Dishin' the Dirt

This week's Friday Night Pizza Night was happily replaced with a dinner invitation from neighborhood friends. We were in charge of dessert, and in keeping with the Earth Day theme, Charlotte and I stole the Dirt Cake idea from another friend's blog :)  I can still vividly remember the BBQ at which I was introduced to my first Dirt Cake as a child.  Just like in our home today, "gummies" were a rare treat back then...so a whole dessert interspersed with them??  Heaven!

Speaking of heaven, I'm pretty sure Jen & Lew have the best backyard in the whole neighborhood, possibly the city.  Step through one of two doorwalls onto a deck spanning the entire back of the house.  To the right, a beautiful garden.  To the left, the kids' cozy cottage.  Front and center, a pool.  Behind the pool, a huge play structure.  And beyond that?  Still more room to run than we have in our entire yard.  Oh, and a glorious fence to contain the kiddies while the adults relax and dish a little dirt.  It's no wonder we spend much more time there than they do here :) 

Some shots of the girls with Lacy (5) and David (3).  Such cuties, and look at those eyes!  (Can't wait until I can grab the reigns on my new editing software and really make them pop...Man, how I'm already missing that dedicated 3 hour block of learning each week.) 

The kids getting ready to "dig in". You can see my girls enjoyed their ribs!

And to wrap up the evening, some post-dinner entertainment:

I have to say I just adore when sweet older girls accept little Charlotte as their playmate -- she tends to stay out of trouble following around her idols (can't you just feel the love in the photo below??), and I'm able to catch a quick glimpse of the courteous schoolgirl she just may become :)

 So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, good night...

The Von Trapp kids have nothin' on these munchkins.