What a night

Last night we had the elders over for dinner.  All I have to say is Wowdy!!  It was truly a dinner like no other.  It all started off okay but it went downhill pretty fast.  Since we have the elders over for dinner at least every other week, I am starting to run out of meal ideas so last night we went for simple-hamburgers, brats, chips, and carrots.  We also had an amazing pavlova for dessert.  I should say that we forgot to pick up cheese for the burgers so Carl ran out to grab some and that one thing, my friends, set off a hilarious chain of events.  It went something like this:

Carl runs out to the store to grab cheese.  While he is out I make start making the whipped cream for the pavlova but something strange happens to the cream and instead of whipped cream I end up with something that looks like butter(except some of the liquid separated).  I called Carl who had to go back to the store for more cream.  This meant that he didn't get the charcoal for the grill going as early as he wanted.  Normally this wouldn't be a problem but we were using some cheap charcoal so the fire kept going out.  The elders got to our house early but the burgers were no where close to being done.  To pass the time we decided to start with the spiritual thought.  Bad idea.

I actually still feel bad for the little elder giving the thought.  While he is giving the thought, Joe starts choking.  Bad.  Carl starts digging banana out of his mouth--the kid never his food before he swallows--and it comes out in copious quantities.  The elder tries to keep talking.  Joe starts choking again.  We continue to dig food out until a HUGE piece of chip comes flying out of Joe's mouth.  By this time, Carl, Joe, and I are covered in banana, chip, spit, tears, and mucus.  Awesome.  I strip Joe, who is now screaming at the top of his lungs, and try to comfort him.  No dice.  The elder tries to continue his thought.  Joe cries louder.  I give up and leave the room.  Joe calms down and we make it back into the dining room in time for burgers.

Since Joe almost choked to death, he really had no appetite for the rest of the night and since Joe wasn't eating, Max decided he wasn't hungry either.  Carl and I let Max and Joe play while the rest of us ate dinner.  That was my second huge mistake of the night.  You see, Joe recently began climbing on everything and he is lightening fast.  One second the kid was on the floor and before I could do anything, he climbed on top of the tot table and promptly fell off the side.  More screaming ensued.  The elders just watched the scene in fascination.  And literally five minutes later Max fell off of the tot table.  Max started crying and when he cries he takes it to a whole new level.  By this point, the elders have just stopped talking.  Carl and I are trying to keep the conversation going but we can't really do a whole lot in that department because we are trying to keep the kids from climbing on the furniture.  We try to eat dinner but the burgers are pink because the grill wasn't hot enough to cook them properly.  So we have to figure out how to cook the burgers quickly so that the elders can actually eat dinner before they need to leave.

Max finally decides he wants to sit down on his bench and get a drink of water.  As he is climbing onto his bench, he manages to simultaneously knock over his bench and the pitcher of water.  Water goes everywhere...all over the floor, the food, Max, and mainly me.  Besides Max's cries, there is dead silence.  Then Carl and I just start laughing because it's either laughter or tears at that point.  Then the elders starts laughing and instead the worst and most chaotic evening they've ever had at our house, the whole situation becomes hilarious.  The elders tell us that we will figure prominently in their journal entries for that night.  And I just keep on laughing.  I am just so glad that I have a couple of weeks to recover before the elders come over for another crazy dinner with the Sansom's.