In which I get stung & do not swear in front of my children

I thought it would be a great idea to take the kids hiking today. You know, because it's hot and muggy and they are not addicted to all things with electronic screens. E was not down with this at all, voicing various concerns to me while also asking if he could bring his DS. I reassured him of how much fun it would be, nixed the DS and packed us a picnic lunch.

So we head out to the park, and I'm all, "This will be so much fun" and "We can keep track of what wildlife we see!" I spray us all down with the gnarliest smelling bug spray, you know the kind that makes you sticky but keeps away all vermin large & small, and off we go. We get sidetracked by the seventeen kid's day camps that have been bused into the park, but continue on our way. I manage to keep the boys from stepping in horse poo most of the time, while taking fanciful pictures.
About 15 minutes in, we are hot, sweaty & getting eaten alive. I don't know if it was all the rain the past few days, but that bug spray didn't do diddly. I called uncle and we turned around. I then felt something bite me on the back of my thigh and I yelped like a little girl. Whatever it was must have been up my pant leg, because I never found it, and it managed to nip me two more times before I killed it or it flew off in victory. Either way, it burned like heck, so maybe it was a sting and not a bite. I have an awesome first aid kit in my car that has bug sting wipes in it, so that helped, but I was all for going home at that point. I did go through with the picnic part, which was nice but short-lived. We went home and A and E both worked on their math packets with way more enthusiasm than I find natural. Perhaps the air conditioning was so wonderful to them that they were just glad to be indoors, even if it was to do summer homework. Which gives me an idea on how to get them to do chores more efficiently in the future....