Family Reunion Fiasco? Part One, day one

Friday...at Country Buffet meeting room....We arrive and only one other person is there. No one knows each other. We tried to introduce ourselves but she (and her 16 month old) walked away as we were introducing ourselves. oooookkkk!?

Finally, others start to arrive...I have Zac, Tyler and Harley at a table with me. I'm feeding Zachary and trying to keep Tyler from throwing the food he doesn't want off of the table...The room is packed with about 100 people within a 1/2 hour.

I am sitting and trying to keep control of Zac and Tyler...everyone is walking past me like I don't exist. The room is too crowded to walk around with Zachary and Tyler so I just stayed put. Harley was having sensory issues with that many people around so he was staying in a corner rocking himself while eating.

One older couple comes up and asks if they can sit at the table for 8 that I am sitting at...I say sure...They ask my relation and reply with Virginia's daughter in law...they get up and leave?? OOOOOkkkk....

Virginia (my MIL) wanted to make an annoucement but no one could hear her, so she went into a fit of rage and began sulking and flipping people off...OMG lady!!

She sits at the table with me and begins eating...One of her eldery cousins comes over and says sit with us...ok, not a word, just grabs her plate and leaves. The others have kept Andrew on the opposite end of the room talking to them and couldn't wend their way over to our table to meet the rest of Andrew's family...??

Finally someone comes over to talk to me and asks how old my grandkids are?! Excuse me, these are our children! As they were walking away, they make this snide comment of how we should be having grandchildren, NOT children and we are just too old to have children that young...how's that for acceptance into the family!?

I did overhear one person asking Andrew about his family and when he introduced us all, the comment was "You mean Harley...a motorcycle? Why would you name your child after a motorcycle?!"

Harley did well considering we were at an all you can eat restaurant. He ate only 2 plates of food (this is great for him, and they were not heaping plates of food either...he even passed up the cheeseburgers). Well, for dessert Harley had what he *thought* was a chocolate chip muffin...It had some sort of nuts in it, but none were on top so you couldn't see them. He took a bite AND.....thought it was a bug in his muffin and proceeded to RALPH!! everything he ate...In the middle of the banquet room!

Suddenly everyone wanted to gather around and frown at me. Andrew RAN Harley to the bathroom and stopped to get an employee to clean it up...Virginia comes over and says are they going to clean it up or what? I'm busy trying to keep Tyler from running through it while trying to calm Zachary because it was past his bedtime and he was tired and cranky. Everyone was appalled that Harley did this in the middle of the banquet room and that I wasn't running to get an employee...not 3 minutes later an employee arrived to clean it the mess...but the frowns continued.

As soon as Harley and Andrew returned to the room we vacated. It was so upsetting that they were in a rush to get us out of there...hell, from the way they all acted, they didn't want us there to begin with!! Oh just wait till I tell y'all about what happened at the resivior on Saturday!

I mean I should have expected it...I've never been accepted into the family and probably never will be...it's just sad that they made me and our children feel like such an outcast!

So I guess we will be remembered as the ones who had the kid who puked...I doubt any of them know our names even! (except Harley since he's named after a motorcycle!?)