Out of the Mouths of Babes Part 1 (In Honor of My Dad)

In Honor of my Dad who's birthday is today I would like to share with you a story that my older son, Justin, wrote about him when he was 10. Stay tuned tomorrow for Out of the Mouths of Babes Part 2 (a story that Tyler wrote about my mom). Notice how I don't get a story. Hmmm..

Anyway, here you go Dad. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! This story is exactly as he wrote it!

It's a warm summer day and the birds are singing and the smell of life and steak is in the air. What, steak? Yes, on the edge of the forest is a party that has a master chef as a host. Grandpa is holding one of his famous barbecues. Grandpa and his friend down the street are working to have the best barbecue ever. Grandpa as you can probably guess is cooking steak and other kinds of meat on the grill. His friend is a bartender and man can she make the best smoothies and milkshakes. Everyone is having fun except me. I was having fun until the bartender's daughter started jumping on top of me when I was on the hammock or when I was being chased by my little cousin's, Carly, Linsy and Alease. Besides that everyone was having the time of their life.


At the beginning of every perfect party, my Grandpa stands at the door and greets every single one of the guests even before they put one foot in the house. Before the guests even get to the house my grandpa is busy getting ready for the party. I hardly get to see him before hand because he's busy running around the house and setting everything up. The only thing he usually says during that time is "can someone help me set everything up?" My grandpa is a happy, funny person. He smiles all the time and says nice things to me.

After everyone is at the party grandpa starts up the grill and starts cooking my favorite kind of meat, steak! After he puts the steak on the grill the air starts to smell like steak. I can see smoke floating up out of the grill. He knows exactly when to spray the fire and how much because the fires are getting too high. Right before he sprays the fire you can usually hear him say "wow, these flames are getting pretty high!"

While the steak is cooking my grandpa is usually making paella. Before my grandpa is able to make the paella he must first shop for the ingredients at Stop & Shop. The ingredients he needs are sausages, rice, shrimp, rare spices and chicken. While he's shopping you can hear him saying, "I wonder how many people will come for dinner?" When he gets back home he takes out his cookbook and starts making paella. Everybody starts asking "When will the paella be ready?" When the paella is done everyone is happy and anxious to have a bite because it smells and looks good.

My favorite part of the barbecue is flambe! First he mixes some rum and brown sugar into a mixture that looks like soy sauce. When he puts in the bananas they almost instantly turn brown. Then he sets it all on fire! While it is on fire he calls "come on and watch the flames!" After it's done he takes out the ice cream and everyone has this tasty desert.

After the party the guests either head home or help clean up. We are mostly there for another hour cleaning up. When we leave I feel both happy and sad at the same time because it was a great party but I didn't want to leave grandpa the master of hosts, the maker of flambe, cooker of steak and the king of paella. Grandpa really is the best cook!