The Day of Threes

Today is the Day of Many Picnics. Three to be exact. And they all start promptly at 3:00. And we’re basically obligated to attend all three of them. And thus begins the planning. Which one do we go to first? Which one do we want to end at tonight (i.e., the one that’s the most fun)? Which one could we, if we HAD to, skip without pissing anyone off? Sigh.

So as of right now, at 3:00, we’ll be heading to the end-of-season softball picnic for Grace’s team. I’m kind of looking forward to this one. The people are all nice, the girls are the team are great kids, etc. This is the only one I’m required to bring food to (thank god), so it’s probably good we're going to that one first. We're estimating we'll be there an hour or two (probably closer to two).

The next stop is sort of up in the air. Steve's cousin's little girl is turning 5, and since it's family, we're sort of obligated the most to go to this one. But it's the one we really don't want to go to. At all. The kids do. Steve and I could take it or leave it. It's also the one closest to our house (maybe a mile down the road), so it would be nice to end there tonight and just dart on home. BUT, we really don't want to stay that long, so if we went there second, we'd have the third picnic as our excuse to leave. BUT, if we go to the other picnic first, we could stay there almost all day and then just ditch the birthday party and explain later. Hmmm...

My MIL is insisting we at least stop by the birthday party. She keeps reminding us that the pig roast is coming up and that we need to make appearances at these things if we want people to show up  at the pig roast.  Lady, the people having this party will be at the pig roast whether we show up or not. And I HATE that people think like that... "Hey, they couldn't make it to ours, so screw going to theirs." Steve's family is CRAZY about this and has made for more than a few family feuds and comments behind people's backs. [rolling eyes]

Party #3 on the list is the picnic for my friend since 5th grade, who is moving across the country in a few weeks. Realistically, it could be a really long time before we see him and his family again. This picnic is the one with our whole group of friends and we always have a blast. And there will be a water slide and two kiddie pools for the kids to play in all day, so that's cool. But I KNOW if we go to this one second, we'll probably never make it to the third one (the oh-so-important birthday party). Crap.

I don't know what we'll do yet. I do, however, know that by tonight, the kids will be exhausted, we'll probably all smell like ass and be all sweaty (it's hot today), and we'll be stuffed full of crappy picnic food and beer (me and Steve... no beer in the kids). I'm sure we'll have fun at all the places we end up, but it still kind of sucks that we have three obligations in one day, ya know?

And now, I'm off to finish laundry, clean up the house a bit, try to restrain myself from beating the living tar out of my kids (they're both being a bit, um, "challenging" today), making my famous hot wing dip for the softball picnic (remind me to post the recipe... it kicks ass), shower, get dressed, do my pain-in-the-ass hair, pack everything we need for the picnics, try not to forget the birthday card, pack my camera, and wish the day was over already.

Have a great day everybody!