Fireworks & Cornhole

Yesterday was July 4th, and what better thing to do on July 4th, than to eat, play games, and go to see fireworks.

My sister Vicki had us up to her house, along with her husband's parents and brother. There is a
game that has been around for a while, but seems to be getting more popular, called cornhole. Similar in some ways to horseshoes or lawn jarts, for those not familiar with the game. My brother-in-law bought the materials and made his own.

There are two raised wood platforms with a hole cut towards the top/back of it. The platforms are places 30-some feet apart, and 4 people play, teams. One person from each team stands at each platform and throws the bags at the other platform. Person from team A will throw one, then team B, going back and forth until all of the bags are thrown, then the score is tallied for that round, 21 being the score to end the game.

There are 4 red bags, and 4 blue. They are filled with dried corn - hence the game name - throw corn through the hole.

Scoring goes like this: a bag in the hole is 3 points, any bag on the platform is 1 point, but points can get canceled out by the other team. If team A gets a bag in the hole, they are up 3 points, but if team B gets one in the hole, it cancels out those 3 points, and neither team has any points for the round. If team B gets a bag on the platform, as opposed to the hole,

one point gets canceled out from team A. At the end of the round, all points are added up and subtracted - if team A has 8 points for the round, and team B has 6, team A gets 2 for that round. If team B also has 8 points, no one gets any for that round.

The game is more challenging than it sounds. It is one thing to get a bag on the platform, another entirely for the bag to stay there and not slide off or get knocked off.

I put a few pictures in case someone is not familiar with the game. It is a lot of fun. My niece's cat was exploring, and I

got a picture of her sticking her head up through the hole.

After we played games for a while, we ate. Steve (my

brother-in-law) had been grilling. He marinated a pork loin

in terriaki sauce and grilled it, plus a venison roast that had

been marinated in something, barbecued chicken, and of

course hamburgers.

Added to that was macaroni & cheese, macaroni salad (yuk!) and pasta salad. Mom made the strawberry shortcake dessert that we like that has jello and pudding in, and it was a hit, as usual.

After we ate, we played more cornhole and sat around. At 8, Vicki, Steve, and the girls, and Mom & Dad, and myself, headed for the Canfield fairgrounds to see their fireworks, which was a nice display, though we were so early, we sat for an hour and a half waiting for them to start at 10:00. Also took us 30 minutes to get out of there - the place was nuts!