Anyone who knows Ben, knows that this is his favorite phrase. Yes, he’s in it for the food, but he also has understood from a very early age that who you eat with brings just as much joy as what you eat. At least once a week, Ben attempts to engineer a party. To him, this means we either invite someone over, ask them to join us for Friday dinner out, or get invited elsewhere. The fourth option, the spontaneous invitation, is much harder for him to pull off, but he has skills. “Wait, you’re grilling tonight? I like grilled food! I’ll bet we could use a salad to go with that. We have lettuce!” Sometimes his making of a party is nothing more than neighbors pooling leftovers and eating outside when the weather starts to get warm. Any way you slice it, you can’t argue with his intentions or his results. Here’s how our busy weekend of” making a party” with food, friends and family played out.
Our normal Friday night out was replaced by Phil and I going to a Lycoming event. Ben + sitter + pizza + wings = party.
Sophia was home for a short weekend trip. We took Ben to Superstars at the East Lycoming YMCA. This is a fantastic exercise program run by Diana Logan. Her boundless energy, kindness, and connection with the participants make it the place Ben wants to be every Saturday morning.
Erica and Ben let loose at Superstars!
Saturday evening, we went to Chip and Erin’s for homemade cheesesteak. They have a beautiful new kitchen, and they stocked up on all the equipment they knew would be required for a homemade cheesesteak night. Erin has some secret cheesesteak supply connection, and we can report that it was the good stuff.
After a lazy afternoon, we headed two doors down to see the Superbowl with our neighbors, Cullen, Amy, and Cate. Ben came home from school Friday declaring that the “Cheeps” are his team, which is good because of Phil’s Kansas roots (and we straightened him out on the pronunciation.) Ben, like his family, knows very little about football, but he knows that the food situation is always better than he could hope for on an ordinary Sunday evening. This year did not disappoint. Amy made some killer buffalo chicken dip and delicious banana pudding from her grandmother’s recipe. We contributed a new batch of meatball subs. Once this week just wasn’t enough. I made it through halftime, but Ben saw it through. Yes, his team won, but the beauty of Ben is that scores don’t mean much. He is always the big winner.
He is such a happy boy, Miss him.
I luv seeing him cooking.