Happy 5th Birthday, Aiden!
This is an interesting year for Aiden’s
birthday because it falls on the same day as the Haunted Halloween Walk. Add in that it is also a very busy day for
his parents at the bakery; and it explains why his extended family and best
friends got to celebrate his big day with him more than his parents did this
year. I wasn't around for most of the
birthday fun during the day, but Aiden did go out to the Inn for breakfast with
some grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins; and I knew about that because
Aiden was then dropped off to spend most of the day with Ethan and Ehlana –
except for a lunch break with family that Ethan was invited to go along for
while Ehlana and Naomi stayed behind because the available kid space for that
lunch was limited. The kids were back
together for the afternoon; and then they all went to meet up with Aiden’s
parents at home after the bakery closed so that they could get his birthday
party started with a quick dinner and dessert before moving on to the Haunted
Halloween Walk.
I’m ahead of my own story for the day, but
then it wasn’t birthday party fun and games to that point on the timeline. Tai Chi by the river was especially nice
because the Carringtons joined us for the work-out and the weather was awesome
even that early. The double-family
breakfast was great too; and then it was time for me to get to work on the
never-ending fall clean-up. As usual, I
will not complain about that work, since I do have it easier than most teens
around here thanks to the handy attachments Dad has for his lawn tractor, but
there is still a lot of work that has to be done the hard way, and since Mom
still won’t let us use our Magi gifts to do that work out in public; it takes
time to deal with the gardens, maintenance on the house and storage barn; and
deal with other issues – like getting the dock ready for the winter freeze. All of that work was much easier to take with
temperatures in the seventies and eighties, and while the work wasn’t all that
exciting; spending the time with Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana was great. Aiden and Naomi were there for parts of the
work too, but Aiden and a get-out-of-work card for his birthday; and the four
kids played most of the time when they were around. They also got to go to the park for some play
time that Mom had Aunt Leanne along for when Zack and Brianna needed to get out
of the house for a while after lunch; and that included a bike ride for all of
them – with Zack and Brianna in our trailer for that part of the adventure.
I needed to wrap up the work by four; get
cleaned up and ready for the rest of the day; and then head to the school to
help out with everything the marching band was doing for the Haunted Halloween
Walk. Michael was working the dinner
shift at the Inn, so he couldn’t help out with that; but Rowen and Tim were
among the volunteers. We had to get everything
ready at the school, and then couldn’t head for Witch Falls Road until the
stores closed at six o’clock. We were
busy getting the trucks and minivans loaded up, but then the work kicked up
into high gear when we could start setting up our fundraiser booth and the area
where the band – or smaller groups of our musicians – played music from seven
to eleven o’clock. We needed a far bit
of space for that, so our booth and the band was given an area in front of
Landry’s Automotive; and some of the cars that are usually lined up near the
sidewalk were moved back to make room for our band for the evening.
We managed to be ready to go on time, and
we started playing our first set right at seven o’clock; though we didn’t quite
have the full band because not everyone could be there on time. Michael did make it, though, so I was in a
great mood as we launched into the Halloween-themed songs – beginning with a
few Disney songs from Halloween episodes or movies. Yes, I might seem to be a bit obsessed with
Disney, but keep in mind that our band is doing all of this for a chance to
play at Disney in Florida; so it is important to remind everyone why we’re
doing all of the fundraising. As I
mentioned, we didn’t all play all of the time, since everyone wanted to go on
the walk and play the games too; so we took turns and only had the full band
for two half-hour sets. We had a blast
with that, but the musical highlights of the night for me were the half-hour of
saxophone duets and duels that Michael
and I did from seven-thirty to eight; and the guitar and vocal duets we
did during the ten-to-ten-thirty time slot.
Part two of that was especially amazing because we had my family and all
of Aiden’s birthday party gang among the spectators; and they especially loved
the duets we did from the ‘Girl vs. Monsters’ movie. Our songs were all Halloween-themed too, and
while it was a bit different with our acoustic version of the song; our little
audience seemed to love singing and dancing along to the Monster Mash when we
wrapped up our set with that – and then I was done my band work for the night.
That needed to be the case because Rowen
and I went into babysitter mode after that; and we went home with Mom, Dad, and
most of the kids we are babysitting tonight.
Michael and Tim stayed to help with the work at the food booth and then
the clean-up; but they came over in time to be with us when the parents were
collectively ready to leave for Sheldon’s Pub and the last few hours of the
Halloween party already in progress there.
Rowen and I got all of the kids ready for bed first before moving the
show up to the lounge for a toddler-friendly Halloween movie and shows
marathon; though most of the toddlers didn’t stay awake through to the end of
the first show. You might think that was
good news for the teen babysitters, but I have cousins in my bed right now as I
write this; there are kids camping out on the floor in the lounge; and there is
zero chance that I’ll be having a sofa sleepover with Michael tonight.
