Yesterday evening’s Community Dinner, with 18 people, included more children than we’ve ever been so lucky to have before. Five alone from Enaba and her husband, who live down the street two blocks, and who is so busy she hasn’t been able to get here before now. So glad to meet all their kids, though I do not remember their names. Then there was Chris, our regular, and he was obviously delighted to not be the only one. Then, as dinner was finishing up, one more, Wyatt and his Mom, who live across the street.

I had recently purchased an Aldi special, colored chalk! Decided to bring it out. And pow! Within about 30 seconds all six kids were down on hands and knees, chalking figures that will, luckily, remain on the patio until rain and feet erase them.

The chalk fun was closely followed, or perhaps even surpassed by, the fun they all had with Scampi, who eagerly joined in. And yes, he slept quite well last night!

The food was, as usual, as if from a menu designed beforehand, except for the two potato salads, but they were very different, and the ingredients of one of them came strictly from our gardens. Jeff and Julie had constulted beforehand, so that this time they did not both bring pork. Julie still did. Jeff brought chicken.

No dessert however. Sob! Unless you count the bowl of plums, which I brought out as an extra and was emptied within seconds.

CHALK ART

Here’s some. There was more.

One of Enaba’s kids was still on her hands and knees chalking during dinner!

PLAY WITH SCAMPI

At first, the kids were scared. Would he play with them?

Oh yah. But starting with a stand-off, over and over again. Stand-off, and then one of them would lunge. All hell would break loose.

After dinner, Elisha took whoever wanted to go out into our extraordinarily productive and flourishing garden. Several adults took home bags of veggies.

And several kids got to pull up their own carrots!