Top news of the day at our house is that
the patio, sidewalks, and driveway are finished. The driveway isn’t quite ready for traffic
yet; but that was part of the project plan; and it will be ready to use soon.
Backing up to last night and going from
there; the campfire was lit and the kids were pretty much ready to party by the
time I got back to the Bassett’s back yard.
Michael and I played and sang campfire songs and other requests; we told
campfire stories; and we had Sophia and her friends ready to sleep by around
eleven o’clock. The camping comedy
highlight around the tents came when I temporarily ‘lost’ Naomi; and eventually
‘found’ her again – with Ethan in his sleeping bag. The girls thought that was hilarious and the
guys razzed Ethan about it; but they all had fun. That did have me wishing I could have been in
Michael’s sleeping bag with him all night instead of with a small gang of
giggling girls; though we had fun anyway – even if I didn’t get a lot of sleep.
That’s going to be the same again tonight
because Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden talked me into another camping
adventure at our house tonight; and that’s why this update is early again too –
because I have another campfire to get to once I’m done with this – and after I
checked my email to make sure there wasn’t any must-do family business work to
get done first.
We did get to sleep eventually, and the
play time wasn’t as exhausting as working half the night or long bouts of time
phasing; but our morning wake-up call was still early. Michael and I had four junior Tai Chi buddies
for our workout; while Mom and Dad did their own thing at home. That was fun; but getting through breakfast
with a gang of kids was tougher – especially when we had to get some of us
ready for school too. Rebecca came over
to help out with that – and join us for breakfast; but she hadn’t been
interested in the camping. Michael,
Rebecca, Jessica, and I also made sure that all of the younger kids that needed
to be at school got to their classes on time.
The warm weather meant more outdoor play time at school today; including
some football at lunch that Rowen and I joined in for because a couple of the
guys needed to be reminded that girls can play sports too. That doesn’t happen all that often anymore,
and it isn’t as if Rowen and I can run faster than Michael and Tim without
showing off abilities normal girls don’t have; but we are still as good or
better than most of the guys.
The weather and outdoor fun pretty much
covers the news from school; and my after-school fun included walking Michael
to the Inn and then going home to help Mom with the barbeque dinner we hosted
tonight for most of our family, some friends, and any of the guys and girls on
the work crews that wanted to come to the dinner after a long week of work
putting in the patio and driveway. Their
families were all invited too; so Mom pretty much just set up a buffet and a
bunch of tables so that people could grab food and eat whenever they wanted to
do that from around five until Dad closed the grills at around seven o’clock. That was a long, drawn-out blast of fun and
work for me because I was on the work crew the entire time instead of kid
control. I did stop and have dinner with
Rowen and Tim; and one of my jobs ended up being the tent set-ups for our
camping adventure; but I mostly worked in the kitchen; hauled food out to the
buffet tables; and washed dishes as the empty bowls and platters came back
inside. My work was finished at eight o’clock;
and then I was on kid control with Rowen, Tim, and Michael once he was set free
from the Inn early instead of staying to close.
Dad set up the campfire that’s being lit as I write this; and we’ll have
some adult company for that – at least until some of the toddlers and babies
need to be taken home and put to bed.
Michael and I will be doing some music, but
Grandpa and some of the other men will take care of the stories tonight; and we’ll
only need to take a turn or two with the music; since Dad, Jacob, and Bill Bassett
can take turns on the guitars too.
Jacob, Miranda, and Bill aren’t here yet, but I’m sure they’ll stop in –
especially since Sylvia’s here with Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia; and both sets of
parents will be having kid-free nights when they do go home. Okay, I’m not positive about that for Michael’s
parents, but since Lucas is here with his family; there’s a very good chance
that Rebecca will go home with him. They’d
be welcome to stay and camp with us; but he already told me that he’d rather be
at home so that he won’t need to get up even earlier for working on the farm in
the morning.
I need to wrap this up and get outside
again. We didn’t want to have a major
camping event tonight, but Michael, Rowen, and Tim are all staying tonight
too. Jessica invited Lindsay Faulkner to
stay, and Sophia has Susan Connor camping with us too; mostly because that
works better for her when she’s hanging out with both Ehlana and Naomi. We didn’t invite any of the younger cousins,
brothers, or sisters this time; but we did need to promise to do that soon to
avoid a major meltdown with some of those kids tonight.
The only other thing I want to add is a
quick note about the weekend. We’re
going to be busy with an anniversary party on Saturday and Mother’s Day on
Sunday. I’m not working at the Inn
tomorrow, but I will be helping out with all three buffets on Sunday. Add in the yard work and helping with the
dinner, party, and babysitting tomorrow; and it’s going to be non-stop busy
from now until Monday morning – except for when I’m sleeping.
Most of our favorite collegians are
cramming for exams this weekend instead, though, so compared to that; my
weekend should be a blast!
It’s all in how you look at it, and since I’m
currently looking at a campfire that’s starting without me; it’s time to wrap
this up and get back to the fun for the rest of the night. I’ll let you know how the rest of my night
goes with the next update, but that’s it for now; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
