Rain put a damper on our day; but that didn’t
keep us from having fun.
Since I was at Rowen’s house, Tai Chi was
for one; her parents made pancakes and bacon for breakfast; and then Rowen and
I were on clean-up duty while her parents went to the store early and Patrick
and Scott moved on to Scot’s house for the rest of the day. Rowen joined her parents at the store once we
were ready to go too, and after I got home and did the quick update with Mom,
Dad, and the twins; it was time to get to work on the chores around the house. Not being able to work on outdoor chores
meant that Dad just changed up his schedule and worked in the office instead;
planning to work ahead on that and spend time on the chores whenever he can
next week – probably in the evenings.
Michael helped out at the Inn with the
breakfast and lunch shifts, so I didn’t see him until he stopped in to pick me
up when it was time to go over to his aunt and uncle’s house to help out with
Jessica’s birthday party.
Happy 11th Birthday, Jessica!
The party wasn’t starting until
mid-afternoon, but Michael and I helped his Aunt Sylvia out with the set up and
a bit of kid and tween control when she needed to do a run for a few extra
supplies. We helped out with everything
from decorating to making sure that the guest bedrooms were ready for Jessica’s
friends to use overnight; so that was a couple of very busy hours. While Jessica’s best friends, Lindsay and
Geraldine, had come over early to hang out with her; the rest of her ‘friends’
guests started arriving at three-thirty.
Not all of them could come then; and as usual for weekend parties; it
was mostly the farm kids that didn’t get to the house until after chores were
done for the day.
From that point on through until dinner,
Michael and I were split up while he mostly kept Ryan entertained and I was
busy hanging out with the girls. Our
afternoon entertainment mostly included a lot of girl chat and music videos;
though video gaming was an option that a couple of the girls chose; and I had
some Barbie play time with Sophia and a couple of Jessica’s friends too when
Sophia got bored with the non-action.
The talk time included lots of giggles and discussion of boys, and while
most of the girls haven’t crossed over yet, one or two probably have; and it’s
only a matter of time for the rest. I
was also more than a little entertained by the reaction some of Jessica’s
friends had anytime Michael was around us, and while he pretended not to
notice; it was obvious to me that he was aware of the girls that were crushing
on him today.
That had nothing to do with how often I
shared hugs and kisses with my boyfriend, but he didn’t have a problem with
those cameo moments; and Jessica and her friends mostly had fun teasing us
about it – even as they all thought it was romantic too.
Jessica’s Dad had been working all day, but
he left one of his teen employees in charge of the station for a couple of
hours and came home to get cleaned up for dinner before we all went over to the
Inn for the special meal that he and Sylvia had set up with Jacob and Miranda
for Jessica, her friends, and maybe half of their combined family. It’s maybe a bit surprising, but I still feel
surprised now and then by the close family relationships in our little town,
and while I’m used to thinking about Michael’s family being the Stones and
Bassetts; the other side of Jessica’s extended family is the Parkers. There wasn’t time for me to hang out with
everyone because Michael and I were kept busy with Jessica and her friends, and
with Ryan and Sophia; but it still felt weird to have classmates and other
members of the Parker family at a party for someone in Michael’s family. Joshua was there with his family and Sally,
and while we did have a little chat before sitting down for dinner; they sat
with other cousins and adults for the meal while Michael and I were busy with
kids and tweens at our table.
It was nice to be able to do that with
Michael, since he would have been helping out in the kitchen if his parents had
needed him; but our party group was about two-thirds of the entire late-dinner
crowd; so they hadn’t needed him to pitch in.
Jacob and Miranda didn’t do a buffet for the party, but there was
instead a special menu that only had a half-dozen options; including two kid
meal choices. That made it easier for Jacob
and his crew. That made short work of
the ordering process for the servers too; so it wasn’t long before pre-chosen
appetizers were delivered with drink orders; and the culinary part of our birthday
adventure began.
The meal was great; Michael and I had fun
with our dinner companions; and Jessica had an amazing birthday meal – with the
last point being the most important.
Most of the kids and teens were ready for dessert within a half hour or
so, and while the adults spent more time enjoying the food; Jessica bridged the
time-gap by opening her gifts; and then we wrapped up our time at the Inn with
the two-option cakes and four-option ice cream dessert once we’d all joined in
for the birthday song.
Michael and I went back to Jessica’s house
after that; I was again semi-chaperone with the girls; and Michael helped his
aunt with more work around the house. He
and Ryan played some video games too, but the work came first – and included
tough jobs like delivering snacks and drinks to a living room full of tween
girls and enduring the giggles and grins that followed him while on the
job. The movie marathon started about a
half hour after we got back to the house; and Jessica and her friends went with
the full-on tween romance and musicals for their marathon theme. While he didn’t hang out with us, Michael and
I still had a bit of fun with that during one of his delivery visits when we
joined in for the duet in-progress at the time in the movie and then wrapped
that bit of fun up with a kiss and hug that had the girls giggling, whistling,
and grinning at us.
The only thing that was missing from my
really good day was any alone time with Michael. As I expected, Ryan had started working on
Michael to get rescued from the horror that was a tween girl sleepover; and
Michael had agreed to that early – and they’d gotten permission from Sylvia for
it too long before we’d even gone out to dinner. Sophia only needed to give me the look and a
happy smile to get my invitation, and we knew by dinnertime that not only had
Mom approved her sleepover at our house, but Naomi had been added to the guest
list; and Ethan had been set up for a sleepover at Aiden’s so that he didn’t
have to be outnumbered four-to-one.
Michael and I stayed at the party until
Jessica’s Dad got home from the gas station, and then, while Ryan and Sophia
got ready to go; we helped out with getting the pizza snack part of the
sleepover snacks cooking and the first batch served before heading out with our
respective sleepover buddies. Ryan
pretended to gag and Sophia giggled at us when I kissed Michael goodnight and
we both wished that he was taking me home instead of Ryan; but then it was back
to girls-only fun for me for the rest of the night. It was heading toward eleven by then, so when
Sophia and I got home; Ehlana and Naomi were already changed and ready for bed –
though ‘bed’ tonight meant the sectional sofa in the lounge.
The three younger girls wanted to get right
to that, so they went on ahead without me so that I could have a little chat
with Mom and Dad before joining them upstairs; and they already had their movie
choice cued up by the time I got to the lounge.
I took care of the snack and drinks orders first; got changed; and then
Sophia and I cuddled at one end of the sofa while Ehlana and Naomi were
stretched out at the other end and middle of the sectional. Sophia had already been tired out by then,
and didn’t last through the first half of the movie, but I stayed cuddled with
her until the end of the show; and then tucked her into that end of the sofa;
kissed Ehlana and Naomi goodnight while they started another show that they
didn’t expect to stay awake for long to watch; and came into my room to snuggle
with one of my stuffies because Mandy decided to sleep with the three younger
girls instead.
I’ve only done my email check tonight
before getting to this report, and while I could do some work or studying; I’ve
had enough for the day now too; so that’s it for tonight, and, until next
time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
