Swarming, Stinging, Species

We were invited to a friends house for dinner on a Friday night.  A summer night.   

A beautiful night.   As the adults chatted and shared summer stories the four  kids headed for the woods.  Awesome.   I love when my kids head outside.   It was rather blissful for a few moments while we caught up with each others lives.  Peaceful.  For just a bit, because soon our friend's children came screaming into the house, hysterical, and yelling BEE STINGS!  SWARMING!!  STEPPED ON A BEE'S NEST!   Did I say they were hysterical.   You can imagine how scary that is.?  Well - our two boys were nowhere to be seen.  Where were they?   Anna and I dashed out the front door, having no clue where they were or which part of the woods they were in.   Visions of the boys being swarmed by a group of angry bees were in my head.   I was freaked out and felt desperate to find the boys.   Anna ran left, I ran right, and then I ran right back inside to get more information from their kids about where to run.   Thankfully, Zoe led us down the block, around the corner, around another corner until I spotted Kuba.  While running I felt like a super hero...I ran faster than I thought was possible and kept thinking of those moms that pick cars up off their children.  When I finally spotted Kuba, he was crying and still swatting bees.  He was on the sidewalk and hysterical.   Two passersby where helping him to get away from the swarm.   We grabbed him, took off his shirt, swatted more bees away and then got him into some strangers car and drove him back.  STINGS everywhere.   He happened to be the one who  happily jumped down off of a fallen tree unknowingly onto the nest.  With his left foot.   As you can imagine that leg had the most stings.  I counted 18 from ankle to knee.  There were at least 12 more bites but there could have been more.   Arms, elbows, back, fingers, even on his bum.  Kuba cried and cried and then had a bit of a traumatic shiver as he settled down.   The bites were painful, red and angry.  After a phone call to the doctor and a dose of benedryl he calmed down and then fell asleep.  Exhausted from the trauma.  Luckily he did not have an allergic reaction.   Amazing with so many bites.   Anders did not get one sting, but he did stay with his brother once he realized what happened.   The other kids each got a handful of stings as well.   Such a painful way to end such a fun time  playing  in the woods.