Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 31, 2021

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

The girls won the non-contest for best night – or at least I think that they did.  Zack, Eli, and some of the other guys would likely disagree, but then the girls should win just for not having to deal with Zack and Eli at all! ;^)

For the guys, dinner was scary for the fathers helping out with it – and for some of the guys too; so a lot of the fun was mixed in with weird or even gross moments.  The majority opted for an evening of extreme video gaming with breaks for swims in the river; Mom will need to go shopping again after most of our drinks and snacks were devoured; and that didn’t keep those same guys from devouring a late-night pizzeria pizza snack break that didn’t do anything to wrap up the gaming – which went on until sometime after I crashed and napped for a few hours.

Ehlana – and Naomi – were very happy with their girls’ night that included ‘real’ food for dinner; makeovers; chick flicks; and lots of girl-chat time that didn’t last all night because the girls had enough sense to actually get some sleep.

We were still up at normal time for Tai Chi by the river; there were some chores to do until mid-morning; and then the older kids and teens were allowed to take a picnic along and bike out to Quarry Lake – using the new trail for a bit more than half of that trip each way.  We played all of our favorite games and activities; swam a lot; and then biked home in time for our baseball practices and pizzeria pizza picnic dinner.  Those last practices of the season went great for both of us; and we’re ready for the big games on the weekend.  For tonight; we’re wrapping up the month with Naomi and Aiden while our visiting cousins are with Micah, Jeremy, and Jennifer respectively for the evening; and then they’ll be with the Carringtons or Grandma and Grandpa for the night.

We’ve just finished a post-baseball cool-down swim; Naomi and Aiden are away and packing their overnight bags; and we’re getting ready for our evening plans of music, a Magi lesson, movies, and a co-ed sofa sleepover.  All of the fun for today adds up to an awesome end to August; we’ll hope for that trend to continue in September; and now we want to get back to those adventures with our best friends again; so, until next time...

...this is Ethan and Ehlana Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 30, 2021

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We’ve had a good day, and the fun is going to kick up a few notches soon; so this is going to be a micro-update.

There were chores to do this morning that kept us busy for a few hours; and then Mom set us free to play for the rest of the day.  We took a picnic lunch along for the biking on the trails and regular swim breaks in the river; and now we’re either packing for or getting ready to help host the girls’ and guys’ dinners, play evening, and sleepovers.  The guys will be here; and the girls will be at the Everetts – starting in about twenty minutes; so we really need to move on; since one of us needs to stock the lounge with enough food and snacks to feed all of those guys.

The rest of the news of the day can wait for tomorrow too; so, until next time...

...this is Ethan and Ehlana Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 29, 2021

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 5^th Birthday, Faith!

Our cousin’s birthday is our top news of the day, but before we get to that; let’s cover the rest of the news from yesterday.

The barbeque dinner before the ball game was great; we had fun at the park; and even though the Wraiths lost their last game to the Shriek; they’ll still play in the championship match against the Ghosts because they won the points tie-break over the Shriek.  The Wraiths weren’t playing for the close loss, but it wasn’t a defensive game; and the Shriek might have been playing on the holiday weekend instead if they had been able to field a better defense.  Eighteen runs was great while giving up sixteen runs wasn’t nearly good-enough to catch up on that tie-break problem. ;^)

While the ball players got cleaned up and moved on to Sheldon’s after the game; our campfire was awesome – including our contributions for the music with Naomi and Aiden that continues to impress our family and friends.  The campfire was still going on when the parents started to return home, but wound down then – though we still didn’t get to sleep until much-later than we should have ahead of a church morning.

Only having a nap before getting up again for Tai Chi was tough – even for the junior Magi Masters, and we couldn’t use our talents overtly to deal with that; so we had to deal with being tired pretty much like everyone else.  We had a gang of parents with us to help celebrate Faith’s special day with a pot-luck breakfast; the mad rush to get ready for church while also prepping for a trip to Quarry Lake was crazy; and then we enjoyed the comparative calm while at church and Sunday school.  Hot days lead to short services; so we were able to head for our favorite campground nearly a half-hour early – and then the party was on!

College parties haven’t been the same since the start of the pandemic, but Cassie’s friends would still likely insist that we don’t know how to party in our little town.  We had a blast with all of the usual Quarry Lake activities along with some the games that we helped with for Faith and her friends.  The picnic lunch was crazy because we helped out with kid control for that too; and then we played hard through until packing up to come home in time for the late buffet dinner at the Inn.  We weren’t with Faith for that meal, since she did that with her best friends – including Brianna; and we were okay with being out of the way for that last blast of birthday fun.

We came home with Mom and Dad after that; and don’t have any guests tonight because our aunt, uncle, and cousins are spending the night with the Everetts.  Uncle Blaine and Aunt Alison decided to head home early in the morning instead of tonight; and our cousins are staying for the week – as semi-planned by the kids involved.  We’ve wrapped up our day and weekend with Jacuzzi or bath time; and now we are way-past-ready to crash and catch up on our sleep – so we will.  While we do that, take a break or flip the digital page in our future to find out what our next adventures will be with our cousins and friends.  With just over a week left to go in our summer break; we hope that the awesome will continue every day!

This is Ethan and Ehlana Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Ethan's and ehlana's Journals - August 28, 2021

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We are seriously neglecting our journals right now – with awesome reasons of having summertime adventures that are keeping us busy day-and-night!

For yesterday, those adventures included the canoe trip to the whirlpool that was especially fun thanks to the added entertainment from our cousins, Micah, Jeremy, and Jennifer.  Those summertime friendships are more-serious for Jaimie and Kaitlyn, but that’s no excuse for why Uncle Blaine at least pretends to be worried about his girls while seeming proud of his son.  We’re not going to get into that again today; so let’s move on.

We spent most of the day on or in the river; came home in time for dinner; and then our evening included family-and-friends fun; another campfire; and another late night with most of our fellow campers.  After Tai Chi by the river and breakfast today, we had chores to do for most of the morning; the parents set us free to play for the afternoon; and now we’re transitioning from biking and swimming to dinner and an evening of co-ed baseball.  There will be another campfire and more campers tonight, but while we’ll have teen and adult support after the game; quite a few of our parents will be at Sheldon’s tonight for the end-of-season baseball party.

We’ll get to those stories with our next report, but that’s all for today and we need to get back to the fun – and kid-control help now; so, until next time...

...this is Ethan and Ehlana Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 27, 2021

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

This is an early update ahead of a busy day that is going to include a canoe trip to the whirlpool for most of our cousins and a not-so-small gang of friends.  We expect to be having too-much fun for the rest of the day; so that’s why we’re going with the extra-early update.

The camping and the rest of our adventures from last night were awesome; there were not any co-ed sleepovers because some of the parents had a problem with that for the teens in the group; and we still managed to have a blast – including with some late-night cuddle time and several moonlit swims to go along with the campfire and the rest of the entertainment.

We really don’t have time to drag this out, since we’ll be heading upriver soon and still need to get more work done first; so we’ll get back to that now, and, until next time...

...this is Ethan and Ehlana Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!