While it’s been a bit crazy around here
since the adventure in babysitting starting for us, it’s been a lot of fun too –
and not just because of the kids. We had
some drop-in visitors, and Jessica and Patrick were among the
most-entertaining. They came over with
Sophia to drop her off for the babysitting and sleepover; stayed to help out
until Michael and Tim were done with the band work; and then went back to her
house because they were in charge of Ryan and a couple of his buddies while her
parents were at Sheldon’s too. Lucas and
Rebecca stopped by after they were done at the Haunted Halloween Walk too, but
didn’t stay long; and they are spending the night out at the farm. Getting back to the kid-friendly movie
marathon, we’ve watched Sofia and the ‘Cauldronation’ episode; a
Halloween-themed Doc McStuffins; and two spooky PAW Patrol shows. By the end of that fourth show, we’d lost all
of the kids except for the twins, Naomi, and Aiden.
Don’t worry, Moms and Dads – we only lost
your younger kids to dreamland; so that wasn’t meant to be Halloween-scary for
you! ;^)
I got to watch some of those shows too, but
spent more time dealing with the younger kids – especially Brianna and
Faith. This is Faith’s first babysitting
sleepover with the gang of kids, so she was an adorable combination of fired up
and sleepy; since she’d already had a very long, busy day with her very first
Haunted Halloween Walk adventure too. I
cuddled with her and Michael had Brianna with him until Faith went to sleep; I
put her into a portable crib in my room; cuddled with Michael and Brianna for a
while after that; and then put Brianna to bed next – in my bed. We started to lose the toddlers next. Sebastian was one of the first; and Leah was
the last – even though Zack and Eli had insisted that they would stay awake all
night; and definitely out-last all of the girls. From my perspective, it’s a good thing that
Zack does run out of steam now and then; since he’s a scary kid to keep up with
whenever he’s awake.
Note to me – ask Violet if Chris and Martin
were like Zack when they were three!
Moving along – again; the current movie is
Casper, and I have no idea why the kids picked that one over other favorites
tonight; but Michael, Tim, and Rowen are having fun watching it too. I was having fun with them, but I’m currently
multi-tasking this update with taking care of Faith because she apparently only
needed a nap before deciding that she wanted to party again. Her bottle of choice is non-alcoholic, and I
wouldn’t consider the diaper change she needed before we got her bottle ready a
fun party game, but she thought it was funny; and I guess that it was messy and
smelly-enough to fit in with a Halloween theme.
I’m writing this update while Faith is
having her bottle and we’re cuddling in the living room. Yes, we could hang out in the lounge too, but
I want Faith to go back to sleep, and even though she is very special; I don’t
think that she necessarily needs to watch the scarier parts of Casper –
especially since there’s a good chance that she’d remember all of it. We won’t actually know that for sure until
years from now, but Mom is already starting to get some strong indications that
her prenatal and neonatal Magi programs are improving what Magi kids remember
from their early childhoods to something mid-way between what older Magi here
remember and the perfect recall that Mom, Ethan, Ehlana, and I all have in
common.
That isn’t something I need to write about
tonight; and I should wrap this up so that Faith isn’t more interested in what
I’m doing with my Magi power than in sleeping.
Mom and Dad are still out and having fun, but then I didn’t expect them
to be home early because they’re designated drivers tonight as well as the
hosts for the babysitting sleepover.
They do get that job more often than not right now, but then I expect
they’ll get a break from that after I head for college and they won’t have the
most-convenient babysitters in the family anymore. I’m just starting to ramble now, though, so
it’s time to wrap this up and get back to concentrating on the babysitting.
Oh wait – I did forget one very important
detail – the Haunted Halloween Walk!
Michael and I went on the walk with Mom, Dad, and my aunts, uncles, and
cousins. We didn't go with the twins
because they were with Aiden and his party guests instead, but while I would
have liked to have them along too; we still managed to have fun. The stories for the walk are the same every
year, but I still love the shows as much as the first time I saw them; and it’s
even better to share the fun with Michael.
You might, by the way, wonder why we haven’t gotten involved in putting
on the walk by now. We would love to do
that, and may get the chance to do it in the future, but we don’t do it right
now because we’re too busy; and can’t add that work to our schedules when we’re
already busy with football, band, cheerleading, and the teen praise team. For now, we’ll have to settle for enjoying
the annual show!
Yes, that’s definitely all for
tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a very
long, busy day too; though there will be a lot more work and a bit less fun
because I’m working the full shift at the Inn to help Miranda with what is sure
to be a busy day because of the lure of Witch Falls on the weekend before
Halloween. Starting the day with
breakfast for a gang of kids will be crazy too, but I’m sure that will be the
fun highlight of the day too; so I’m looking forward to that – even though we’ll
also likely wish we could have slept in by then instead of getting up early to
deal with the extra work.
I’d better not go there, or I’ll be the one
falling asleep before Faith does! Then
again, a cuddle and nap with Faith dies sound very inviting right now. Maybe we’ll do that, but I need to finish
this report before doing that – or not; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
