5th of November

Remember, remember the 5th of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot

We see no reason

why gunpowder treason

should ever be forgot.

Did you remember Guy Fawkes Day from last year's blog? The country celebrates with bonfires and fireworks saving the life of King James in 1605 from crazies that tried to blow up parliament?

Neighborhoods all over town host bonfires and fireworks. If you didn't know what was going on you'd think the town had been set on fire. This year we went to our neighbors for jacket potatoes, fireworks and a bonfire which was nice.

We also got to celebrate later in the week at St. Bees School where they do a spectacular fireworks show and bbq. Funny thing, last year when we went we were totally crammed in this small space trying to inch along to get some food and drink. I thought that they would have solved that little kink this year but no, it was worse. They all seemed totally resigned to this way of doing it. Being the oh so effecient Americans that we are we tried to think up a few solutions for next year. I sent a thank you note to the house parents that host the huge event for the school community offering for next year the services of the budding parents organization that has started up. They gladly took us up on the offer.

This year's fireworks celebration lasted over a week. Thing is they can only buy fireworks in the stores for about a three week window. If you want to shoot off fireworks at other times during the year, you have to have a permit so they make their week count.

We had the youth over at the end of that week for our own fireworks and roasting S'mores. It was raining so hard we had to make the S'mores in the oven and shooot off the fireworks as soon as there was a lull in the rain. The kids were happy to stand in the drizzle with their sparklers and ooo and aahhh over the fireworks that the pirotechnics, Dennis and a boy named Phil, set off. While waiting for the rain to subside we introduced them to the animal game and finished the night off with a round of Battle of the Sexes which ended in a tie.