first annual small group bonfire

Last October Rodney and I talked about hosting a bonfire for our small group at church. The only problem was, I looked like this

and it was difficult to make any plans because we had no idea when our precious baby would arrive. We swore to plan a bonfire for the next year.

The next year is here now, and we did it. Saturday night we hosted 44 people at R's family farm for a bonfire, hayride, roasted hot dogs, and s'mores. About half of our group has kids ages 2 and under, and the other half has kids in the 5-10 age range. It was nice to have family event, since most of our socials are adults only. The kids had such a good time.

this is the only picture I got of Isaac all night

We set up one huge table for all the goodies: hot dogs, condiments, drinks, chips, brownies, marshmallow, graham crackers, chocolate, crock pots for hot chocolate, apple cider, and chili. This picture was taken before everything got set out. It was FULL.

We went on a "hayride" around the farm in the tractor without hay. We were going to stop and feed the cows bread but the kids got very excited when we saw the cows and kind of scared them off. As R said, those cows have only ever seen about 4 people. A tractor full of 25 was a little overwhelming.

This was our bonfire pile. The older kids all gathered around R's dad as he got it started. They were obsessed with the fire.

The small fire was much better for roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, and became a gathering place for warmth and conversation.

It was a huge success and I think it's definitely going to become an annual event.