We’re having a babysitting sleepover, a
babysitting sleepover, a babysitting sleepover!
Yes, I have watched too many Sofia the
First episodes with my brother, sister, cousins, and their friends; though we
didn’t actually watch that ‘royal sleepover’ episode tonight because the kids
wanted to watch Halloween shows. The ‘ghostly
gala’ episode was one of the picks; but that song didn’t work as well for my
opening line. ;^)
The babysitting wasn’t totally last minute,
but the plan started small this morning and grew larger as the day went
along. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I ended
up with the twins, Zack and Brianna, Naomi and Eli, Aiden and Hailey, Sophia,
and Leah for the night while our parents went out to play at the fall festival
country dance tonight. We did some
babysitting earlier in the afternoon and evening at the festival too; but that
was more along the lines of helping out with kid control so that the adults in
the family could have some fun that wasn’t restricted to puppet shows and
kiddie rides.
I should back up to the start of the day
and go from there; or I’ll just end up jumping around while trying to cover all
of the news.
Michael was working at the Inn this
morning, so he missed Tai Chi by the river.
Brianna was up by then, though, so Mom won the non-contest and skipped
Tai Chi too – though she and Brianna did watch some of our work-out from the
sunroom while having a warm bottle and cup of coffee respectively. Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne didn’t sleep in as
long as they could have; and they came over to have breakfast with us – getting
here shortly before Mom and Dad had the food ready to go. That was a fun hour or so of food and entertainment
while we exchanged stories from Friday.
I’m sure that Mom and Aunt Leanne had other stories to share later; but
the kid-rated version just had my aunt and uncle going to bed shortly after
getting home from dropping Zack and Brianna off at our house and then doing
nothing at all until morning.
Their smiles told a different story; but
let’s not go there.
I was on the clean-up crew after breakfast;
we took our time getting ready for the day; and eventually bundled up and
headed for the park and a day at the festival.
We started out with a walk through all of the exhibit tents; Michael met
up with us while we were doing that; and then we picked up hot drinks and went
to watch part of the talent show that was going on in the main pavilion. By then, it was warming up a bit, so going on
some rides was an option – and something that the kids really wanted to do by
then – even after already having a day of rides and games on Friday.
To be honest, I wasn’t as fired up about
the thrill rides today compared to past years.
Michael and I had fun going on the rides today; but I honestly had more
fun hanging out with the younger kids; and my parents, aunts, uncles, and
grandparents. That likely has more to do
with not having as much play time to spend with them lately than any change in
my feelings about thrill rides, but that could be changing too; so I’ll keep
you posted on that during future festivals and amusement park visits.
The important news from our play day today
was that we had fun together; and it’ll be worth the make-up work we’ll need to
do next weekend around the house and yard for taking this weekend off. We had lunch and dinner at the park again
today, and while Michael wasn’t able to have dinner with me while he worked at
the Inn instead; Rowen and Tim stepped in to help me out with the kids – and traded
that help for some free food. The boys
were especially happy to have Tim to hang out with; and he helped them out with
some prize upgrades too when we went to play some games after eating and before
doing a last round of rides before coming home.
The parents were mostly with us for all of
that, and Mom, Dad, Uncle Adam, and Aunt Leanne came home with us to help get
the kids settled in for the night; but then that was mostly so that Aunt Leanne
could nurse Brianna before going back to the park for the dance. By the time they left again, Michael had come
over from the Inn; and he’d been set free a bit early so that he could do that
instead of staying until the Inn closed for the night. Rowen and Tim had the lounge set up by then
for our Halloween shows and movie mini-marathon; and we were soon immersed in some
favorite Halloween animations while also having some fairly entertaining cuddle
time.
Cuddling wasn’t for everyone in our
group. Zack and Eli, for instance, were
more interested in watching the shows while playing with some of Ethan’s toys
and iPad, but the teens in the room were all for cuddling; and Michael and I
had Brianna and Leah to cuddle with while Rowen and Tim got Hailey and Sophia
for parts of the shows – until the girls started to fall asleep and we took
them off to bed. As always, Naomi’s
cuddling with Ethan was adorable, and while Aiden is much shyer when it comes
to Ehlana; they still sat close together and semi-cuddled under a blanket while
propped up against the sofa in front of Michael, our cuddle buddies, and me.
Rowen and I took turns getting sleeping
kids into beds over the next few hours.
Ehlana and Sophia were the last two kids still awake when we wrapped up
our last ‘kid’ show for the night; and I helped them get to bed while Rowen
carried Naomi down to Ehlana’s room and Tim and Michael took Aiden and Ethan to
Ethan’s room. After that, it was teen
couple cuddle time; we watched the end of a college football game and the
follow-up recap of the games of the day; and then put on a Halloween movie that
we didn’t really watch while chatting and cuddling until Mom and Dad got home
from the dance.
We had a short chat with them before they
went to bed; Rowen and Tim stayed in the lounge while Michael and I went to
wash the snack and drink dishes in the kitchen and have time to say goodnight
to each other without our best friends around for company. I was tempted to keep Michael for a sofa
sleepover, but by the time we returned to the lounge, Rowen and Tim were both
sleeping – or doing a good-enough job of pretending to earn the room for the
night. I tossed a blanket over them;
walked Michael to his room; and spent some time saying goodnight to him again
in a non-verbal sort of way before we heard Brianna wake up; and I needed to go
and take care of her.
Mom was still awake then, and came to check
in on Brianna too; but all she’d wanted was a diaper change, a bottle, and a
bit of cuddling; so she let me take care of that and went back to bed. Once I had Brianna tucked in again, I came up
to my room and got ready for bed. I was
still tempted to go back to Michael’s room and cuddle with him for the rest of
the night, but I climbed into bed with Mandy instead; checked my email; and
ended up doing nearly an hour of family business work and email replies before
getting to this journal update.
There’s still one more day to go for the
festival, but I’ll be helping out at the Inn for the buffet shift; and won’t
spend much time at the park. Sunday is
going to be the nicest weather day of the weekend, so maybe I should do more
there; but Jacob and Miranda will need the help more – especially for the late
buffet that will have a lot of festival volunteers and workers coming to the
Inn to celebrate what’s been a very successful weekend for them. Mom and Dad are going to need a lot of help
in the morning too; so I need to wrap this up and get some sleep. It’s been another one of those really great
days; and I feel so blessed tonight to have such a great family and group of
friends to share these fun days with.
The good news is that every day is pretty
good with my family, and I need to get at least some sleep to be ready for our
adventures that will continue again in a few hours; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
