Memorial Day, Our Style

Imagine a group of twenty to twenty five people, ages seventy-two to eight months, all getting together for a barbecue in the back yard, and you've got my family's version of Memorial Day. (By the way, those twenty to twenty-five people? All of them are immediate family. My extended family is much larger. A get-together with everyone in my family requires a hall rental.)

So, in light of the facts that a) my mom has a pool and b) everyone is getting over a head cold (except Dusty, you bastard you; do you ever get sick? I swear, he's Borg or something) I told both my boys no swimming. I don't want them sick for the trip to WDW. They agreed.

Of course, I think what I agreed to and what they agreed to were two different things.

Everything was going along fine (despite the lack of hamburgers... you had to be there) right up until I had to go to the bathroom. Dusty was in the house, chatting with someone over the computer, which left me outside, watching the kids and chatting with my relatives. I asked my relatives to watch the kids while I went to "answer the call of nature".

While I was gone, my little stinkers told my dad they weren't sick, they were just having an allergy attack. So, of course Pop let them on the Slip N' Slide!

Then I get told by my Dad that I'm a "meanie". See what happens when you take your eyes off my kids for five minutes? They totally sucker Pop. One big set of brown eyes and one big set of hazel and suddenly I'm in trouble. And, oh, are they smart! They waited until I was gone before falling on my father, pathetic little Oliver "Please, sir, may I have some more?" faces on, so I didn't even get a chance to defend myself!

He was firmly on their side, right up until the words "head cold" popped out of my mouth. By that time, however, it was too late; they were soaked. The oldest then tried to parlay that into, "Well, I'm already wet; can I go in the pool now?"

No. No, you cannot.

And when will he learn big brown eyes don't work on me nearly as well as they work on Pop?

Other than that, everyone had a blast. The kids played on the trampoline and the Slip 'N Slide, the adults talked and watched children, and Dusty even managed to socialize (because someone else was on the computer, I think; otherwise I wouldn't have seen him except at feeding time). Two year old Sydney Rose even got on the trampoline, her pretty hair all fuzzed up with static electricity, giggling like mad. And seventeen year old Justin showed his face twice! That's probably a record!

Okay, at least one of those appearances was because his mother and uncle kept throwing bottle caps at his window, but, still! He showed up!

My mom got her group photo of tired, dirty grandkids after much maneuvering, yelling, and threatening of bodily harm, before it was off for home and bed.

Memorial Day was sort of our Pajama Sunday (a family ritual that involves being total slugs, followed by a ravioli dinner made by yours truly). The Great Yugi-Oh DuelMonsters game was a draw between Daddy and the oldest, although the oldest firmly believes that he would have taken the prize if they'd just had one more hour before shower and bed. Daddy respectfully disagreed.

I hope everyone else had as good a Memorial Day as we did.