Happy 7th Birthday, Ryan!
I need to begin this update with the
admission that Ryan Bassett’s big day wasn’t something I was really thinking
about at all before this morning – at least from the perspective of it
affecting what I was going to be doing today and tonight. To be fair, Michael didn’t know that his
plans were going to change either, but he is a softie; and that’s one of the
reasons why I love him. When Ryan wanted
him to stay for his birthday camping night; Michael couldn’t say no. That’s why Tim is hanging out at the Bassett’s
house tonight too, and while that’s meant that we didn’t have our boys with us
tonight; we still managed to have a fair bit of fun with them anyway.
I’ll get to that part of the story in a bit
and back up to the beginning.
The weather has been awesome this week, and
the last couple of days have been an especially nice combination of hot and
sunny without climbing into the realms of scorching hot. That’s worked out great for Tai Chi; we had
breakfast on the back porch this morning; and football workouts are much nicer
when there aren’t three numbers to the left of the decimal on the
thermometer. Rowen came over to our
house before we met up with Michael and Tim at the park, so we were able to let
Ethan and Ehlana have some Magi healing play time with her that included
working on the sprained wrist and speeding up the cuts and bruises healing too.
Rowen wants to trade them for Patrick; but
Mom, Dad, and I really want to keep Ethan and Ehlana so she’ll just have to
keep looking for someone who will make that trade with her. Maybe she should ask Jessica and Sophia if
they’d trade Patrick for Ryan. They were
certainly happy to escape their house and come camping with us – though that
probably had more to do with the fact that Ryan had all of the other boys in
his class and a couple of other friends all there with him. That kind of gang of six-to-eight-year old
boys can scare any girl – including the Moms!
By the time we went to the park for
football training, Michael knew that he’d been drafted to help out with Ryan’s
party, and while that got him out of the dinner shift at the Inn; keeping up
with Ryan and his buddies was the tougher job for sure. Our football fun is attracting some attention
and early morning spectators now; and Tim’s hoping that some other guys will
join in soon – though Kyle’s doing workouts with some of the senior football
players too while getting ready for his college training camp. Tim hasn’t really said exactly why he isn’t
doing that too; but it probably has more to do with when Kyle is doing his
workouts around his summer job work with his father and uncle at the shop.
Or maybe he just can’t keep up when Lee and
Kyle are bench-pressing farm equipment at lunchtime! ;^)
Moving along, we followed up our football
practice with a swim, and then set up our campground – even though Michael and
Tim weren’t going to be doing that with us.
That was because we weren’t going to be able to do that in the afternoon
while Michael and I were helping out with the party and camping set-up at the
Bassett’s house. Michael needed to get
over to the Inn before we were done doing that; but we did have the tents set
up by the time Rowen and Tim left to have lunch at his house. I had a picnic lunch with Ethan and Ehlana by
the river that included going for a swim while Mom and Alicia both took a
break; and then they were all off to the lab for the afternoon while I went
over to the Bassett’s house and started helping out with the work there – while
also keeping Jessica and Sophia entertained.
Ryan was already busy with his best friend; and they stayed close to
Michael once he joined us – at least until the rest of his friends started to
arrive for the party.
By then, we had the tables and chairs set
up; games ready to go; the tents up; and the campfire set along with a small
stock of wood that would be enough to keep it going for a couple of hours. Rowen and Tim had stopped by and helped out
with some of that work, and we all took a swim break or two mostly as we got
the different jobs done; so we had a pretty good afternoon even with all of the
work. Michael and Tim ended up leading
the game-playing while Rowen and I helped Sylvia and the rest of her cooking
crew with everything from making salads to keeping the snacks and drinks
flowing from the kitchen to the ravenous group of boys in the back yard.
Dinner was a two-hour long event that
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I didn’t catch all of because of our baseball and
football practices at the park. Michael
and Tim actually sat down to eat with Ryan and his buddies; but Rowen and I
sort of just ate on the fly while we kept helping out with the work. We were there for the gift opening and
birthday cake action, though; and that was a lot of fun. Michael and I hit a home run with the gift
Michael picked out for Ryan, and though it wasn’t his ‘best’ gift; it was one
of his favorites. The second-half of
that dinner marathon was mostly for the parents and volunteers to eat after the
kids were fed, and while Michael and I couldn’t be there; Sylvia had Erica,
Caleb, and some other teens available to keep the play time and games going for
Ryan and his buddies. Rowen and I did
take Jessica and Sophia with us to the park; but they mostly hung out at the
playground with some friends while we were busy – including with Ethan, Ehlana,
Naomi, and Aiden when Mom, Aunt Leanne, and Uncle Adam brought them over to
play for a while too while Dad was busy working in the office.
