Things were not looking good for our play
day at school this morning. A
thunderstorm rolled into town not long after I went to bed; and it was still
raining when we got up for Tai Chi. We
exercised indoors; Michael stayed for breakfast; and then he went home to get
ready for school while I did the same here.
Fortunately, the rain started letting up by then, and though the school
yard was pretty wet by then, and we still had a bit of rain going on while
setting up for the games; it started clearing up just in time for the first
game rotation of the morning.
Michael and I helped Mom with loading the
van with her donations for the play day; and then we headed over to the school
with a quick stop to drop Ethan and Ehlana off with Grandma and Grandpa for the
morning while Mom was volunteering at the school. She was running the half-way point snack
station at the baseball diamond; and her donations included some of the drinks
and snacks they had available there. We dropped
off some of our donations at the school; picked up everything else for that
booth; and then went over to the ball diamond and unloaded everything before
Michael and I needed to get to home room.
There was way too much going on with all of
the games today to cover all of it here; so let’s just go with a few favorite
moments or stories. Tops on the list for
me was Rebecca and Lucas teaming up for the competition. I’m sure that they had fun playing together;
but they also won a lot of games too.
Michael and I did pretty well too, and so did Rowen and Tim; but nobody
in our class was particularly surprised by that anymore – not even for Rowen.
Playing on wet grass for the first couple
of hours until the yard was mostly dried out was occasionally damp, slippery,
and comically entertaining; but since a rain day would’ve meant a scaled-back
indoor event; nobody had a problem with that.
The contests were pretty much the same as every year, with just the
usual variations to things like the race courses or types of obstacles meant to
keep them from getting too boring for the older kids and teens. Having fun was the priority regardless of how
seriously any particular kids or teens took the challenges, and as I already
mentioned; Tim, Rowen, Michael, and I did pretty well today. Our class ranking, however, was fairly low,
and while I wouldn’t dream of mentioning any names; our quota of classmates
that were having more fun with the goofing off than the games was fairly high,
and left us out of the running for any overall team awards this year.
Maybe that’s just normal for the Grade Eight
classes as they are about to make the jump into High School. Let me check… nope; no apparent correlation
there – at least for the records during the years that I’ve lived here. Our class was actually closer to the bottom
for annual Grade Eight results.
With no homework or after-school part-time
jobs to go to for three out of four of us; keeping the play time going after
school was an option. Michael had some
time before he needed to be at the Inn too, and Ethan and Ehlana had written
their last college final exams for their freshman year this afternoon; so we
all biked over to the park for some trail riding and play time. Today, it was
the trail riding that was the most fun because we attempted to take Ethan and
Ehlana along with us for that with marginal success. Those kid and teen made trails in the woods
are not built for trailers, and while Ethan and Ehlana were game for trying to
get some air time off of the jumps; we all could do the math and knew that
wouldn’t end well without a little Magi-powered help that wasn’t an option.
Too bad – that would’ve been cool!
I mean no, Mom and Dad; we’d never try
anything so reckless and crazy! ;^)
Anyway, we did eventually come up with
routes on two trails that I could ride with the twins and the trailer without
any hang-ups; so we’ll likely take them along a little more often so that they
can do more than just the usual rides around town or out on River Road. Surprisingly, there wasn’t any football going
on at the park after school, so we wrapped up our play time there. Michael had to leave half-way through that to
get to the Inn, but Rowen and Tim stayed and eventually rode back with me so
that I had help with Ethan and Ehlana at both ends.
By the way, this will likely be their last
summer using the trailer. They’re pixies
like I was at three – and through to puberty; but it’s still getting a bit
crowded in there. Next year they’ll
likely be racing us out on those trails with their own little bikes.
While Rowen and Tim left to go and have
dinner after that, Rowen came back through to pick me up in time for our
baseball practice; and we headed over to the ball diamond for that with a
little extra time to warm up on our own.
Tim wasn’t with her, but he did get there a few minutes after our
practice started; football in hand and ready to toss it around with Lucas – and
with Michael when he joined them after finishing with the clean-up from the
dinner rush at the Inn. The last game
night before the summer break was warming up by then too; which is why Mom and
Dad were there with the twins instead of hanging out with them at the park on a
beautiful, sunny evening.
Baseball practice went well, but let’s get
to one of my favorite parts of the night – the after-practice swim with
Michael, Tim, and Rowen; followed by some alone time for Michael and me while
the rest of our families were at the Inn.
I’m sure that you’re not surprised that we picked doing that over
catching the tail end of an extended game night – even if it was the last one
until September. My parents, sister, and
brother certainly weren’t! Since we only
have a short day at school tomorrow, and it’ll be all party and no work;
Michael stayed to do the bedtime story and snack with Ethan and Ehlana; and
then for a Magi lesson with Mom and me.
That wasn’t quite as much fun as our play time in the lounge, but it was
pretty good; and our good night kiss on the front porch was definitely worth
remembering!
It’s a bit later than I expected it to be
for getting to this part of my night, and while all of the fun today was worth
putting in the extra hours for; I’m really tired out and ready to call it a
night. There are some things that I’ve
skipped – like not really seeing Violet much at all since breakfast while she
was busy with other things and spending the night at Dillon’s; but I want to
get fully charged up again because we tentatively have plans for a first night
of summer holidays camping and play adventure for tomorrow. Not all of the details are worked out yet,
and Michael and Tim were still waiting to hear back from Lucas on whether he
can join us too; but the weather’s supposed to be good and I have a feeling
that we’re going to really get this summer off to a great start!
With that happy thought in mind for when I
get to dream land; I’m out of here!
Until next time…
…Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the
Light!
