WASPS, BEES, HORNETS - whatever you wanna call it

Wednesday afternoon started off like any other. The kids came home from school, N went over his piano songs once and headed off to play and the girls plopped on the couch to watch TV until it was time to work on homework! The doorbell rang - it was N's piano teacher - time for lessons (I love that she makes house calls!). I tell the girls to take L and go outside to play (Cindy brought her kids with her like she always does - so I sent them all outside). After about 20 minutes I hear screaming - figuring that they were having a great time, I ignored it! Then the screaming became more frantic and filled with terror so I got up to see what was happening. At the same time, Tim also got up from the office to check it out. The girls (and L) were running towards the house, swatting at themselves and crying/screaming with all their might. We opened the doors and in came the kids along with a swarm of wasps (well - I thought they were wasps - Tim said they are yellow jackets). Let the swatting and screaming continue. It was chaotic!! Everyone (adults included) was trying to kill these suckers and help the kids at the same time. We stripped down Emily (Cindy's youngest) and found a swarm of these stinging maniacs under her shirt - YIKES!
K was crouched on the ground grabbing at her head - they were in her hair!
M was rubbing her face - she took a sting to the nose and head.
L was screaming and rubbing everywhere - poor guy - he didn't know what had just happened.
Quick thinking on Cindy's part - she called a neighbor and grabbed some Lavender oil and we started rubbing it all over the kids. Within minutes the crying stopped (ok - not completely but it was minimized) and the swelling from the stings was starting to subside.
To make a long story short - Emily received 17 stings all over her little body, L had 10 with the worst being on his eyelids, and K had 3 (one on her head) and M had 2 (head and nose). I'm not sure what the stinging creatures were though. We killed 11 of them in the house - after the kids came in - and what we killed were yellow jackets. But I pulled a stinger from L's eye and M and K's heads - I didn't think Yellow Jackets lost their stingers - so could there have been bees in that hive too? WHO KNOWS!
We tended to these kids for a good while - Lavender oil and some Benedryl and a big bowl of ice-cream! Tim tried to get to the nest but it's under a shed and there's no telling how big it is or why the buggers felt disturbed and the need to attack. When L and M woke up - this is what we saw...
their sweet little faces just swollen and L's eyelids are so red and bruised!

M requested to stay in from recess today - so we sent a note to her teacher! L just wants suckers and to sit with mommy - poor guy! K is milking it too - she got a note explaining why she didn't get her homework done. Hopefully this afternoon will bring sweeter memories for these guys - and for Emily!