Bluegrass BBQ '06

As mentioned previously, we kicked off another year in Britain, and another year of the Critter with the summer pork & banjo fest we like to call the Cheshire Bluegrass BBQ.

If my count was even close to accurate, we more than doubled attendance from last year's festivities. And while we didn't have the same 95 degree weather, the rain held off all day, and the kiddies got to enjoy the obscenely large three story tall bouncy castle, while the adults enjoyed the fine tunings of the MerseyBillies bluegrass band.

Once again, we introduced a flock of Brits to my people's food: pork bbq - including a whole pig, plus a heaping pile of slow-cooked ribs, fried chicken, brunswick stew, tomato cobbler, grits casserole, turnip greens, cornbread, corn pudding, watermelon, and blackberry & peach cobbler for dessert! I think we were an especially big hit with the fathers who had been stuck attending the normal 4 year old birthday parties. Of course, the three coolers stocked with beer may have had something to do with that.

To top it off, we ended with a Barbie birthday cake for the Critter. My bride was rightfully proud of this creation - or at least, she was, until we realized that cutting the cake meant exposing Barbie in a most un-4-year-old-birthday-party fashion. Maybe we should have left Barbie a modesty-strawberry...

Still, a good time was had by all. We're already planning next year's party...