Ethan and Ehlana:
Happy 5th Anniversary, Violet and Dillon!
Happy 21st Birthday, Reid Spencer!
We didn’t personally have any involvement in Reid’s special day, but Cassie and Michael did – along with some of their gang of high school friends; and we hope that Reid is having a happy birthday.
Violet and Dillon have had a lot of extra surprises for their anniversary celebrations – including early arrivals for the weekend from her family. We’ll get to that part of the story soon, but let’s back up to yesterday and go from there.
Looking back on yesterday, we don’t actually need to write a lot about our personal adventures. Our highlights included that first Galleria shopping trip with our cousins and friends; the family dinner; and then game night at the Inn with the extra guests. For the shopping, we didn’t make a lot of purchases, but our overall group and family bought a fair bit; and multiple purchases at every store. We enjoyed the family-and-friends’ dinner break; helped out with the work on either side of that meal; and then the game night highlights included Miranda teaming up with Angela and winning the senior title while Jaimie and Micah took the junior title – possibly a first for them of many to come in the future! ;^)
Mom and Dad ended up with most of the cousins and some friends for the sleepover last night; we had a lot of fun with that; and stayed up way too late with music, gaming, and late-night chats. Extra parental support was available this morning, but after Tai Chi by the river with extra exercise buddies; we were crazy-busy through to when we headed for school as everyone got fed and took turns with getting ready for the day and helping with the work. As usual, our last day of school ahead of the holiday weekend was all about getting ready for the holiday – including the afternoon work around town, at the park, cemetery, and along the trails. Our visiting cousins and friends were allowed to help out with that this afternoon; and we also found out that they were drafted to help with an early round of weekend yard chores that Mom, Angela, and Terry coordinated and had done by lunchtime. That totally worked for us; since we don’t need to do those chores tomorrow!
We got to have some play time after school, but helped out with dinnertime work too; and set up tents for our first camping night of the weekend. The Carringtons and Everetts ‘won’ as hosts for the campground; and that’s where we had the barbeque dinner party that really got the anniversary celebration going. All of the early-arrival weekend guests were there for the dinner; we had a blast with all of that fun and the work too; and then our evening adventures included more guest arrivals from the Johnson and McEwan clans that continued through until after the campfire began. We helped with some of that work too, but mostly played with the other kids and teens. Most of our play time was in the back yards around our campsite; and the campfire highlights included the stories from Grandpa and the music from both Cassie and Michael and our favorite quartet. While we’re thinking about music, let’s add that Cassie and Michael apparently have the top-selling song and music video for the first day of Spinners – for all local artists. They won’t be retiring on the income, but might be able to afford an extra pizza or two this summer! ;^)
Some of the younger family adults headed for Sheldon’s Pub when the campfire wrapped up comparatively-early at a bit after eleven o’clock. We – the kids and teens – took turns getting ready for our camping night and did that at five homes including ours. We’ve been enjoying some quieter chat time by the river while also waiting for the younger kids to go to sleep – and get tired of the prank and practical joke attempts that Zack and Eli have been leading. We’re not including more names for co-writing this report because we’re doing this while still having a small gang of teens and tweens around us; and I’m semi-hiding the writing while using my computer for the music we’re listening to while winding down toward what will not be a co-ed camping night for any of the couples because we all have younger cousins or friends in our tents tonight. Maybe we’ll be able to change that for the rest of the weekend, but we’ll let you know whether that works out for us or not. That is enough for tonight, though, so I’ll wrap this up; and get back to a bit of cuddle time with Naomi until we will split up for the rest of the night.
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!
