They came, we ate, we ate some more

Sunday dinner came and we ate. I'd be surprised if anyone left hungry but portion sizes were relatively small. The menu started with a tomato tart (as our appetizer), then we had saffron risotto with sauteed zucchini and homemade bread, followed by beef braised in Barolo with roasted cauliflower and buttered carrots, and then there was dessert - for the adults, pots de creme, and for the kids, lime sherbert ice cream cones. Oh, and shortbread was thrown in there at some point. Rather than borrow a second table from the condo common room, we used our patio table for the older kids and one tiny side table for the youngest bunch. The older kids were offered the regular menu, the younger folks had peanut butter jelly sandwiches and cut vegetables, with small dishes of the other food. We don't have little people chairs so we had to use Hen's booster seat, his adirondack chair, and flip over this weird orange Bilibo toy/chair thing. The kids did great! They ate and played. There were some tears and a few squabbles but for the most part the evening went smoothly. Most importantly, the parents were able to chat a bit. We went through two and a half bottles of wine (thanks, Smiths!) but didn't get to the third one (thanks, Wagners!) so we'll have to host another dinner soon. I hope ya'll don't take this the wrong way but the highlight of the evening was that Hen was asleep in his room with minimal fussiness about five minutes after our last guests departed. AWESOME.