Easter Afternoon

Somehow, in my excitement over the new blog design, I neglected to tell you the sad news about my Easter dress. I was ready for church before Nathan and was standing around in front of our bedroom window. The glorious sunshine was streaming in while he finished getting his tie situated.

"Do you like my new Easter dress?" I asked coyly. "Don't I look pretty?"

"Uh, I can see right through it."

I spun around to face the mirror in the sunlight, and I gasped! No lining + sunny Easter day = tragedy.

"And it's kinda short," he said.

Double tragedy.

I changed into another charity shop dress, one I bought when we first arrived, and it worked out fine. I was just sad I couldn't wear my recent find, especially since I was bragging about it to y'all.

Anyway, after church and our really nice lunch with friends, we picked up our friends Adam and Ashley and went to a bonfire...

Side note: I was just thinking, we have a lot of married couple friends who share the same first initial like us - Nathan and Nicole.

Adam and Ashley

Ben and Blaire

Justin and Julie

Luke and Laura

Pete and Paulette

Steve and Sarah

Am I forgetting anyone? 

And yes, I thought of them in alphabetical order, because I'm neurotic like that.

Bonfire time!

It started out pretty pitifully (health and safety, you see), but it got better as the night went on and we ended up with a proper, wonderful, roaring bonfire.

Here are some awesome ladies!

Sam decided that the best way to get his fallen trees chopped up was to have a contest between all the men to see who could saw a piece of wood the fastest. The winner got a huge chocolate egg. I knew immediately that I was going home with that prize. Nathan is, of course, a former "tree guy."

Sam is on the left, using his phone as a timer, enveloped in smoke. Nathan, of course, is DOMINATING the competition with his lumberjack skillz. I was cheering him on in very un-English style, much like my own mother cheered for my father any time we had diving competitions in our swimming pool with company over.

I was on my hands and knees with my camera, screaming, "COME ON BABE! YOU CAN DO IT! WIN ME THAT EGG!!!"

Mission accomplished.

Swoon.

Then, the girls put some mysterious items in the ash heaps. They weren't s'mores (Alas, there are no graham crackers in England.). The were... bananas?

Yes, bananas.

Warmed bananas with chocolate on the inside. I'm told they sometimes have marshmallows planted in there as well.

Here's my food model, Ashley. She's usually posing with food on this blog, which is purely accidental. 

Thanks, girl! The treats were really nice! I think they could have used a few marshmallows, but overall I was pleased. 

I told Jen, "When I go back to America, I'm going to introduce these, and everyone will think I'm a cultured, culinary genius." Actually, I may have given away the whole recipe just now. 

Not so genius.