Don’t Rain on My Picnic
This is a post I wrote a little over 18 months ago, before I had the blog. It is a slice-of-life from a neighborhood event. Enjoy.
Yesterday was our annual neighborhood picnic. I found this out about 2 weeks ago though I’m sure that my wife had mentioned it at least once before. Maybe twice. She’s also an organizer for the event. My response to finding out was a shrug. I’m not as into these neighborhood events as I probably should be. Our neighbors are great but our older son’s food allergies make any event combining food and children extra stressful.
A few days before the picnic I find out that I’ve been drafted to watch the kids while my wife sets up, and that I’d be in charge of the kids during the whole event. Great, what little weekend spare time I get has been taken away. Oh well, at least its for what should be a fun event.
I grabbed the kids in the morning and took them to the gym. I had a pretty good workout, running 9 minute miles and working the abs. The boys played both inside and out in the child center since the weather was nice. Afterwards, we stopped by Starbucks for milk and bananas as a treat for the boys who had cleaned the playroom that morning. All was good, even with my younger son in the middle of potty training at the time and having to take him for bathroom breaks every 45 minutes.
In the afternoon, my wife goes out to grab some food and a few other things she needed and takes our younger son. The older one and I play video games. They return and she drops off the little guy, who is sound asleep, and she heads over to set up the picnic. She’s upset about things not going to plan - apparently the guy dropping off the jumper and inflatable slide arrived an hour early.
Around 4pm, she’s back, the situation is under control and our sleeper had just woken up from his nap. We load the kids and the rest of the supplies and drive over to the park, which is about a mile from our house. As one of the first groups there, we start setting up the grill and food tent while the boys play on the jumper and slide. In the past one of us would always watch them nonstop when out in public due to allergies and age. But as we’re with people who are mostly aware of our food allergy situation and used to dealing with small children, we are able to relax a little and just watch them out of the corner of our eyes.
Between 4:30 and 5PM the party gets started with about 20 families showing up. I trade off helping run the event, eating and keeping the kids entertained. My older son and I manage to climb this large rock at the edge of the park, and he doesn’t want to come down when I leave, despite the fact that he can’t get down on his own. The little guy wants to climb up as well but I tell him he has to wait until he’s five.
During our three-year-old’s frequent bathroom breaks, he chatters about jumping on the stepping stones on the walk to the bathroom. Heading back to the park, he talks about them some more. Once we get back, he says, “Daddy, gotta go potty again!†Rolling my eyes, I take him to the bathroom again and once more the stones elicit his attentive chatter. In case you hadn’t noticed, he rarely stops talking when he’s excited about something. On the way back, again lots of discussion of the stones. Finally back at the park he says he has to go AGAIN. But after I ask him if he really just wants to walk on the stones, I find out that that is why he wants to go potty. So I promise him more stone-walking later and bribe him with popcorn to stay. In the mean time, our other boy gets heavily involved in games of cake-walk, water balloon toss, and sack races.
Did I mention how beautiful the weather was? 80 degrees, sunny and no clouds. Not a one. Well maybe just one…a big one. At about the time that we start noticing this dark cloud moving in, we hear thunder. Far off to the west it’s raining, but no one seems to mind. After all, the weather report said that today would be a great day and getting a little wet is not such a big deal right? But then the lightning starts. No rain on us yet, but we decided to pack it in. Our older son is afraid of the lightning and starts whining, which leads to crying. I’m trying to pack up as much stuff as I can as fast as I can while getting the kids to carry something. He sort of gets a grip on himself and we head to the van. I get the boys settled in their seats as it starts to pour. My wife and I go back to get more stuff from the field. We get soaked to the skin while the wind starts blowing and the lightning is striking all around us. Most of our neighbors scatter but a few brave ones stick around to help out. We’re very thankful for them.
Finally, the van is packed with piles of wet junk, we leave our grill and table at a neighbor’s house, and we head home. My wife unloads the car while I marshall the boys inside…to discover that we left the windows open. Slight change of plan…the boys are dirty and muddy from being out in the rain so I instruct them to remain in the kitchen and I run around the house closing windows, wiping sills and drying the floors. Once I get that situation under control, I herd them upstairs for a quick bath as the thunderstorm dies down. My wife goes back to the park to get the rest of the stuff and gets back looking like she had jumped into a swimming pool with her clothes on. But the worst is over. The boys are in their pajamas, the house is relatively clean sans the drenched picnic stuff now sitting in our garage. So we call it a night.
Usually these neighborhood events are fun. But after getting caught in a violent thunderstorm at this one, I can only hope the next event is really boring.