And I was like "I'm a big girl. I'll figure out what they are!" Yeah, no. I thought they were winter ants... mostly because of the gasters on the workers and their size and I even made a video about it. (which I have taken down) since I started thinking about it and ... I don't think that's what they are. I'm going to do the flow chart from the "ants of new england" book (again) but let's be real... I can't tell ants apart.
Maybe someone here can help. Here are the photos.

They are so small. Smaller than my positively ID'd lasius neoniger ants. The whole colony in the above photo can easily fit under a quarter.
Closer view of the queen:

Closer view of the worker eye:

Good photo to count segments in the antene. There are 9... if I'm counting correctly.

