Happy 9th Birthday, Jaimie!
My first thought with that is: wow! – I was
her age when Mom and I came to Witch Falls.
That seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago at the same time!
Jaimie was thrilled that we came to spend
the day with her. Uncle Mark and Aunt
Grace were there too; but they drove down after work yesterday and are spending
the entire weekend in Granite Park. We
left early this morning so that we could be there by mid-morning and spend the
extra time with our family before the party started in the afternoon and we had
to share them with the other party guests of all ages – including some of Aunt
Alison’s family. The trip was mostly
uneventful, and other than a stop for breakfast at a roadside diner; we didn’t have
any delays at all on the roads.
Michael and I were on kid control pretty
much from the time we got to Uncle Blaine and Aunt Alison’s house while Mom and
Dad joined the work crew and helped with getting everything ready for Jaimie’s
party. We had a light lunch together at
noon; and then Jaimie’s guests began arriving by one o’clock. Kid control got a bit more adventurous for
Michael and me then – not to mention a little weird for Michael. He had two of Jaimie’s friends madly crushing
on him within about two minutes of meeting him.
Kaitlyn and Jayden thought all of that goofiness from Jaimie’s friends
was weird too, but Uncle Blaine and Ad thought it was funny and entertaining;
and Aunt Alison and Mom thought that it was sweet – and entertaining. I’ll personally have to admit that those
little scenes were a bit of all of the above for me. I had fun, and Jaimie’s friends all liked me
too; but that was despite being ‘the girlfriend’ for those two love-struck
friends. They really tried their very
best not to like me.
Anyway, to keep the story moving along, we
basically had a pool party all afternoon.
In addition to Jaimie’s friends, she had a fairly large family and adult
friends turnout too; though quite a few of those guests were stop and go
visits. Aunt Alison’s family and a few
of their best friends stayed for the pizza dinner too; but the rest of the
guests mostly only stayed for an hour or less – unless they had kids along who
went for a swim too while they were there.
As I mentioned already, Michael and I were on kid control. During the afternoon, that mostly meant
keeping Kaitlyn, Jayden, Ethan, and Ehlana entertained, busy, and mostly out of
the way so that Jaimie could have fun with her friends. Mixing that job with Jaimie’s co-interest in
hanging out with Michael and me didn’t always work out; but that’s when the
parents jumped in and we switched from junior kid control to cool teen
entertainers for the older girls.
While I’m still thinking about Jaimie’s
friends, I wanted to mention that Aunt Grace was very popular with them; and
Jaimie’s best friends are really close with her from all of the time they spent
together when Aunt Grace still lived in Granite Park. They were very excited about her advanced
stage of pregnancy; and were even willing to feel and listen to her
stomach. They like Uncle Mark too, and
think that it’s cool that Jaimie’s aunt married a doctor; but there weren’t any
crushes on him that I noticed. Maybe
that’s because he and Dad get compared to Uncle Blaine. None of the girls made it obvious; but I’d
say that all of Jaimie’s friends have had a crush on her father – and still do.
They’ve got great taste; but that’s still
more than a bit strange for any daughter to deal with. If you don’t believe me on that; ask Rebecca
about it sometime – or Jake’s daughters; if he and Stephanie have any girls in
the future.
That got off-track a bit. The swimming and play time was great this
afternoon; and I especially loved the pizza party dinner. I don’t really miss city life at all; but
good take-out pizza is something I could get used to having at home fairly
easily. It also reminded me of my first
birthday party in Witch Falls; though I’m sure that dinner choice was just a
coincidence – pizza is Jaimie’s favorite take-out option. The pizza meal was followed by the usual cake
and ice cream dessert, and while birthday gifts weren’t that much different
from home for nine-year old girls; there was one tiny little exception. Jaimie’s top gift was a new iPhone that almost-literally
had her girlfriends drooling.
Of course, they also thought that it was
nuts that Michael and I didn’t have cell phones at all; but I’m pretty much
used to that reaction from my cousins’ friends now.
After dinner, it was movie night time; so
we piled into cars, minivans, and SUV’s for the hop over to the movie
theater. Michael and I did have the
option to go and see something else, but we wouldn’t have done that to Jaimie;
and we had as much fun as everyone else did watching Dolphin Tale 2. The movie was okay; and the fun time with our
family was really great – especially since our rare visits to a movie theater
are a big deal for Ethan and Ehlana.
