well as much as I could, changed his diaper, put him in his jammies and off to bed he went. at my mom's. for the first time. Biting finger nails.

Yup, Chase is sleeping over at Nonnies. I went back and forth many times but it just made the most sense. Mom is watching him tomorrow and I have a dentist appointment at 8:00am which means I would have to leave an hour earlier than normal. So why would I wake him at 10:30 just to put him in the truck, drive home, put him in his crib, get up, get him ready and take him right back over. This is his FIRST time ever sleeping away from us. This is history. But he is used to sleeping there for his naps, I am just praying he'll be ok for the entire night. Mom knows my number.

After Chase was down, I went back out to the party and dad brought out a surprise for everyone, SPARKLERS! Yeah! We all got one or two and some of them were real BIG. It was so funny seeing everyone, old and young alike, playing with sparklers. It brought back memories of when we were kids. It was funny seeing my sister playing with them and then her kids playing with them too. And then my sister yelling at them to watch out, don't get so close to Uncle Shawn, watch out for Caleb. I'm surprised we didn't have any incidents, usually we have one or two. And even with the HUGE bonfire we had.

Well, the bittersweet to the whole evening is that this will probably be the last time my Aunt visits us here in NY. Her health isn't the best and it's hard for her to get around. It's been a long time since all of us were together, parents, aunts, cousins and grandkids. It was a wonderful evening. And the novice photographer that I am, I forgot my camera. I was too concerned about if Chase was staying or not. But I did get some on my mom's little point-and-shoot. I will have to get them to put up later.