With our game coming up on Saturday, our
practice was fairly serious; and I think we’re as ready as we can be for the
fourth game in our short season. We don’t
take the game as seriously with Claire as our coach as we do with Sarah; though
I’d say that’s more because of Carolyn than her mother for that one year in
three that I get to play on their team.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t still like to win just as much as always –
it just means that we have fun first and then hopefully play well-enough to win
too.
Michael, Tim, and Lucas had fun with their
football scrimmage, and in addition to having a lot of the same guys coming out
again this week; they’re getting some interest in the daily football training
too. Lucas gets to stay for that in the
morning; and there may be an extra guy or two joining in – if they can get up
early enough for that. After keeping up
with a gang of seven-year old boys today; Michael and Tim might not get there on
time.
Not that hanging out with their girlfriends
after the boys were sleeping would have anything to do with why they might be
tired out! ;^)
After baseball practice, some of us were
ready for a swim, but Michael went straight back to Ryan’s party while the rest
of us went back to my place. Tim went to
help Michael too, but he went swimming with the rest of us first and got
changed before doing that. While I wasn’t
there for it, the gaming was winding down by then and the boys took some time
to pick tent mates and get ready for their camping fun before the campfire was
started as it got dark out.
We had to do some camping gear organizing
then too, but we didn’t have a campfire at our campground – we launched a raid
on Ryan’s campfire instead. He and his
friends made a big deal of how awful that was to have a bunch of girls around,
but they didn’t mind sharing the snacks and drinks we brought along; the
campfire music that I helped Michael with; or the scary stories that Lucas and
Rebecca helped Michael and Tim with.
That was a fun hour and a half or so of action, and then Rowen and I took
all of our junior campers back to our tents and got them changed; ready for
bed; and tucked in for the night.
Rebecca and Lucas stayed to help Michael, Tim, and Ryan’s parents with
putting out the fire and getting the boys settled down for the night, but Emma
and Kylie came back with Rowen and me and went for a swim before getting ready
for bed too. They stayed up and joined
in for the chat with Rowen and me after Rebecca and Lucas joined us again; but
all was nearly quiet at both campgrounds when Rowen decided that I should sneak
down to the Bassett’s house and trade places with Tim for a while before we all
went to bed.
I didn’t have a problem with that
suggestion; and Michael and I had fun with our little moonlight swim and some
cuddle time by the river for nearly an hour until I decided that Tim and I
needed to switch back again so that we could all get some sleep. We had fun with that, but I won’t classify
that little bit of play time as very romantic; since we did get ‘caught’ by
Ryan and his tent buddies. We had to
chase them back into their tent a couple of times; but then they stayed there
after I started to threaten them with goodnight hugs and kisses too. After that, I think that they blockaded their
tent with their camping gear.
It was after one by the time I said
goodnight to Michael; met up with Rowen; and sent Tim on his way again. Rebecca and Lucas had still been awake then
too; but the four of us turned in after that – with Lucas taking Michael and
Tim’s normal spot with Ethan and Aiden.
Rowen and I have needed some girl chat time that included some talk
about coming up with some more frequent alone time for Michael and me along
with a recap of some of the highlights for each of us from today. I was doing my usual nightly computing while
doing that, and then Ehlana and Naomi woke up and wanted to make a bathroom
run; so we all did that and had a bit more chat time while they had a little
drink and snack before falling asleep again.
Rowen’s dozing off now too, and we need to be up early; so I’d better
just wrap this up and get started on that nap time.
The big teen fun around town for our
soon-to-be Grade Nine class on Friday is going to be Vanessa’s fourteenth
birthday party, but while we’re not on her enemies list anymore; Rowen and I –
and Michael and Tim – are not on the guest list. In a small group, that does make us the
overwhelming majority of classmates not going to the party; but I don’t
actually have a problem with that. The
days of inviting everyone to every party are likely numbered now that we’re all
teens anyway – particularly as we start having more ‘interest group’ friends
like we all will in high school. I
wouldn’t say that we get nuts about that like you see in big high schools; but
we do all still spend more time with people who like the same things.
With three baseball games on Saturday, I’m
just as happy to get some of my yard work done early; and then I’m planning on
spending some play time with my family for a change after we’ve all had a busy
week and not really done much as a group.
Writing and thinking about that isn’t getting me any sleep time, though,
so that’s it for tonight; and, until next time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of
the Light!
