Today is a cloudy, windy, sleety sort of day. Nicholas got picked on at recess, Sarah's Mom left her waiting at the bus stop for 20 minutes because she thought it was swimming day, Noah had to go to playgroup (oh the horror), and Alexandra got woken up way too early. To combat the late afternoon blues that these combined travesties were starting to bring on, I told the kids they could roast marshmallows for a treat.
Their eyes lit up and they immediately ran to the fireplace and got into position. You see, we don't wait for a campfire to roast marshmallows around here. Oh no, we have a much easier way. I don't light any fires in our fireplace. It is completely open, making the chance that some small stray finger could get burnt. Instead, I have it full of candles. Easier to control the flames, but still get the pretty firelight. And it's perfect for roasting marshmallows, once you learn the correct distance to keep between your marshmallow and the flame.
We also don't use sticks or untwisted wire hangers to put our marshmallows on. That's much too savage for our refined European tastes. 🙂 (really, I just don't like the dirt from the sticks in the house, we use those only when we go grilling in the woods.) We use our fondue forks. They are pointed, which helps when impaling the marshmallow. They have different colored dots on the end, at least ours do. So there is no question as to whose marshmallow belongs to whom, and we don't risk shared germs. (You would think we all had typhoid, the way same people in this house react.) Also, easy clean up, I just blow out the candles and toss the forks in the dishwasher.
Everyone is happy, and a miserable afternoon is transformed into a happy, gooey, sweet time for everyone.
Oh what a fun way to cheer up the day! Yum!