Fall Leaves & Roasted Marshmallows

Fall - my favorite time of year. Living in NC, I guess you know we have pine trees EVERYWHERE. They are beautiful in the forest, but extremely messy trees to have in your yard. But here, trust me, everybody has some. We have lots and lots of pinecones from the recent storms in our area. And, we'd probably have them even if there weren't any storms. You can rarely be in our yard without seeing at least one pinecone fall. They make wonderful firestarters though. My husband makes a game of cleaning these from our yard with our two older grandsons. Luie is 8, and Cameron is 5. The key here is to build on the excitement of when the buckets are full of the debris - they can then fill our outdoor fireplace, light the fire, and roast marshmallows. WOW - what a way to get them to work. I've learned you can get them to work, if there is "FUN" waiting at the end. (For those of you thinking the photo shows two little boys dangerously close to the fire - look closely - papa's foot is just to the left - he's right there monitoring everything). HAPPY FALL!!!!