The Farewell Cookout

So, I'm the kind of person who LOVES to entertain. Ric, on the other hand is not. BUT, I force him into it once in a while, and he usually comes around...especially if there's grilling involved.

This past weekend, we invited three families over for dinner. These families have been in our Ward for about 2 years, and are all going their separate ways in the next month or so.

Rhode Island has fabulous schools and programs, that people from all over come to work on their master's degrees or do their residency, but when they're done, they're gone!




So anyway...we invited the Montoya's, the Warner's, and the Craven's over for dinner. Doug Warner and Steve Montoya are both finishing their residencies in Pediatric Dentistry. (VERY handy when we want to check to see if Ryan's overbite is anything we should be worried about!)
Nathan Craven graduates in just a few days with his Master's Degree in Ceramics from RISD (Rhode Island School of Design.) More about that below.

It was so great to have everyone over...8 adults and 9 kids under the age of 8. FUN! In fact it was fun... until... the kids were playing with the dog who lives behind us, giving her treats, and one of them got bit! Eeeek! I felt so bad! (So did the dog's owner!) Molly just wanted the treats and was a little too aggressive. So a visit to the Emergency Room and 3 stitches later, Alyssa was OK. (See more info about that ordeal on Diane's Blog!)

After eating tons of burgers and dogs, S'More's and just enjoying the company of great friends, we all decided to call it a night. (I even got to use my Tupperware Service Center that I bought about 15 years ago from my "Celestial Sis" when we were roomies and she was a Tupperware Lady! In fact, I think that THIS was the first time I actually filled in the bottom with ice to keep things cold! WOW... memories... *sigh* By the way, mine isn't as fancy as this one, but Tupperware STILL sells it!)


Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures like I had wanted to. BUT, Emily took some of the three littlest kids - all born within 3 months of each other. Check it out - the commentary is hilarious!

I wanted to give each of them a gift - so I made frames with "family portraits" and their names on them. You can see all the details on my business website if you want to see the full pictures. They turned out pretty cute - but if any of these families add more kids, they'll HAVE to let me know so I can update it for them! (Thank goodness we all have blogs to keep in touch!)

One last thing... Master's students at RISD have to create a thesis project to graduate. Because it is a design school, there's a show that pretty much shows off these projects. Nathan Craven's project had to be the most AMAZING thing I've seen, there really were no words to describe it! He wants to combine his ceramic talent with architecture and I've included one picture of what he created here, but you can see more here as well. These are clay extrusions (sp?) that are about 5" high that have been glazed, fired, and are standing up next to each other. If you can picture it (actually, you can see more pictures here) these were all close enough together that you could walk on it. SO hard to describe, but incredibly AMAZING! Definitely the best thing at the show (if you don't count the MANY free spirited students with their interesting clothing choices!)

We'll miss ALL of you when you go your separate ways! PLEASE don't forget us here in L'il Rhody! :)