Last week we finally got around to hooking up our gas BBQ in the backyard. This is our third summer in this house, and sure, the lack of grass in the backyard for the first year was a factor, but really, the long delay only goes to reflect the fact that we really aren’t BBQ kind of people. I know! So very un-Canadian of us! But doing veggie burgers on the barby never really made a lot of difference, compared to our George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine, and the Grilling Machine is a lot easier to use and clean up, so I guess we just never really got into it.

But this past weekend, in honour of actually connecting the thing, Sir Monkeypants suggested we have BBQ for dinner on Father’s Day. We did veggie burgers for us and hot dogs for the kids, and we grilled baby potatoes and onions in foil. Sir Monkeypants even toasted the buns. And then after dinner, we used the fake coals to cook marshmallows and make smores (or, as Buzz Lightyear would say, “delicious hot schmoes”).

Overall, everything was so yummy, I could hardly believe it. The weather was perfect — not too hot in our shady backyard, with just a gentle breeze that kept all the bugs away. The kids were enthralled with eating outside and the grilled hot dogs were, by some miracle, SO much tastier than the boiled kind. Who knew? And all four of us are still talking about the smores, which were legendary in their deliciousness.

I think it’s safe to say we’ve been converted. Combine this with our recent attention given to the hockey playoffs, and all we have to do is buy a snowmobile to turn Sir Monkeypants into a bona fide white man!