Impromptu "picanit" on the trace

Ok.  Mental image.  It's Wednesday at 3:15 p.m..  My dishwasher is running and my sink is already full of more dirty dishes.  I've been at home with a sick baby and ca-ray-zy 2 year old for four days.  There are enough Mega Blocks on my living room floor to build an additional room onto our home, and I'm so tired I could just lean up against the wall and fall asleep.  Actually, if I could just stand still for a few minutes, I could probably doze off free-standing in the middle of the room.  On top of that, my sick "mild child gone wild child" thinks it's acceptable to go on a nursing strike.....agghhh!!!

You're getting the picture, right?  One tired, stressed mama.  All I really want to do is set out a bunch of snacks on the table and tell everyone to have at it and crawl into bed.  Instead, I think "Oh!  A picnic sounds nice!"  As crazy as this may sound, it was kind of a perfect idea.  My husband drives home on the Natchez Trace each day, so I got this idea to throw together a picnic and meet him on his way home.  Whew.  I forgot how much work a picnic is!  On top of that, I thought it would be a lovely time of day for some photo ops.  We have only taken one family "portrait" (I use that term very loosely), so I threw the camera and tripod into the heap of necessities, as well.  If you're going to take a family photo, you also have to wear decent clothes.  I start in Eve's dresser, since she's the one I really want to take the most pics of.  I've been slacking a bit : /.  I pulled out an outfit she'd never worn before, and then made my way to Cade's closet to coordinate.  I quickly found a green shirt (what was I thinking?) that went with the dress I'd picked out for her.  After successfully dressing the kids, I moved on to our closet to find something for us to wear.  Crap.  I couldn't find anything kind of neutral to "go" with the kids' clothes, so I just grabbed something and threw it on and tossed a shirt for Brandon onto the "heap".

Five trips to the van later, and we're off to some elusive destination.  On the way, I decide it may be a good idea to alert my husband to the fact that we would be meeting for a picnic.  "Where?"  he asked.  Ummmm....well, that's a good question.  Luckily, I found a nice spot not too far down the trace.  As I carefully maneuver my van onto the grass, I see these ENORMOUS bugs start appearing from all directions.  Seriously.  We were surrounded.  I was getting really worried, but as we drove closer to the water, they thinned out and the nice breeze kept them at bay.

Long story short...we ate mediocre sandwiches and snack foods, struggled, as always, with setting up the tripod to get a decent family shot (we just haven't broken down for a remote yet), and I snapped a few pics of the kids.

I usually don't mess with the color of my photos too terribly much, but since my crazy self put my son in a green shirt and snapped in an almost solid green background, I had to get a little creative.

All in all, it was a pretty pleasant evening.  I still returned to a wrecked home, but at least I didn't have to spend the whole evening in the disaster area.