Bainbridge Island + Michaelmas Party

My sister has been staying with us since Labor Day weekend. This weekend, my parents drove into town so that my mom and sister could fly to Ottawa together to visit my grandma. They left on Sunday morning, but on Saturday we took my parents on their first visit to Bainbridge Island. 

We took the ferry over from Seattle, had a delicious Italian lunch at Via Rosa 11 and headed to Fay Bainbridge Park to hunt for seashells, play in the driftwood and take in the views of Puget Sound. We walked around downtown Winslow for a while, browsing in the bookstore and stopping for ice cream at Mora Creamery, before catching the ferry back to the mainland just in time for 5:00 Mass. It was a lovely day!

My family left early Sunday morning for the airport (and then my dad drove back to Richland for work). We began prepping for our second annual Michaelmas party! We spent the morning at Costco picking up rotisserie chicken, dinner rolls, salad fixings, and lemonade. I had also made two batches of blackberry ice cream earlier in the week.

Once the girls were napping, we tidied up the house and set up the tables. We can fit six adults and two travel high chairs around our kitchen table. We set up a folding table in the living room that sits six more adults and our two regular high chairs, plus another five people can sit on the couch and arm chairs. We have three kids' tables that each seat four - our craft table in the play room, our picnic table on the back patio, and a little folding table. Two fit in the living room and one squeezed into the kitchen. All told, we can host over thirty people in our 1200 square foot house.

The guests arrived at four, bringing more festive Michaelmas offerings like glazed carrots, deviled eggs, blackberry cobbler, and wine from Chateau St. Michele. The adults chatted, the kids played in the backyard and in the playroom, we remembered to say the St. Michael prayer along with grace before eating dinner, so I'd say it was a great success. Except the only picture I took the whole evening was of my (fantastic!) dessert.

 

Everyone left by 7:30, we tucked our children into bed and had everything cleaned up by 9:30, leaving us enough time to watching Downtown Abbey while picking off the rest of the roast chicken before heading to bed ourselves.