LET BARBECUE SEASON BEGIN!

Tomorrow is the DH's birthday. What better way to celebrate than to gather as many of our kids and grandkids as we can, and barbecue?

In preparation, I've been cooking all day--macaroni salad, ribs (baked now, to go on the grill for finishing), Patsy's fruit salad (recipe here: "It's a Salad! Honest!"), fresh veggies to dip in ranch dressing, and a chocolate-cherry-peach dump cake. I don't gave to actually cook the chips and salsa, but they're on the menu, too.

The DH is doing his own brand of preparation--repairing a bench that had a few broken slats, and repainting the whole thing. Bless him, he's using the colors of the original bench, which he isn't fond of, but I love--yellow and pink!

Between recipes, an Etsy search seemed in order, for barbecue items. Etsy and the artists there did not disappoint! I found these (not to mention a ton of others there isn't room to show):

A recipe book is a great place to start. TracyAnn did this one:

Barbecuing is Fun!

You'll need place mats, and these by FreshlySewn are really pretty:

Set of 4 Barbecue-print place mats

And you don't want your little sweetie's hair getting in her food. BowInHairos' has got the perfect solution:

Barbecue Picnic Fun Set of 4 Hairclips

Here's a great print of a slightly edgy lady barbecuing, by GraphiteGirl:

Barbecue Belle

And last, surely not least, one by LewiesPlayhouse that takes me back to my childhood, in a very strange way:

Atomic Barbecue

Next up, I think will have to be bowling, as our son John called earlier to ask if everyone could meet up at noon tomorrow for a pre-barbecue line or two. Yay! to working off the calories even before we take them in!