You Call That a Toasting Stick? THIS is a Toasting Stick!!

Just before the fireban started for the summer, we had a small bonfire to get rid of all the rubbish and grass clippings in our paddock. My brother-in-law, Bean, handled the "manly" side of things, as the Rooster was on shift, and after a few days of building the kids up for it all, Bean and his family arrived and we headed down to the paddock to toast some marshmallows on the fire.



Being of a military background, Bean had things well planned and ready to be executed safely and swiftly. The excited children - 6 in total - were instructed to each find a long stick for skewering marshmallows, and once the initial heat of the blaze had died down, marshmallow rations would be carefully distributed and a toasting demonstration would proceed before the children would be permitted to toast their own sticky balls of coloured gelatin!



Much noise and crazy footwork followed (mostly from Bean lighting the larger-than-expected blaze!) and eventually the children lined up with their selected sticks.

The idea of handing out the marshmallows carefully was one of necessity. In a family like ours, things must be done completely and utterly equally and fairly, so as to avoid calls of "He's your favourite!" and "That's not fair, he got more than me!" and " I want the last one toooooooooo!"



And so we count and ration food treats. And we do not distribute anything until all are lined up and ready, so as not to avoid anyone and spark a conflict of great intensity!



With children lined up, eager to show off their Toasting Stick selections and begin the exciting work of toasting and eating blackened, charred lumps of gooey goodness, we began to hand out A. Single. Marshmallow each, accompanied by explanations of "Only one at a time".



When inevitably asked to explain WHY we were doing this one marshmallow at a time, the best answer seemed to be the honest one : "Because there's only room on your stick for ONE. Toast and eat ONE, and when it's gone there will be room for another one."



This all went remarkably smoothly until I got to Pants who, as usual, required a personal and in- depth explanation as to why he was only having one marshmallow. Pants' mind only operates in derivatives of 4. Previously it was 3 - when he WAS 3 years old - but since turning 4 and after much conditioning and preparing for this momentous occasion of moving up a number, his mind works in 4s. 4 biscuits, 4 handclaps, 4 kisses at bedtime ... you get the idea!



So he lined up, I explained, again, the importance of him only taking one marshmallow and gently took his stick to demonstrate that only one would fit on it at a time.



And then I actually LOOKED at the stick he had chosen - and what could I do?!



If you can't see in the picture properly, Pants is holding the stick&marshmallow equivalant of a jewellery tree. Or cup stand. Or egg carton. Or spice rack. Or tool box. Or any other item designed specifically to hold multiple numbers of whatever it's designed to hold!







So we continued our bonfire and marshmallow experience, 4 marshmallows at a time!