Wild And Crazy Night at Chad & Michelle's!!!!!

What an evening. The best way to describe this night is by the noun/verb explanation. Adger & Jan had not seen Chad & Michelle's house so we started the evening with . . .

tour given

video watched

conversation flowed

camera snapped

jokes cracked

laughter erupted

babies played

Brie crawled
Cady "talked"

odor detected

sparks flew

evacuation implemented

rescue came

fans blew

kitchen cleaned

house aired

thanks given

food tossed

food repurchased

pizza eaten

song sang

cake cut

presents opened

Adger danced

tears flowed

Brie crawled

Cady "talked"

hugs given

goodbyes said

Now for lengthy explanations. We arrived before the birthday boy, so Mom had the camera ready to snap a picture upon his arrival.

Love my goofy boy

Chad & Michelle had a neat home before the babies arrived. There's a hearth in there somewhere.


Cady, all of a sudden, looks like a small toddler!


Brie with great Aunt Jane


Such a precious picture!


Cady resorted to eating her hand b/c she was hungry.

This is where the evening took a turn that no one had envisioned. Michelle bought pizzas for supper. Everyone did not arrive at the same time, so she put them in her oven (still in the boxes) on a very low heat. I've done this many times. Everyone was milling around. Abby & I were in the kitchen. I looked toward the oven and saw something like smoke coming from a potpourri container on Michelle's stove top. I asked Abby, "What is that?" She said, "That's Michelle's potpourri . . .doesn't it smell great?" I said, "No, it doesn't . . . something is wrong." I immediately called Michelle who opened the oven to find two pizza boxes and two bags of bread stix on fire. Oops. Mild panic mode. When it became apparent that it was more than could be blown out or doused away, Chad came with the fire extinguisher and quickly put out the fire. The pizza boxes and bags were still smoldering so he took them outside and threw them in the yard. It's difficult to see, but the boxes and bags are smoking and still have a small flame.

Always Johnny-On-The-Spot, my camera began to shoot pictures of the aftermath. (Thankfully, I'm not crazy enough to snap while the chaos is happening.)

Literally, you could not see in their kitchen.





After raising windows and getting fans going, it began to dissipate a bit.

We all decided that the little girls needed to go outside while the house aired. It only took about 20 minutes or so to get clear. We were just thankful we caught it before it was out of control. Jane, Jan & I left to get more pizza & crazy bread while the house continued to air out. The "Hot & Ready" pizza was hot, but not ready. I had to wait for about 10 minutes. Ugh. When we returned, the party continued just as planned. It was one birthday party to remember!

One half of the table: Matt, Mark, Chad, Michelle, Adger, Jan & Christy (Michelle's sister).

Other half: Christy was in both shots, then Ab, Brie, Andrea, Jane & Cady. Tom was out of town on business, but he called and heard the entire story about the fire. Michelle's mother, who I lovingly call "Mother Mary" came later because of a prior commitment. When she entered, she smelled an odd odor and immediately knew something had happened!

Chad & Michelle got tickled about something, I don't remember what.

Remember when Adger "danced like his life depended on it" and I didn't have my camera? Well, last night we talked him into dancing again. He used every inch of Chad & Michelle's entryway. I have it on video but I don't think my blog readers can stomach watching such a sight.

Brie & Cady playing after supper.

Brie is crawling, but as Mark says, "It ain't pretty, but she gets around." She's so cute. She concentrates so hard when she's traveling.

Well, so much for a laid-back family birthday party, huh? Enough excitement for a long time. But, true to form, we all had a good laugh about it.