Too much family Too much!!??

On Saturday we had 3 family parties. Yes, 3 of them. The first was my husband's dad's side. We have it every year and this year his uncle was in town that we see maybe once a year. It's a swimming party at his uncles.

The second was my side a family reunion at my Grandma's. I was in on the planning so I had to go. Needless to say my kids were the worst there. I don't know if its more competition because there is more kids or what but they weren't at their best. Let's just say it wasn't the funnest of all the parties.

The third was at my hubby's Grandma's. His cousin was in town from Georgia. I've met her once since we've been married. I think we haven't seen her for about 5 years I would say. She brought her daughter which we haven't seen in person who is now 3 years old.

Well we went to all of them. The first started at one and the last we got their at 7:30 p.m. They were only serving snacks which struck me as kindof weird since it started at 6 p.m. which is most peoples dinner. We didn't eat at the first one since we were planning on eating at the second. Needless to say we were buying pizza at 9:30 at night. The kids were starving and so was I.

So after all the break downs, the whining, the bloody swelled lip, the crying, some laughs, we were exhausted yesterday. My youngest son was sick from not eating. He plays so much its hard to get him to eat. So a couple of bites of pizza at 10 when we finally got home, trying to keep him awake to eat it his pizza just isn't enough.

I talked to my mom yesterday and she said I need to learn the word no. Well in hindsight I wouldn't have gone to the party on my side. There wasn't enough food and the kids were either getting punched or getting into trouble. If I would have told my mom I wasn't coming she would have had a fit.

So how do you go about making it easier on the kids. It was way way too much for them and too much for the parents. I know it doesn't happen often but the recovery from it all is exhausting. The kids are still tired today and my hubby well, I'll just say he is ornery.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to not live around so much family. My husband and I have 2 sets of parents each. Both of our parents are divorced and remarried. My dad lives the furthest away in Idaho so I don't see him very often, my mom is 30 minutes away, mother-in-law 5 minutes and father-in-law 15 minutes. We don't see his dad as much as the mom's. It seems we are always having family things, birthday parties, reunions, etc. It wouldn't be so bad but some of these people I see several times a week. There are the blessed times that we go a month or two without seeing them. I guess I shouldn't complain because they are close. You would probably say you have a sitter whenever you need one but it never works out that way.

Our anniversay was last Tuesday. My mom was sick and my MIL had things going on with her mother. We had the kids and the weekend was shot with family things so I planned a scavenger hunt with my hubby and the kids to find things and pick up chicken and meet me at a park. The boys loved it. I kept the baby with me and my oldest son whose 17 was gone on the trek. It turned out nice. So now that I wanted my blog to not be about venting here I've gone and done it again. Oh well....I'll try better tomorrow :)