Happy 2nd Birthday, Valerie!
Weekend party day two began without Tai Chi
for the second day in a row; though that was mostly because we – the kids and
teens – needed the extra time to get ready for the day and packed. Kaitlyn, Ehlana, and I took the most time;
but I thought we did pretty well for getting through three showers; playing
with our hair; and getting appropriately beautiful for a Sunday morning
breakfast at a nice hotel restaurant.
The meal was a nice little break; and then
we were on the go again – taking Kaitlyn and Jayden home and having a little
visit with Uncle Blaine, Aunt Alison, Jaimie, and her friends before getting on
the road for Crystal Springs. We made it
to the Malloy’s house by eleven o’clock; and had time for a little visit with
them before the rest of their party guests began arriving shortly after
noon. Once again, Michael and I were on
kid control, but this time; it was a bit more work to keep up with Valerie and
a handful of other toddlers – especially since several of them were full-on
into the terrible-twos.
I am so glad that my little brother and
sister are Magi Masters and didn’t go through that stage – or if they did, it
was prenatally; and would have lasted for a couple of days before they
developed past that stage. I’m just
kidding, guys – I know you didn’t go through that; though it would be a funny
story if you had.
Speaking of pre-natal; Angela is into her
second trimester now; and glad to be mostly finished with the morning sickness
and other early-pregnancy annoyances.
Dealing with that, a toddler, and her job has apparently been
interesting; but she assured us that she didn’t throw up on anyone in her court
room or let her raging hormones get in the way of her verdicts – no matter how
tempted she was a few times to do just that.
She is pretty sure that one guy in a divorce case might have caved in on
a proposed support arrangement specifically because he was afraid of getting a worse
deal from Angela after finding out that she was pregnant from his attorneys.
Oh, and yes, Mom and baby are doing just
fine – Mom and I both checked.
This birthday party was definitely
toddler-rated for fun, and I’m so glad that Angela and Terry have a pool too –
we needed it just to help with keeping clean.
Whether the mess was due to the games or food didn’t really matter;
since all of the dirt I picked up was due to toddler-transfer. I’ll admit that Ethan and Ehlana had a
tougher time today because they’d needed to play their own age, and since they
aren’t much older than Valerie; that meant intentionally getting messier than
they normally would. Then they had to
wait around for Mom, Dad, Michael, or me to clean them up; since doing that on
their own would have been noticed by all of the parents and other adults too.
That was one thing that was exactly the
same as yesterday – the guests. The only
difference was that instead of having architects and socialites; we were
surrounded by lawyers, judges, engineers, and construction workers – along with
just a few socialites. Dad knew a lot of
Angela’s co-workers and friends, but while Mom had fun too; the shop talk wasn’t
nearly as interesting for her.
There was a social hour before lunch; Terry
and Angela had help with everything from the grilling to getting the side
dishes ready and tables set up in the back yard by the pool; and Michael and I
kept the kids entertained. Getting them
fed was a little scary – particularly the cake and ice cream dessert part of
the meal. Not all of the toddlers could
swim yet, but they were all stripped, wiped down, put into swimsuits, and
dunked in the pool. I’m still glad that
I dressed up this morning; but I also needed to use a little Magi-powered stain
removal on my shirt after getting home tonight to get the chocolate and
whatever else out of it before putting it in to the laundry with the rest of my
weekend clothes.
After that pool time break; there were
toddler games to play in the yard.
Prizes were available; and every kid won at least two or three times –
though some of the excuses for those wins needed to be fairly creative. The party started to wrap up at about the
same time that Valerie decided to pass out for a late-afternoon nap. We needed to hit the road by then, so we
packed up; left a goodbye video message for Valerie that Angela recorded for us
on her phone; and then we hit the road again.
We got home in time to unload the minivan;
put everything away; freshen up; and then head over to the Inn for the late
buffet. We met up with Grandma, Grandpa,
and our aunts and uncles – including Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace – and Michael
stayed with us for that too. He had the
night off because Monday is a normal day off for the family anyway; so this was
his get-out-of-work day instead. I loved
getting to end the weekend with that family and great food time; though the
cuddle time with Michael after we went home again was nice too.
Mom and Dad both had work to do after
dinner, so Michael and I watched a movie in the lounge with Ethan and Ehlana;
did the bedtime routine with them after that; and then Michael needed to leave –
though a birthday sleepover was tempting.
It’s a good thing that he did go home, though, because I still had a lot
of work to get done. Mom wrapped up her
night with a Magi lesson for me while Dad finished his work in the office. They went to bed after that; and I came up to
my room to multi-task some Jacuzzi time with my language and archives
studies. Once I was tucked into bed with
Mandy; it was time for the family business work; and the only reason it isn’t
five o’clock as I write this is because I used a little time-phasing both while
I was in the tub and here in bed.
The physical drain is about the same,
though, and I really want to be at full power for Michael’s birthday; so I’m going
to wrap this up and get some sleep.
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
