Happy 6th Birthday, Ryan!
The tail end of the rain moving through the area was still
wagging a bit when it was time for Tai Chi this morning; so we exercised
indoors; and then Michael joined us for breakfast. Sunshine was making an appearance by the time
he went home again, and while Dad was at work and Mom was again helping Uncle
Mark and Aunt Grace; Rowen came over and we spent the morning taking care of
Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden. Violet
worked in the office all morning, and Alicia did her usual work around the
house while supervising us – when we were around the house.
Rowen and I took our little gang for a walk and shopping to
get the gift I needed for Ryan’s birthday party; we visited the falls; stopped
in to see Dad and Aunt Leanne; and picked up ice cream for our midmorning
snack. That was followed up with a short
playground visit to the park before we went home to go swimming. Mom came home in time to do another big lunch
for the moving crew family and friends, but Rowen went to work at the store and
have lunch with her parents while I met up with Michael at the Bassett’s house
to help out with Ryan’s party.
Everyone in Michael’s family stopped in for at least a
little visit during Ryan’s party, but he was the only one there during the
barbeque lunch that his Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Bill were putting on for Ryan and
his friends; and quite a few members of both sides of their family. Michael was already helping out with getting
everything ready for lunch, so I joined the crew; and soon had a junior
assistant when Jessica became my shadow for quite of bit of the time Michael
and I were there.
Food choices for a bunch of five and six-year old boys isn’t
particularly tough when the goals of the meal don’t include nutritional
concerns. Hot dogs, snacks, birthday
cake, and ice cream kept them happy; so the rest of the food was mostly for the
older kids, teens, and adults. When it
was time to eat, we sat with Jessica, Sophia, and the other kids that weren’t
part of Ryan’s group of friends and classmates; helping with getting them fed
and keeping them entertained.
It was different being there for a party with Michael’s
family as his girlfriend, and we were teased a bit about that just as we are
with my family; but we both really enjoyed the afternoon of fun and excitement
– even with doing a fair bit of work too.
We helped with the post-lunch clean-up; supervised the party games after
that; and were two of the supervisors for a swim in the river. My last minute birthday gift purchase wasn’t
likely on Ryan’s best gift this year list; but he and his friends did have fun
playing with the motorized toy boat while we swam. They also thought that it was very funny to
send it motoring downriver so that Michael or one of the other older boys would
have to swim, chase it down, and send it back upriver again.
While we spent most of our play time with the younger kids,
it was fun getting to hang out with Rebecca, Erica, and some of the other older
cousins and teens too when they stopped in to see Ryan. Most of the teens had summer jobs, so none of
them stayed for more than an hour before getting back to work again; but Ryan
was too busy with his buddies to really notice much except for the extra
birthday gifts that came with those cameo visits.
The party started wrapping up at four o’clock, and Michael
headed for the Inn to help out with the
impending dinner rush while I went home to help Mom with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi,
and Aiden. With Uncle Mark and Aunt
Grace in their home, and their moving helpers mostly taking the night off; we
didn’t have extra guests for dinner.
Having their co-ed baseball practice tonight may have had something to
do with that decision too, but after a busy afternoon; I was glad to have a
little break in the action while we had a quiet dinner for eight out on the
back porch.
Rowen came over in time to help me with Ethan, Ehlana,
Naomi, and Aiden while Mom and Dad were playing baseball with their
friends. We added Jessica and Sophia
Bassett on our way to the park; and had Emma Norton help us with kid control at
the playground when she came into town with her parents. That was another toddler-rated blast of fun
that kept us busy until it was time to go home again after the Fix-it Uppers
practice ended.
The Seagers were far enough along in their move-in to spend
the night in their new house, so Naomi went home from the park; but Aiden was
spending a second night with Ethan. That
was the main reason why we ended up dropping Jessica off at home and picking up
an overnight bag for Sophia so that she could be Ehlana’s sleepover buddy. Since Ryan was having a sleepover with a
couple of his buddies too; Sylvia didn’t have a problem with letting her baby
spend the night with us instead.
When we finally got home, we all went for a swim – including
Mom, Dad, and Violet. Michael came over
and joined us for that shortly after we’d jumped into the river; and then he
helped out with the toddler bedtime action.
Once Aiden, Sophia, and the twins were tucked in for the night, Michael,
Rowen, and I went for a walk down to the falls.
Rowen had tried to go home instead, but we didn’t let her do that this
time. As we expected, there were some
other tweens and teens hanging out there, and we all had fun hanging out with
some kids our own age for a while.
That was partly because we hadn’t expected Nora or Vanessa
to be there when they had probably spent the entire day getting ready for
Vanessa’s party tomorrow; and they weren’t there. Neither was Tim, but Michael didn’t know whether
he was busy with Nora tonight or doing something else. There was still some guys there in goof mode,
but Michael didn’t join in for any of that action; and what was going on was
fairly tame compared to what we’d all put up with while Chris, Martin, Jonathan,
and their buddies were hanging out together.
We only stayed at the falls for three-quarters of an hour
before wandering toward home again.
Rowen needed to be convinced to go for another swim with us, but then
she only stayed in the river with us for about ten minutes before making a
well-timed escape and leaving Michael and I alone to finish our swim. Since that was fun, and so was the chat time
on the dock after we got out of the water too; I’ll have to thank Rowen – even
if I wish that she didn’t feel uncomfortable sometimes when it’s just the three
of us together.
Moonlit goodnight kisses by the river are still setting off
special fireworks for us, but we didn’t really spend much time doing that
before Michael walked home across the back yards and I went inside to have a
little visit with Mom and Dad in the office on my way up to my room. I’ve mostly been working on the family
business since getting ready for bed and sitting down in the window alcove with
my computer, and it’s now after one-thirty, but with riding lessons, baseball,
and more babysitting to do tomorrow; doing that work late at night is really
the only time I have right now to do that.
Maybe next week I can get back onto a better work schedule, but
something always seems to come up; so we’ll see what happens.
For now, though, I’ve had enough fun for the day, and don’t
have any other news to report, so...
...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor;
logging out!
