The holiday weekend is finally here!
We have a house full of guests as I write this, and Dawn’s
currently cuddled with Mandy next to me in bed – both of them sound
asleep. Chris, Martin, and Jonathan are
awake and playing video games in the lounge; and Violet is still out somewhere
with Dillon, Jake, and Stephanie. The
parents and grandparents went to bed about half an hour ago; and I’m going to
call it a night as soon as I finish with this journal update.
I loved getting to spend almost the entire school day
outdoors. Not all of the tweens and
teens were as thrilled with the work as I was; but Rowen and I both had fun
with the Grade One girls we were assigned to work with. We spent most of our time at the cemetery;
splitting our time between planting flowers and flags, and helping with the
annual clean-up.
While we had fun, I can’t say the same for Michael. Vanessa hadn’t been overtly chasing after him
since Nora’s party, but she apparently decided to give it another try today when
she and Nora were paired up with Michael and Tim. They had some younger kids with their group
too, and Michael was not amused every time Vanessa tried to get up close and
personal with him while he was trying to work with – and entertain – the seven
and eight-year old kids. Vanessa wasn’t
happy either, which meant that Nora was annoyed; and Tim tried his very best to
pretend that he wasn’t spending the day in the tweeird zone.
Once the work was done, we were ‘unofficially’ set free to
find something to do for the last forty-five minutes or so of school. I think Rowen and I may have won the team
leaders of the day award when we decided that a side trip to the Emporium for
ice cream on the walk back to school from the cemetery was a good idea. There were quite a few Grade One kids
thinking that the girls with us had lucked out when we joined most of the kids
at the school playground after getting back to the school.
Rowen and I got to play after school too. Mom put us in charge of keeping Ethan and Ehlana
entertained while she was busy doing a few final jobs to get ready for the
weekend. We grabbed our bikes and the
trailer, and started our play time with a construction zone tour before going
to the park to play. The twins needed
some Emporium ice cream after hearing about our earlier visit there, so we did
that with them next; and took treats to the office for Dad, Aunt Leanne, and
Claire. Aunt Leanne had to eat two of
them because Claire had been set free to get an early start on her holiday
weekend after Lucas, Emma, and Benjamin were out of school.
Okay, according to Aunt Leanne, one ice cream was for her
and the other was for the baby. That was
cute, but not quite as funny as when Mom tried to convince everyone that the
twins really wanted her to eat pickles and ice cream. Just so you know, I did ask them about that
once after they were born. They were
good with the cookies and cream ice cream; but didn’t particularly appreciate
the pickles.
After leaving the office, we still had a little more time to
play, but we decided to hang out in the back yard instead of going anywhere
else. Mom and Dad were hosting dinner,
though we were just going with burgers, hot dogs, and a few cold side dishes so
that it wasn’t much work for anyone.
Grandma and Grandpa came over first, and Grandpa had a grill fired up
and ready to go by the time Dad and Aunt Leanne got home from work. Uncle Nick, Aunt Deborah, and Leah were next;
and Uncle Adam didn’t join us until shortly after we’d all started filling
plates due to a last, last, last minute minor medical emergency. Fortunately, the boy who fell off of the
playground fort roof was patched up with two butterfly bandages and an Emporium
ice cream cone coupon.
There was a lull in the action around our house between
dinnertime and when the Rice family rolled in at a bit before nine o’clock; and
the rest of the night has been the usual welcome home craziness. Grandma and Grandpa had stayed with us
because they didn’t have to wait at home for any guests this weekend, but Uncle
Adam, Aunt Leanne, Uncle Nick, Aunt Deborah, and Leah all went home after
dinner to wait for their own incoming family.
The McEwans are staying with Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne, and
though I haven’t been over there since they got here; Jonathan advised us that
the big story with their family this weekend is Tory and Kyle’s
engagement. There’s going to be yet
another family wedding next summer! The
half of the Johnson family cousins who are home too are split up between Uncle
Nick and Aunt Deborah’s, Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s, and Andrew and
Christine’s homes. Since Aunt Deborah’s
parents and brothers were here for the weekend after Leah was born; they’re
spending this weekend with the other side of their collective families.
While I’m thinking about babies, there’s a house full of
guests at Michael’s house this weekend too.
His grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins don’t normally come to Witch
Falls for this weekend; but he told us earlier in the week that they’re here
this weekend so that his grandma and grandpa can show off their first
great-grandchild to their home town friends.
With all of the extra work they always have on a long weekend; I’ll
guess that they’re in for a rather interesting weekend.
With a lot of rain in the forecast for the weekend again,
that may be the case for everyone in town, but maybe we’ll get lucky and have
the rain at night like we did last weekend.
Either way, Dawn and I will likely be recruited to help entertain Kara
this weekend, but she is six now; so that should be fairly easy for us even if
we’re stuck indoors a lot. Just in case
we do get to have our usual holiday fun – like the Saturday night campfire – I
should wrap this up and try to get some sleep.
Dawn’s managed to crash despite the gaming noise from the lounge; but
then she’s probably used to it after years of dealing with her brothers and
their buddies. At least they didn’t
arrange to get together with any of their Witch Falls
friends tonight too.
I guess that is all that I have for tonight, though, so...
...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor;
logging out!
