May Day Picnic

This past Saturday, my mom and I carted the kids out to Cedar Valley Baptist Church, where my parents and grandparents are members. My good friends Andee and Josh invited us to come out for a youth fundraiser they were holding (Josh is the youth minister there). They were planning lots of games, fun, and FOOD, so how could we say no? We were all a little concerned about the weather situation, since we had quite a bit of rain in the forecast, but they said the event would be held, rain or shine! As it turned out, we had nothing to be worried about. The sun came out, and it was a beautiful day! 

The boys had so much fun running around outside. They had tons of soccer balls, footballs, baseball bats, etc. laying around outside, so my little redheads used their imagination to create some new sports. Ethan's favorite: "faseball," a sport which requires the players to throw a heavy, foam football up in the air and whack it with a plastic baseball bat. "Faseball" is also appropriately named after the part of Nicholas that was injured during the creation of this sport. I was surprised at how well Ethan actually did when it came to smacking the ball a good distance. I think we may have a ball player in the making. (I can hear my father cheering somewhere in the distance.)

After the sports equipment lost its excitement value, we moved on to the playground. The church has a big playscape on the property for the kiddos with a slide, swings and all that good stuff. The boys climbed up and were going to go down the slide, when Nicky decided to freak out. He has been down slides before, and I have no clue why this particular one scared him so badly. Maybe he has an aversion to yellow, because the slide looked like a giant banana. Anyway, as I was going over to talk to him, I noticed something underneath the platform of the playscape. A huge yellowjacket nest. Oh, yippee...

I got my mother's attention, and we got the kids away from the area. Then, she decided to be brave and go back to kill some scary, winged insects. I think she's allergic to them, now that I'm looking back. Anyway, she takes her shoe off and starts whacking stuff. It was a little comical, and the kids were standing there asking me funny things like, "Why is Grammy walking like that?" Once the bugs were all smashed, we went back in because the boys wanted to swing. Nicholas was getting into the tire swing when he suddenly whimpered and said, "A bug bit my leg!" Sure enough...

A nice yellowjacket sting. His first. 

The kid didn't even cry! I totally would have been a wimp about it, but he didn't seem to care. This is the same child that trips over his own feet, lands gently on a carpeted floor, and bawls for two hours. I don't know. I put some ice on it, and distracted him by letting the boys have some sweet tea.

I know...caffeine and sugar. Brave Mommy.

They definitely enjoyed it. 

There was also a sweet little girl that had her puppy out walking around. Ethan followed the dog for at least twenty minutes, trying to get up enough nerve to touch it. My boys are chickens when it comes to dogs, no matter how large or small!

 

Before you ask, Zoe was there, too! It's hard to take pictures of her while I'm holding her, but once Granddad showed up, she didn't want anything to do with me.

They're just a little bit attached to one another.

Tired of pictures? Too bad! This is the best part, though...the FOOD! I'm a Texas girl, so it comes as no surprise that I am a total sucker for some decent BBQ with all the trimmings. How do you think I keep my figure, anyway? My dad is a Brisket King! Anyway, the food was fantastic!

Mmmm...

Brisket attack!

Hannibal Lecter? Nope, just Nicky.

Even Zoe pigged out!

Okay, enough pictures. If you're not craving some BBQ and potato salad by now, you're seriously insane. We had a great time! Thanks to CVBC, Josh and Andee, the youth guys and gals, and the guy whose name I can't remember that cooked the yummy meat all by himself! It was great!

Questions, questions...

You know how, when you're pregnant, you have to answer the same questions a million times?

"When are you due?"

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Is this your first?"

Etc, etc, etc...

Then, you pop the kid out and are attacked by a whole new series of repeated questions...

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

"What's his/her name?"

"How old is he/she?"

"Is he/she smiling/rolling/crawling/walking yet?"

And so on and so forth.

You mothers know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you? Well, when we had Ethan, we had to deal with yet another bunch of questions.

"Where did the red hair come from?"

"Do you have red hair in your family?"

Sigh...

Then, of course, Nicholas comes along a little less than a year later. At first, it wasn't so bad, question-wise (other than the redheaded stuff), because people could tell by their sizes that the boys were obviously not the same age. Then, our little Nick-Nick hit a major growth spurt, and caught up to his older brother. The boys are now almost the same height and weight. I think Nicky is two inches shorter and two or three pounds lighter.

Now, everywhere we go, we get stopped by people asking, "Are they twins?" This happens at least twice a day. Minimum. Yes, I know it's my fault for getting knocked up twice in two years, so don't even say anything. It's not my fault that both boys have flaming red hair and are both into the 80th and 90th percentiles for height and weight, which causes them to look the same. They wear the same size in clothing, and Nicholas is only one shoe size behind his brother.

Are they twins? Noooo, but they sure look like they are! Someone once told me (in an extremely rude way), "Well, maybe if you didn't dress them just alike..." Well, that would probably help, but I can't help it if every relative we have decides to buy them matching outfits when they go shopping! I'm not going to turn down free clothing, because I have to dress three kids over here, and it gets expensive! Yes, they do occasionally wear the same shirt. Get over it. It's cute, okay? Plus, they like to fight if they don't have things that are the same. This means we have to buy two of everything, including toys. All those annoying, noise-making toys that parents hate? Yeah...we have doubles. Think about that. Enough to make you pull out your own teeth, isn't it?

Sometimes, being the wonderful parent I am, deeply concerned about nutrition and health in my children, I will take the kids to McDonald's. Shut up. Anyway, if the boys don't get the exact same toy in their Happy Meals, we have World War III over here. I have seriously considered murdering some employees over this.

I honestly think that having twins would have been easier, now that I can look back. No, I'm not crazy...hear me out. The boys act like twins and look like twins, but they're developmentally a year apart. This makes things a little complicated. One example: Ethan's potty-trained, Nicky isn't yet. When they were younger, Ethan would want Nicky to do things he couldn't yet do, and Nicky would get frustrated (or injured). Then Ethan would be angry with him. Now that they're older, it's not as much of an issue. I really think that it would have been a lot less stressful to have had twins, because they would've been on the same page, developmentally. 

Are they twins? Nope! But they should be, I guess. Quit asking!!

There's always the chance that we will have twins. My grandfather was a twin, so we have them in the family. Also, the more children you have, the more likely you are to have twins. Age is also a factor, as older women tend to have more multiples. We shall see, I suppose. Don't think it's possible? Well, we do have two redheads, you know... :)