Jaimie’s friends found that just as amusing as Dawn’s friends did when
they met me, and while I really do like going to see movies on a big screen; I
wouldn’t trade that for what we do have back home.
Take-out pizza would be nice, though! ;^)
I skipped over the news that Mom ran over
to our hotel this afternoon to get us checked in, but she did that while on an
errand run with Aunt Grace anyway; so it wasn’t really news. That did make the hotel end of our night
easier; and that ended up being a really good thing when we added to sleepover
guests to our plans at the last minute.
Jayden practically begged Mom and Dad to let him stay the night with
Ethan so he didn’t have to be in a house full of girl germs. That was apparently a concept he’s picked up
from his little play buddies – and they apparently learn these things young in
the city. I’m sure that you can guess
the approval for his addition to our group led directly to having Kaitlyn come
and spend the night with Ehlana and me in our room too – though that was a
slightly tougher decision for her when it meant picking the hotel adventure
over doing the sleepover with Jaimie and the older girls. It was actually a not-so-nice comment from
one of Jaimie’s friends that tipped the scale; but let’s not go there. It was one tiny blip in an otherwise great
day for Kaitlyn; and the girl probably didn’t even realize she’d hurt Kaitlyn’s
feelings.
That did mean going back to the house so
that Kaitlyn and Jayden could pack overnight bags; so we went for a quick
bedtime swim with Jaimie and her friends too.
We headed to the hotel right after that; went to our rooms; and Michael
and I were kept busy getting our roommates ready for bed. Mom and Dad stopped in to say goodnight to
all of us when we then got together in our room – the ‘girls’ room’; but then
they were kid-free for the rest of the night.
Use your imagination – I don’t plan on
doing that; or writing any more about what my parents spent the rest of the
night doing. Okay, only most of the rest
of the night; but that’s already too much information!
We were all together in this room because
the boys came over to watch a movie with us.
Yes, it was getting late, but you can’t just go off to sleep right away
while on a hotel adventure! That’d be a
total waste – not to mention that Michael and I were okay with a little cuddle
time while we watched a Disney movie that was toddler-rated. Jayden didn’t last long before passing out;
but Kaitlyn, Ethan, and Ehlana watched the entire show before Michael and I
took Jayden and Ethan over to the other room; we only took time for a quick
goodnight hug and kiss by the door; and then I wrapped up my day with some girl
chat time with Kaitlyn and Ehlana until they fell asleep.
I needed to wait until Kaitlyn was out for
the count before starting my nightly computing, and though I wasn’t doing the
full study and work thing; there were still some things that I needed to get
done.
There isn’t a lot of news from that to
write bout here, but I did have an email from Violet with a report on her play
day with Dillon and some friends. They
went to their first Kansas State football game; and got to cheer their team on
to a big fifty-eight to twenty-eight win.
After looking up the stats on the game; it wasn’t as close as even that
score suggested – though I had Violet’s details already to know that Kansas
State had coasted to the end instead of going all out and embarrassing their
opponent. In the world of college
football, that seems to be getting very rare when teams worry more about
rankings than good sportsmanship. I won’t
say that they did a great job of that, since the score was really ugly already
before they let up and started kicking field goals; but let’s give credit where
it’s deserved.
While we’re on football anyway, I’d better
report that Kyle’s team lost another game this week; though Tim would have to
wait until Monday to razz me about it if I didn’t have that as my top chat
topic before church or at Sunday school.
Kyle is still doing pretty well; but it’s also a safe bet that he won’t
have to worry about winning any national championships or bowl games with his
team this season. Let’s face it – they’re
lucky to have a player like him on the roster; and that really is because Kyle
wanted to play for his father’s college more than anything else he could have
done with a top team.
I don’t really want to talk football
anymore, though, and it’s getting late; so I’m going to wrap this up now. We’ll be up early for breakfast – especially since
we now need to drop Kaitlyn and Jayden off at home before heading for Crystal
Springs. We’re also going to miss going
to church for a rare Sunday; but there just isn’t time to get to the Malloy’s
house in time for the lunchtime birthday party if we stay and go to church in
Granite Park. We are going to have a
long day, though, so I’m going to put my computer to bed; cuddle with Ehlana; and
get started on my nap. Until next
time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
