Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden:
We’ve had a wet, cool day around here, but before we get to that part of our story; let’s back up to the travel and birthday party report.
Dad was home from work early by the time we were ready to go, so we loaded up the minivan while he got freshened up and changed; Naomi and Aiden were with us by then too; and we hit the road by four-thirty. Even with a Friday and spring break, the travel time into the city and to the Malloy’s home didn’t take any extra time – probably because the traffic was mostly in the other direction. That worked for us; we arrived in time for the last-half of the social hour before dinner; and we – the tweens – were basically put on kid-control duty while Mom and Dad joined the parents and grandparents in the house for some quality chat time while the kids were happy and entertained.
We can’t report that dinner was a different experience for us with a small gang of eight-year-old city boys compared to home because it was just as scary as usual with most of the same food and drinks games, jokes, and pranks. None of that was really toned down even with grandparents at the table, but it didn’t get too-crazy; and none of that kind of fun was directed at Ehlana or Naomi. Valerie wasn’t so lucky, since she was apparently fair game with Marcus and his buddies, but while she got caught up in the goofiness a couple of times; we were able to keep her protected the rest of the time. That was true after dinner too, though we helped out with the clean-up work first; and then Ehlana and Naomi took care of entertaining Valerie and the other girls while Aiden and I were busy with the guys.
Friday night and the start of our spring break weren’t the only reasons that the party could go on late into the evening – the parents were happy to hang out too; and mostly leave the kids to play with the minimal support of the tweens in the house. We were happy to do that, and had a lot of fun even with the weirdness now and then. One of our favorite parts of the night, though, came when Naomi and the Haunted Harmonies was drafted for a mini-concert and demonstration. Since that request came from Aunt Angela, we were happy to do that; and offered a forty-minute set using the piano in their living room that Ehlana played while the rest of us only offered up our melodies and harmonies. The adults danced to some or all of the songs; Valerie and the other girls watched the entire show; and only a quarter of the boys came away from the video gaming to find out what was going on too. While we really only did that for fun, we should also mention that we also got some online digital sales for Spinners and the studio – though that definitely didn’t cover our travel costs for the band; and we won’t start booking birthday party gigs in the city! ;^)
Moving along, it was heading toward midnight before we hit the road for home again. Mom drove; we watched a movie and cuddled in pairs as much as was possible for the couple in the middle bucket seats and more-comfortably for Ehlana and Aiden on the back bench. We got home by a quarter-to-two; unloaded what little we had with us in the minivan; and headed for the second or third floor for the rest of the night. Yes, we had a co-ed sofa sleepover in the lounge, but don’t make much of that; since we were all sleeping soon after getting cuddled together and comfortable.
That brings us to this morning, and the first thing we want to mention is that Jaimie and Kaitlyn got here last night; they’ll be staying with the Everetts for the first half of the week; and then we expect that Micah and Jeremy will follow them home and stay there for the rest of our spring break. There might have been co-ed sleepovers going on for them too, but we do not have any confirmed gossip on that as of the writing of this update! We can note that they’ve been hanging out together today; they are at the school dance tonight; and will probably be together overnight again too.
Our day hasn’t been as-exciting. Tai Chi was skipped due to the late night; we had a hot breakfast; and then went on to do chores at three homes. Naomi and Aiden had other things to do with their respective families this afternoon – mostly due to the rain anyway; so Ehlana and I went to play at the lab or archives this afternoon while Dad was making today his big work session ahead of his trip to the city. We had fun with that; met up with Naomi and Aiden by four-thirty at Aiden’s house; and we all worked to get ready for the babysitting being hosted by Aiden’s parents.
That isn’t exactly accurate, since the kids spending the night at the Drapers were also Hailey’s girlfriends; and we were helping out with the babysitting only for a few hours while Aiden’s parents went out with some friends. They’re home as we’re doing this report; and didn’t want a late night when they’re going to be so busy at the bakery for the next week or two. Including Leah, Hailey has five friends here; we had a lot of fun and no troubles at all with them; and Ehlana and Naomi are seriously-considering only offering their babysitting services for younger girls – even if that means leaving their boyfriends stuck with separate babysitting services for the boys like Zack and Eli.
At least one of us doesn’t want to go there tonight; so let’s move on. We helped out with making dinner and cleaning up afterward; the evening entertainment included some music fun; chick flick movies; and mini-makeovers that Aiden and I did not officially help out with – unless you consider fetching supplies and cleaning up messes as part of that kind of fun. The girls had a lot of chat time that we did our best to avoid; Hannah joined in for the tail-end of that after getting home; and now we’re all winding down toward nap time. Hailey and her friends are in her room and the two guest rooms; Naomi, Aiden, Ehlana, and I are paired up on sofas in the family room; and our tween chat time has mostly been a wrap-up of our day along with some of the gossip the girls have already been getting from the school dance that we weren’t at this time because we didn’t really even try to get the band ‘hired’ for the gig. In hind-sight, we could have played at the dance, but the novelty of getting to be at the dances a year early for three of us has worn off anyway; and we haven’t missed all of the extra work we would have been doing tonight – including hauling our gear to-and-from the school and the rest of the set-up work.
That does pretty much bring us up-to-date on our latest news, and we are ready to get started on the sleepover part of our co-ed fun; so that’s all for tonight – almost!
Okay, I just added that on the fly, but we should mention that this start to our break has not been as awesome as last year; and that is entirely due to the cold and wet weather! March break last year was not perfect, but we did get to have a lot of days with highs in the seventies; and that isn’t looking very likely for this coming week. We’ll still have fun, but we’d be even-happier if we could have better weather too! That is all I have now; so we’re out of here!
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
