Happy 2nd Birthday, Leah!
Can you believe that it’s already been two
years since our first ‘hometown’ cousin was born? Okay, Leah isn’t technically our cousin, but
we did adopt Aunt Deborah shortly after she moved here; so it totally counts.
The birthday party part of our day didn’t
get started until shortly after lunchtime, and other than our Tai Chi workout,
which was indoors thanks to some untimely rain showers; we were busy all
morning with yard and house chores except for our short stops for breakfast and
lunch. While we had spurts of rain blow
through town a few times today; that didn’t really get in the way of the chores
this weekend. Dad and I did all of the
usual yard chores and also made sure that three canoes were cleaned up and
ready to use this afternoon in case Leah and her little friends wanted to go
for canoe rides. Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana
took care of most of the indoor chores, and they had more fun than Dad and I
did thanks to using a bit of Magi power here and there to get their work done.
After cleaning up from lunch, it was time
for some of us to hit the showers and get ready for Leah’s party. Her Grandma and Grandpa Ayres were hosting
the big event at their house – mostly because they have more space; and they’re
on the river too. Both features came in
handy today, with the extra space being needed during the afternoon rain; and
after dinner when we took kids for short canoe rides as part of the evening
entertainment.
Leah may only be two now, but she’s already
collecting quite a group of friends; and they were all at the party today –
along with most of their parents and some siblings. Add in other friends and all of the members
of Leah’s extended family that could make it to her party; and Grandma Ayres
had a full house for the afternoon and evening.
Grandpa Ayres was working at the store until closing for the weekend;
but he was home in time for the birthday cake, gifts, and the post-dinner play
time. Grandma and Grandpa Johnson came
here for the weekend too; though they were making a quick trip – driving here
this morning; and planning to head back tomorrow afternoon.
Mom, Dad, Ethan, Ehlana, and I walked over
to the Ayres’ house at about one-thirty, and we had time to help out with the
final stages of the party set-up before the first guests arrived. Ethan and Ehlana were happy campers because
they got to hang out with Naomi and Aiden for the rest of the day; and that was
another fun example of how closely-knit our families and friends are here. Naomi was at the party because Leah is her
cousin; and Aiden came along with Hailey because his little sister is already
Leah’s best friend. They’d needed to be
dropped off for the afternoon; but their parents did join the party after
closing the bakery for the day. Liz had
to work at the salon too; so she was another of the ‘business owner’ guests
joining the fun late – and getting to have dessert before dinner.
By the way, I don’t know for sure that
birthday cakes that are made for the best friends of Hannah’s kids are
extra-special, as claimed tonight; but the examples I’ve had so far for Leah,
Ethan, Ehlana, and Naomi have been awesome so maybe it’s true. I’ll continue to investigate and compare over
the next few years and let you know the results when I have them! ;^)
I was on kid control for most of the
day. That meant helping out with the
games; keeping the kids as happy as possible; and not losing any of them. Part three of that was probably harder than
it sounds; and it’s amazing how many different directions a small gang of one
to three-year old kids can go at the same time.
We should have called around and borrowed a couple of herd dogs to take
care of that for us. Don’t get me wrong –
I had a blast all day too; but it was also very busy and tiring fun.
It took about an hour and a half to get
through the organized games and award all of the prizes. After that, it was ‘free’ play time. That included some running around in the
rain, and for some strange reason; there weren’t very many adults interested in
doing that with us. They did have fun
laughing at the kids from the house or back porch – and at me as I tried to
keep up with all of the happy little rain dancers. Holding off on dinner until after all of the
stores closed for the day wasn’t an option with so many young kids, so we
started feeding them by shortly after five; and managed to keep most of them
busy through until all of the guests had arrived. The cake and ice cream dessert was served
then, accompanied by the birthday song for Leah, and after that messy blast of
fun; Leah opened all of her gifts. That
took a while, and some of the kids were already getting bored before she was
finished; so I joined the small team of paddlers and we started the mini canoe
trips. For that we had two teens or
adults in each canoe with two little kids.
We did loops down toward the falls and back again; and I did six trips
with twelve kids and three different paddle partners doing two trips each. The canoeing was one of the best parts of the
day for me; and I especially loved getting to spend some time doing that with
Hannah and Liz while they were helping me out with trips for their own kids.
There were more games in the back yard and
the adults had time for a long visit and chat while the kids played; but the
party started breaking up by dusk as kids finally tired out and were taken home
to bed. Ethan and Ehlana weren’t tired
out by then, but we did go home shortly after Michael caught up with me after
he was finished helping out at the Inn for the night. We helped out with the post-party clean-up;
got our canoes and gear home and put away; and did the full bath and bedtime
routine with Ethan and Ehlana while Mom and Dad went into the office to do a
bit of work before their own bedtime.
Once we had Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for
the night and happily playing with their iPads while waiting to be ready to
sleep; Michael and I came up to the lounge to watch a movie. We actually watched most of it, but also took
advantage of the alone time for a minor make-out session. Getting to do that two nights in a row has
been great, but while we considered shooting for another ‘accidental’ sofa
sleepover; we decided not to push our luck and save them up for better
occasions.
Michael went home at midnight, since we do
have church in the morning; and he’s going to have a long day after that at the
Inn. I don’t have any plans for
tomorrow, though if the weather cooperates; a cone trip with Mom, Dad, and the
twins might be fun. I’m ready for some
down time now, though; so let’s get this wrapped up so I can do that. After I finished up with the goodnight hugs
and kisses on the front porch with Michael; I came up to my room, got ready for
bed, and snuggled in with Mandy and my computer. I was only going to do the basic checks
tonight, but there was a little job waiting for me in my inbox; so I took care
of that too. I had a couple of college
student email tonight too, and though I haven’t done any college updates in a
while; the only news from those email was that they’re busy getting ready for
final exams this weekend – and they’ll be doing that from now through to when
those exams begin. That’s a week from
Monday for most of them; which also means we’re only a couple of weeks away
from them getting home for the summer!
I can hardly wait to see Violet, Dillon,
Stephanie, Jake, and everyone else!
Okay, I guess that’s it for the news today,
and though I’ve skipped a lot of the fun little details; I’m sure you’ll find
all of that and more in the journal Aunt Deborah is doing for Leah until she’s
old enough to do it herself; so you can always jump over to that archive if you’re
interested in hearing more about that part of my day from a different
perspective. For me, it’s really time to
crash for a handful of hours; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
