The inaugural barbecue...

Today was a good day. I literally forced myself out of bed and to the gym. I was glad I went, although I am feeling it now! When I got home I noticed the lawn was looking a bit brown, and I remembered that I hadn't turned on the sprinklers. So I went to turn them on and set it to run a manual watering for that morning. But I happened to look in the back yard and noticed that the kids had left some books where they would have been ruined by the water. So I went out and brought in the books. And then I noticed how many popsicle sticks and wrappers were all over the back yard, so I hurried to gather them up before they turned into a soggy mess. And before I knew quite what happened I had spent two hours cleaning off my back patio. Since it was so nice and clean it made me want to have a barbecue. So I texted Diane and invited them to one. Which meant I needed to go to the grocery store. So I then spent two hours cleaning out my fridge, freezer, and both pantries so that I knew exactly what I needed to get. I think that everyone has something that they are a bit anal about. For me it's my fridge. I normally clean it out every two weeks. Like pull everything out, wash down the shelves, kind of clean it out. I think it stems from growing up in a house where there were usually 25 open bottles of salad dressing in the fridge. It drove me crazy when it was my turn to cook or to put away the leftovers.

Anyway, I feel much better when my fridge looks like this.

A place for everything and everything in its place. 

(Before you think too well or too harshly of me, remember the only place in my house this applies is the fridge.)

A two hour shopping trip later we were restocked and ready to rock and roll!

A good shot of my nice clean patio. 

Lila is giving me the thumbs up for remembering "Safety First!"

The one hiccup to a great evening. I just about burned the grill down. I was preheating it and apparently there was a bit more grease or something than I had thought. I am glad to report that we all kept cool heads and the crisis was quickly averted.  I am just not sure if the nickname "Old Smokey" is now referring to me or the grill...

We dragged our tables outside because I was determined to eat on the clean patio.

It was worth it. Such a perfect night.

But it will be much nicer when we don't have to rearrange the furniture to have a cook out.

After dinner ice cream cones.

Sherbet .... yum.

Evie ended up wearing most of hers and trying to lick the rest off her arm.

Thanks Salisbury's for hanging out and making our first barbecue a complete success.

 Here's to many more summer nights spent this way!