The First Dinner Party at Pine Loft

 Since we cooks have off in the middle of the week and most of the socializing is centered on the weekend when chiefs have off we don't often have people over for meals.  We decided it was time to change that and invited the Thompson and Swartz youth along with Chief Matt who is currently in training to come to our house for supper Thursday evening.  It was lots of fun to set a nice table again and we dined in style on chicken parmigiana, fettucine Alfredo, and green beans with slivered almonds.  After supper we cleaned up, played games, and then had a light dessert of rosettes. 

 You know you have company when... there are a lot of shoes at the door that aren't yours!  It's so muddy around here that we have a custom of taking our shoes off as soon as we enter someone's dwelling.

 ROOK!

 A strange, new way to play - take out not only the 2s,3s,and 4s - but also the 6s,7s,8s, and 9s.

 Josiah and John trying to eat rosettes without having their picture taken.  They are both from families of lots of girls so they stick together pretty tightly.  Not pictured are the younger brothers, Silas and Philip, who are also happy to have each other.  The Swartz have recently moved to the area since their father, Amos, started working here as family worker.  They add a whole new dynamic and now we actually have a bit of a youth group.  It's lots of fun but the supervisors have been heard muttering, "The cooks party too much!" so I guess we'll have to invite them sometime so they aren't so jealous. :)

Tabitha, Joanna, and Diana helping to sugar the rosettes.  We girls have lots of fun together.  There are so many things you can do when you are with so many fun people!