Sunday Picnic

Sometime before Christmas, I ran into an old friend of mine from college, Thor Loftsgaard, while shopping at Walmart. We chatted best we could in a packed store filled with frenzied holiday shoppers and promised to get together for a play date soon as things calmed down from the holidays and the weather was a bit better. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. Thor and his wife Julie have 2 sets of twins, one set will turn 3 in May and the other set will turn 1 in May. Wow! It's my new motivation...when I'm thinking I'm having a tough day with Carter, I think about Thor's wife, and well, it pretty much makes it impossible to feel sorry for myself. They came over on Sunday for a picnic and we really had a pretty nice time, 7 little kids under the age of 3, considered. My sister Christy also was friends with Thor, and her husband Rance knew him too, and my brother was friends with him in Havre so they all came over as well. My lovely husband managed to run off to Denver to go play for the weekend at a bull riding and I don't think he felt bad at all to miss the commotion.

Getting lunch ready for 7 kids and keeping them eating was quite the process. Clint was gracious enough to bring down some propane to torch the hot dogs and burgers on the barbecue, and everyone brought dishes. I, as usual, made way too much food...but better than not enough! We had one "Big Kid" table which was lively to say the least...Cade kept stealing silverware, food was on the floor, someone had something the other didn't, Koolaid down Lana's shirt thanks to a cup lid not on all the way, Torston hiding food on Cade's plate, etc. Two more little kids on the floor and Avery stayed with her momma. Best I could tell, the adults were there solely for the catering service.

Luckily the weather was nice today--the first nice day all week really--so we got a few of the older kids to play outside for awhile. Carter was in a panic that all her toys were getting abused, so she started grabbing everything she could and trying to hide it in her room. I let her hide a few of her favorites, then we worked on getting out some other toys for the kids to play with that were ok. This was a big step for her, but towards the end of the day, she was doing much better. I was really pretty proud of her. Only one temper tantrum...it was simply too much when Thor's little girl Lana tried to pet HER bunny. Sigh. (However, Lana threw the first tantrum of the day...made me feel a little better! I'm sure I'll pay for this comment next time...) All in all it was a pretty fun day. I was so glad they were able to come out and we're hoping to set up some play dates in town to meet at a park or some other place (*cough* neutral territory for Carter) with a couple other mom's that I know. I tried to get some pictures of Thor and his wife but they all ended up blurred or didn't turn out, but I did manage a few of my full living room!

I loved it when Thor came driving back after they had left to return a toy one of the kids had managed to cart off. Yep, my kid is completely normal!