Days with the Jensens: Picnicing Solo Style

This past weekend Spencer was in Toccoa and our church had it's annual fall picnic after church on Sunday. Normally I would forgo this without Spencer to help me but I was feeling rather confident in my capabilities, ya know being 7 months pregnant too, and decided to attend. Ella Ann loves having picnics and since she still talks about picnics we've been to in the past I knew I also had to do this for her. She was so pumped and couldn't wait to go!

Saturday was a rather rough day with the kids. Since Ella Ann is not used to being home all day with us anymore she is feeling "bored," even though she has tons of toys, art supplies, books, dress up clothes, puzzles, etc. to keep her occupied she feels the need to tell me how oh-so boring it is around here! I simply told her Saturday morning that if she was that bored then she could go across the street, knock on their door and live with them because I'm sure they have lots more "fun" things to do than we do! I didn't hear the word "bored" again after that. She also has trouble getting along with Rane because he wants to be around her, which means annoy her! However, Sunday was a much, much better day all around with both of them. As soon as Ella Ann woke up (in a good mood) she happily played with Rane all morning and even read him books while he ate breakfast! It was a blessed morning, to say the least!

After church we headed down the street to the picnic. I was told to bring 24 iced-down drinks, which meant I had to figure out how to get my kids and the cooler down a big hill to the picnic area all by myself. Obviously that didn't happen so Andria and Ricardo kindly brought my drinks down for me. As soon as we got there Ella Ann found her friends and I really didn't see much of her for the next 2 hours. Rane, too, was all over the place. I chased him all over the park for a solid 2 hours. It was seriously impossible to have any fun. He was all about digging around in the 15 or so coolers...getting out the ice, rubbing it on his face and the ground then putting it back in the cooler. He was after all the dogs that were around, circled the food table a million times, tried to get too close for comfort to the grill, running in front of the swings and running around on the playground with the big kids. I did get to sit and talk to Janelle for a while but that was about it. I was one of the very last people to get in line for food, because of Rane, so by the time I got to the food tables it was slim pickins. Ella Ann and Rane had chips and grapes for lunch. The horror!!!! All of us ate another lunch when we got home that afternoon. I was incredibly worn out from just chasing Rane and the hassle of the picnic itself! I was in bed asleep by 8:50 p.m. last night! My old, pregnant self cannot handle all that work these days! I have to say, though, even with all those complaints I was glad we went because the kids had so much fun and it was great for Ella Ann to spend some time with a few of her friends that she doesn't get to see that often anymore because she's in school all week. Once we got home, though, my business wasn't over. I had to finish up a meal that I was taking to a family that afternoon...whew!