Our sweet neighbor Stephanie, a former Las Angeles police officer-turned
sweet grandma, hosted a July 4th "Neighbors Around the Circle"
gathering. Everyone who lived on our circle received an invitation weeks ago, and we were even allowed to bring our company, which at least three families did--everyone contributing several dishes of food. One man brought a whole cooler full!
We had a lot of company to bring (pre-approved by Stephanie)--ours plus 13 cousins who traveled in to go camping this week with our children--and was I ever glad for an outdoor activity to take them all to, because our house was kind of feeling like a zoo full of monkeys--or an aquarium full of fish, or a rabbit hutch full of rabbits, whichever you prefer.
I did not know what to do with 33 people at my house that afternoon, and this was such a wholesome activity for a bunch of young people chomping at the bit to go camping.
Stephanie's son-in-law brought over his red, white, and blue very old dump truck, and the boys helped put up a canopy under which....
...Jonathan grilled lots of burgers and brats.
These are patriotic fruit pizzas we took, along with watermelon, deviled eggs, etc.
I loved the way Stephanie's daughter had decorated the lemonade or punch with festive straw hats!
Sam was happy to ride back home to snag a few more plastic deck chairs, though most of our crew sat on the grass.
As I was walking over, a young boy on a four-wheeler came up to me.
"Want a ride?" he asked politely.
Now me, maybe you don't know it, but I am more of an introvert than people know, and I'd rather have hunkered back in my own home and never had to say hi to a strange person, but the reason I was going to this shindig was to be a good neighbor and to reach out,
and being a good neighbor means going ahead and being willing to get together with those new neighbors that just moved in, one of whom just finished building a barndominium, and the other one who is still in the process of building his house (seen in the background down the circle).
So when this boy, whom I did not recognize from Adam or Abel, said, "Would you like a ride?" I thought I would take him up on it, and save my feet from hurting with walking in sandals, since my only comfortable shoes are so worn out that I have taped the sole together, and it is still not together.
The little boy stood up so I could get on behind, and away we went!
Not the usual way for Anna Lucas to go places!
But when you want to be a good neighbor, you go ahead and ride behind the neighbor kid's friend, whom you find out is named Aiden, and say thank you very, very much!
Another way to do it is to ride your horse there like Rose did later on! (The barndominium, i.e. garage for RV plus home inside) is in the background down the other end of the circle.
And my, oh my! What a spread! You can't see much of it, but they also have a sort of shelf set up there with several shelves of more food, and then we pulled a table out of the van for even more food!
It started to rain, and two or more youngsters rode home to grab jackets. Meanwhile, I went to the van and found a blanket for Rosalie, Jed's wife, and her two littles.
Meanwhile, Stephanie produced a bunch of bubbles in a big glass jar with a flag, and the little kids had a great time!
They blew bubbles, chased bubbles, and otherwise enjoyed themselves--until the squirt guns came out.
And then they had even more of a blast, except that the older youngsters got to enjoy those, too!
You should have seen Jed chasing Bethany or Carrie with a squirt gun, and one of several neighbor boys constantly trying to squirt Crystal, who is hugely delightful to chase because she laughs and squeals and chases you back!
The Morley cousins definitely took the show with the squirt guns.
Alongside all that water stuff came water balloons, too.
(Crystal is wearing Sam's jacket because of the bit of rain.)
Carrie and Samuel Morley and Pearl and others sat there at the outdoor spigot filling water balloons.
And while they were doing that, Stephanie drove out her little riding mower and there was a game of riding the mower (without the mower blades on, of course) blindfolded while your spouse or friend or grandma walked alongside, telling you where to go.
"Turn right!" David is telling Sam. "Turn left. Now go straight. No, no, turn right!"
Anytime Sam heard the audience scream, he knew he better put on the brake.
Here David is trying to figure out how to get him out of where he ran over a brick and almost went into a tree!
Several people took turns, even Jonathan and me! I had almost never ridden a riding lawn mower in my life, so it was decided that certainly I would be the driver, and Jonathan would give the directions.
It was so funny to get around all the obstructions in the yard and come safely back to the starting point, and take off the blindfold, only to discover a whole gang of nieces and nephews clapping and cheering!
Well, then it was time for the water balloon throw game. The side of the dump truck nearest Stephanie's house porch had been hung with pictures of certain political figures placed inside plastic sleeves.
I will let you guess which political figures are on there, but I will tell you that this is a very Republican circle around here.
Each player was allowed three balloons and three chances to try to hit a picture smack dab in the face.
I missed all three times, and Jonathan got only one.
Sam got at least two. That is he up there.
Gabey is trying.
David was a good shot, as was another neighbor's friend who used to be a pitcher.
The four who hit two or more had to do a tie-breaker. Rose won a pair of blue socks with white stars, and David won a hummingbird feeder!
I absolutely LOVED this fun, wholesome get-together, with games that gave me lots of ideas for the VBS I've been asked to do up in Alaska next week or the next family reunion.
I thought I'd change the picture idea to pictures of bad people in the Bible, like Goliath, Herod, and Pharaoh, or pictures of sins like stealing, and then have the VBS kids try to hit those bad things with their water balloon.
Stephanie had asked the children to bring any instruments, and our next door neighbor girl brought her violin, too. She plays in the Colorado Springs Symphony. Here the cousins and Kate are tuning up for an evening of patriotic songs.
The folk who were there really enjoyed listening to "This Land is Your Land," "The Star-Spangled Banner," "My Country Tis of Thee," "America the Beautiful," and "Yankee Doodle."
Little Kari, Elon's granddaughter, played her "instrument." She pulled her bubble wand up and down in the bubble container, "Playing" music along with the others!
Then the folk wanted encores!
So our children played, "Amazing Grace," "There is Power in the Blood," and another one they've played recently.
Thus we got to share the gospel in music, while simply being neighbors.
Soon people were wanting to leave to go watch fireworks, so we helped clean up and take down tables and get our grill back, pick up water balloon trash, etc.
And then there was a beautiful sunset.
That picture doesn't do it justice!
Walking home, I discovered Rose riding her horse behind us, and paused for this picture.
Just the perfect ending to the evening---
except for singing one song after another around the piano after we arrived home. Some of the girls were putting potato salad and other things together for the camping trip this week, since they wanted to leave out very early in the morning, but several of us serenaded them with beautiful singing.
David and Ezra were singing a duet which sounded good enough to be recorded!
Then I joined them on one song that I didn't know existed in our hymn book. I just love my nieces and nephews and their love for good hymns and good, God-glorifying music.
Another shirt from Ranch Haven Youth Camp:
