While Mom and Dad are hopefully enjoying
their weekend away; life as normal continues here at home. Michael came over for Tai Chi with Ethan,
Ehlana, and me; he stayed to help Rowen and me with breakfast; and then headed
home to get started on his chores there while I did the same here and Rowen
kept the twins entertained.
The fall clean-up weekends are just getting
started, but I’ll again mention this year that Dad’s new lawn tractor toy comes
in very handy for the work – especially when it comes to cleaning up the
leaves. That efficiency didn’t keep
Rowen, Ethan, and Ehlana from raking up a small pile of leaves to jump in, and
they had fun with that for a while; but then it was very convenient to clean up
that mess with the lawn tractor, shredder, and vacuum. It was a bit on the chilly side all morning,
so spending those hours working didn’t make much difference for playing
outdoors anyway. We stopped to have
lunch at one; and then took the afternoon off to ride our bikes and play. Going to the park to ride the trails and have
fun at the playground was a great way to spend the afternoon. Michael joined us while on his afternoon
break; and we wrapped up that bit of fun with hot drinks and warm desserts at
the Inn before he needed to get back to work for the dinner rush.
Tim came over after working all day with
his father and uncle; we had a pizza and wings dinner at the table in the new
sunroom; and then moved upstairs to the lounge for some play time. Naomi and Aiden were dropped off for the
evening, and Eli and Hailey had other babysitting services; but we weren’t
keeping them overnight – even though Rowen and I would have been okay with
that. With Halloween now just four weeks
away, I wasn’t surprised that the kids – including Tim – wanted to have a
themed movie night; so we dusted off the digital versions of some favorite
Halloween shows that were kid-rated; and had fun watching them while doing a
fair bit of playing on the side.
It wasn’t college football, and Rowen and I
were happy to have the cuddle time with our boyfriends; so we were good with
the plan.
Michael wasn’t available for cuddling until
he was finished at the Inn, and he missed the first couple of shows; but then
the fun level just kicked up a few notches once he was here. The last movie for the four younger kids was
Hocus Pocus, and while it might be getting a bit dated; it will likely always
be one of my favorite Halloween flicks of all time. I say that it was the last movie for the kids
because two of them fell asleep near the end of it – or at least did a great
job of pretending to do that. Ethan and
Naomi had cuddled together under a blanket on the floor with their heads on a
pillow they’d scooped from my bed. They
might have been thinking about an accidental sleepover attempt, but if that was
their plan; it didn’t work for them.
Ehlana and Aiden were semi-cuddling too, but they did that while Ehlana
was also cuddled with Michael and me; and they stayed awake to the end of the
show.
We moved all four kids into my bed, and
while they were still in adorable pairs; we totally did that for the parent
pick-up entertainment value.
During that intermission, Tim checked the
football scores and watched a bit of a game that was on; Rowen, Michael, and I
re-stocked snacks and drinks once we had the kids tucked in; and then we
watched another Halloween movie while waiting for the Seagers and Drapers to
stop by to collect their kids after their night out with friends and family. It was around one o’clock when they did that;
and Michael and Tim headed home then too.
Rowen and I left the twins in my bed; got ready for bed ourselves once
we were on our own and had seen our boyfriends out; and then camped out on the
sectional sofa for the night.
I’ve been doing my bedtime computing and a
bit of family business work since then, and Rowen used the television to do
some YouTube surfing; but she fell asleep about twenty minutes ago – and I
should wrap this up and join her so that I’ll be ready to go when Ethan and
Ehlana give us our wake-up call in a few hours.
Our day may not have been anniversary
weekend away kind of fun, but it has been a really good day; and I’m sure that
we’ll have a good day tomorrow too – especially when we get to the welcome home
dinner party at the Inn for Mom and Dad tomorrow night!
It really is time to crash for a few hours
now, though; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
