What are these?! With pictures.

In my back yard a little while ago, the kids found these large and frightening things:

 

Is this one above some kind of wasp (all three pictures are of the same bug) and the one below a bee (again all pictures are of the same bee thing)? Hubby thinks they’re both bees and that the one below is a black bumble bee (I’d never heard of one before and looked it up . . . it’s possible, I suppose, but the wings look to big for a bumble bee IMO).

 

 

  Here they are together:

 

Strange . . . I’ve never seen them around here before but they freaked us out pretty good. They are BIG (you can see a bit of the chain link fence behind them for reference)! I didn’t want to get too close and don’t have a great zoom lens so sorry if the pictures aren’t the greatest.

Can anyone identify them?

Help on!