Ethan and Ehlana:
This is an early update because we’ll be split up tonight while having guys’ or girls’ nights and sleepovers at Aiden’s or Naomi’s homes. Our day so far hasn’t been newsworthy with a chores morning and the afternoon play time was fun while ending up being a bit on the soggy side thanks to another warmer-weather blast that made our snow fun uncomfortable once our clothes got soaked through. We had a lot of fun last night with our family-and-friends fun and the co-ed sofa sleepover, but instead of writing about that today; we want to do an update on our cousins – mostly because we’ve been thinking about them a lot in relation to the future that is getting closer for Cassie, Michael, and their hometown friends.
Let’s get that started with the cousins we played with last night.
Leah is next-eldest to us in that group; and she’ll be nine in May. She’s one of the closest to us for personality, but there are differences that include her more-normal view of boys her age and her popularity with the girls her age. Leah and Hailey are definitely the most-popular girls in their grade, and while they can get teased about that being because of Hailey’s close connection to the bakery; they are actually popular because they are kind, happy, and like to hang out and play with all of their friends. Leah also leads the general trend among our local cousins that is most-obvious when we get together – we’re the only cousins with a boyfriend or girlfriend. Yes, we’re also hanging out with our best friends, but we haven’t blazed a new trail for our younger cousins that has led to any of them getting into dating much-earlier than is normal for most kids. We love Leah, and the bonus connections to her through Naomi and Hailey helps to keep us closer than we might be – particularly since we’re actually not cousins except through our ‘adoption’ of Leah’s parents! ;^)
Moving along, and keeping with the Ayres’ family; Sebastian is now seven; his best friend is also our cousin, Caleb; and they split the age gap between Leah and Zack, and Brianna and Faith. Sebastian and Caleb are only quiet compared to Zack and Eli, but that is always noticeable in our family group; and they often get thought of as sidekicks to Zack even though that isn’t the case for them around their own classmates and friends. They’re probably liked better by their friends because they don’t have a prank and practical jokers reputation. We don’t spend as much time with Sebastian and Caleb compared to some of our other cousins, but we usually have fun with them when we do hang out together.
We have regular journal comments about Zack, so we don’t really need to offer anything new about him. His ‘public’ persona is definitely an outlier among most Magi kids; he continues to have fun with developing his reputation; and we’ll continue to hope that he outgrows this phase – though that probably won’t happen until he crosses over and needs to find better ways to impress the girls!
It shouldn’t surprise anyone to know that Brianna and Faith are our favorite younger cousins. At six-and-a-half, Brianna continues, by all adult accounts, to be just like Aunt Leanne as she grows up; and there isn’t anyone we’ve ever met that can resist her bright, enthusiastic joy and love for life! Faith is five-and-a-half, and while she is one of Brianna’s best friends too; their personalities are very different. Faith is quiet, happy, kind, and loving with everyone – and everyone loves her in return. Yes, all of the boys like Brianna and Faith too, but that continues to be in the normal ways for them, and while Brianna sometimes jokes about both dating and matchmaking for her friends; she isn’t actually serious about that and does it for the entertainment value.
Finally, we have Violet and Dillon’s son, Ryan. He still gets more attention from the adults than the kids in our family, but he’s reached the sitting up on his own stage; so we are beginning to take turns playing with him. He’s still a bit young to be inviting best friends over for our family play nights; so we’ll keep you posted on that in the future.
That brings us to our adult and teen cousins from here or elsewhere, but this update is getting a bit long; so let’s save that report for tomorrow night.
For now, we need to finish getting ready to head out to Aiden’s or Naomi’s homes; and we won’t comment on how happy Mom and Dad are to be getting a kid-free night. Stay tuned for our next report for the second-half of our cousins’ update as well as the top news from our night out; and we’ll move on to living those adventures!
Until next time, this little blast from your near or distant past is written for you with love from Ethan and Ehlana Proctor – twin junior Magi Masters of the Light!
