For the second day in a row, I’ll start
with cheerleading as the top story; though our camping adventure at Michael’s
has been the most fun.
Rowen and I started our cheerleader
training this morning while the boys were at the park with their
football-playing buddies. We did that in
the exercise room after everyone else was gone for the morning; starting with a
little Magi-powered memory and data transfer using a full-sensory telepathic
and empathic link. We then went on to
practice some of the cheers that the squad did last season; and then wrapped up
in time to meet up with the boys and go for a swim before Michael, Rowen, and
Tim all needed to move on to other jobs or chores.
I spent a second morning in a row doing
chores and some family business work at home; had lunch with Mom, Violet,
Dillon, and the twins; and then spent the afternoon with Ethan and Ehlana again
too. That wasn’t much different from
yesterday either; except that we spent some time at Michael’s house during his
break setting up tents for our camping adventure. Ethan, Ehlana, and I were home for dinner;
hauled our overnight bags and camping gear to Michael’s on our way to my
baseball practice; and Jessica Bassett and Lindsay Faulkner helped out with kid
control while I was playing with my friends – and the boys were having their
football scrimmage.
Our baseball practice went fairly well, and
we’re motivated because we really do need our last regular-season game
win. The boys had a fairly strenuous
scrimmage, so we were all ready for a swim by the time we were done at the
park. Since we had a pretty large group
of kids around us by then, we did that swim back at Michael’s place; and found
out that our camping adventure had grown a bit while we were busy. We knew that we had our usual full group this
afternoon when we set up the tents, but Jessica and Lindsay wanted to invite
Geraldine Sheldon; her older brother, Jimmy, was then included too, and since
their mothers had been hanging out together at the time of the invite; Jeremy,
Madison, and Seth Green were all invited too. Jeremy is a friend and classmate of Ryan’s,
and Seth will be a classmate with Ethan and Ehlana, so that worked out for
them. Madison was added so that she
wouldn’t be left out of the fun; though we don’t have any other five-year olds
with us. She didn’t mind; and is having
a blast bunking with Rebecca and Sophia tonight.
As mentioned, we started our camping
adventure with a cool-down swim; played in the back yard for a while; and then
started our campfire after Jacob and Miranda got home. They joined us for the start of that, and
Jake, Stephanie, Violet, and Dillon stopped in for a visit too – though they
then moved on to hang out with some friends so that they could get one last
visit together before most of them headed off to college on the weekend. Jacob and Michael handled the guitar playing
for us, and while Michael and I did sing some harmonies for the campfire songs;
we did not do any duets tonight. Jake,
Rebecca, and Tim took turns with the mildly-scary but kid-rated campfire
stories; and Rowen and I were mostly the senior snack coordinators. Sounds important, but really just meant that
we put the marshmallows on the sticks for the younger kids and made sure that
they didn’t accidentally stab anyone with them – the sticks or flaming marshmallows.
By the way – maybe we should do a long-term
study to find out if the kids that prefer charcoal-black marshmallows or
barely-toasted ones grow up to like similarly-cooked meats as adults. If that has you wondering about my tastes, I’m
definitely right in the middle – I don’t like burned at all; but also don’t
want my food raw enough to moo, oink, or cluck either. That might not sound cool as hyphenated
selections at a restaurant, but medium is an option that I’m not afraid to
request.
Moving along, the campfire was the most fun
of the day, but as usual; we also kept to a time limit. Rebecca, Lucas, Michael, and I took care of
getting the younger kids ready for bed at eleven while Rowen and Tim supervised
the older kids around the campfire for another half-hour. The campfire was doused at eleven-thirty – at
the same time we had all of the five-and-unders tucked into sleeping bags. One more swim was an option for everyone
else; and Michael and I were in on that – and supervised the swim while Rebecca
and Lucas and Rowen and Tim took breaks and went to find places where they
could have some alone time without brothers, sisters, or younger kids around.
Though he’s in the middle between Michael
and Tim, and Patrick and Scott, Jimmy mostly hung out with the two younger
boys. That was likely because he felt a
bit weird about Michael and Tim always being with Rowen and me, and that’s
fine; but I do want to mention that Emma and Kylie both seemed to be quite
happy to have Jimmy there – even though he wasn’t looking at them the same way
they were looking at him. They’ll all be
going into Grade Seven together this year, but he’s one of the youngest in
their class, and even if he has crossed over already; Jimmy’s also one of the
smaller boys their age too. That is a
big deal for guys during that stage when they’re significantly shorter than the
girls; so Emma and her friends should not be surprised if it’s another year or
two before Jimmy gets interested in the dating game at all.
Then again, I might have said the same thing
about Michael a couple of years ago – and would’ve been wrong. ;^)
After our swim, most of us got ready for
bed and took turns using the washrooms; but then we sat out around the tents
and talked for quite a while – or goofed around; since Ryan and Jeremy spent
some quality time trying to impress the older boys – and were egged on in their
efforts to do that by a few of those older guys. As seems to be the norm, Michael and I stayed
up until all of the younger kids were in their tents for the night. Rebecca and Lucas made it back to the
campground a good twenty minutes before Rowen and Tim did; and we all called it
a night at a bit after one. Rowen and I
have been chatting since then while I did my nightly computing; but she’s
dozing off now and I’m ready to call it a night too. Michael and I will be up early for Tai Chi
with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden; and then the boys will be off to their
football workout while Rebecca, Rowen, and I handle kid control – and probably
the start of camp tear-down.
While we don’t have any major plans this
weekend, it is going to be busy with the going away dinner and whatever night
for Violet and Dillon tomorrow; their leaving on Saturday; and a busy buffet
shift on Sunday at the Inn – not to mention that Dad will be getting ready for
his week in the city and have lots of work to do with that too. I hope we’ll still manage to have some fun
here and there with all of the work, and some alone time with Michael would be
nice too; but we’ll see how it goes. For
right now, though, I’m just ready for some quality napping; so, until next
time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of
the Light!
