Picnic, popsicles, and the park

This past Sunday evening we attended an end-of-year picnic at a park with the families of all of the kids in the boys' class. We had a great time.

However, as I mentioned, I've been out of town quite a bit lately, which throws all my organizational skills off kilter. I am not organized by nature, and although I've figured out that organization is key with two sets of twins ages 5 and 2, it is work for me to actually be organized. Work that gets ignored when I'm gone and out of my element for too long. This is a very long way of me saying that although apparently everyone else understood that the term "picnic" meant that you should bring food to eat, I didn't. A quick trip to Central Market by Cort fixed that, but I don't think he was very thrilled with me. (Although I'm not sure why - he got a quick trip to a fancy air-conditioned grocery store and I got to try to keep track of four kids by myself while he was away. I think he got the better end of the deal.)

The big kids ran and played and played and ran, while the little kids enjoyed the park, and especially the swings. There were water balloons, and popsicles - it must be officially summer. The kids were dirty and exhausted by the end of the evening, and Cort and I both expected meltdowns as soon as we left. But miraculously everyone was great, capping off a good time quite nicely, actually.

We've got some good pictures to share from the event. Many of these are taken by one of the boys' classmate's mom (a friend and former coworker). She has been our unofficial photographer at Cathedral House events for a few years now. These pictures aren't even taken with her good camera, but somehow even her point-and-shoot is better than ours. Sadly, she will not have a child at Cathedral House next year, so we are on our own from this point forward. Better enjoy it now:

Helen enjoying some hummus and pita chips during the picnic

And Will enjoying his milk, as usual

The boys were introduced to stomp rockets - very cool

Helen and Will had fun on the teeter-totter

But what they really loved were the swings

They swang, and swang, and swang

As soon as the water balloons came out, the kids converged on them

Well, most of them - Joe hates water balloons, and here he is (in orange shirt) staying a safe distance away

Charlie, on the other hand, was happy to take aim

Joe did, however, love the popsicles

As did Helen

And Will really got into the popsicles - with his whole body, I think

Heading home - Helen refuses to hold our hands anymore, but she will hold Charlie and Joseph's