Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - September 30, 2023

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 36^th Birthday, Uncle Nick!

While starting with that news, we can also include the rest of our story from last night; since the dinner at the Inn and party back at Cassie and Michael’s house were for Michael’s and Uncle Nick’s birthdays – and that was mostly so that we could do one party instead of two.  Ehlana and I were in charge of a group of kids during that meal, so we weren’t in on very much of either birthday roasting, but we had fun; Naomi and Aiden were with us and semi-officially on dates with us too; and we collectively did still get in on some of the birthday entertainment including the cakes, song, wishes, and the rest of the usual birthday fun.  Kid control was still part of our evening after the transition to Cassie and Michael’s house.  We helped with some outdoor play time while the adults were having some social time as we all made that move; there was some video gaming for some of the guys after that; and then our main entertainment for the evening was a movie on the big screen that we loved because of the quality cuddle time.  The action flick that Michael and Uncle Nick got to choose was good too, but also kid-friendly; and not exactly cerebrally-challenging.  The party wound down quickly after that, and we went home with Mom and Dad without overnight guests – mostly because we had a busy day on the schedule for today.  We did walk Aiden and Naomi to their homes along the way; got teased for our respective good night hugs and kisses by the group of spectators that were walking toward their homes with us; and eventually headed for our beds after getting home and taking care of Silkie and a few chores.

The weather for a chores day has been great, and that’s been great for us – while also meaning that we could work hard all day too.  Tai Chi by the river was at dawn; we had a quick breakfast; and then got right to work.  The fall chores list is very long, and the only thing that is changing more as we get older is that we’re doing more of them with our best friends and some cousins at multiple homes.  That doesn’t always make the work faster – especially when it comes to working with Zack and Eli, but we are a great team with Naomi and Aiden; and we got a lot done today at a total of five homes.  There isn’t much to write about for the specific chores, but in addition to the usual gardening and lawn care, we also helped with exterior work on houses, garages, and storage barns that ranged from some painting to power-washing siding and cleaning windows and more.

That brings us up to now, and we are currently getting cleaned up and ready for the babysitting evening we will be doing with Naomi and Aiden.  A group of our favorite parents will be going out to Sheldon’s with Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah, but some of our cousins will be here for a Pizzeria pizza dinner too.  We’re doing this update early because we expect to be too-busy later – especially with Zack and Eli here for the night too.  We get to have some of our younger cousins as well – and we’re including Sierra and Stuart in that group; since we consider them as ‘in-law’ cousins through Michael.  While we’re thinking about Michael, he and Cassie are hosting Leah and Sebastian for the night – along with Hailey and Caleb, and while that is also a kid-free night gift for Uncle Nick; it is also mostly their chance to spend time with Leah and Sebastian ahead of the South America trip.  Leah and Hailey also really appreciate doing that instead of being stuck here with Zack and Eli; and I’ll skip over the specific jokes and comments from pretty much all of the girls that will be here tonight that relate to wishing they were going to be there tonight instead of here!  I understand that; and will try my best to help everyone to have a fun night here – even with the potential Zack and Eli challenges.

The rest of our news from tonight can wait for our next update.  We need to get back to the real world again, since the incoming kids and tweens will be arriving anytime now; and we need to help Mom and Dad with getting ready to feed them – including going out to pick up the pizza order.  Feel free to flip digital pages and read on whenever you’re doing that in our future; and we’ll get back to finding out what will happen in our imminent future right now! ;^)

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - September 29, 2023

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 23^rd Birthday, Michael!

We’re making this report to future Magi while getting ready for Michael’s birthday dinner and party because we might be too-busy for this later tonight.  That will make this short too; so expect the top stories of our day to be written about sometime tomorrow night.

As for our day so far, we did not help with Michael’s birthday fun this morning; and have heard that we wouldn’t have been wanted or needed for the best parts of his day-so-far anyway.  While Cassie kept him happy and busy, our school day was fairly-quiet; we had fun with our friends; and continue to enjoy extra outdoor time thanks to the ongoing great weather.  Once we were set free for the day, we grabbed our bikes – with the ‘we’ including a lot of our friends and cousins; we met up at Cassie and Michael’s house; and hit the trails for some biking and play time at the park.  That might not sound like fun for most young adults, but Michael loves us; and we all had fun through until we needed to split up to get ready for his birthday dinner at the Inn.

That brings us up to now, and we really don’t have much time before we need to meet up with our dates and get to the Inn, so that’s all for today.  Stay tuned or read on whenever you’re doing this in our future; and we’ll get back to living the adventures!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - September 28, 2023

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 11^th Birthday, Valerie Malloy!

We had a family vid-chat with the Malloys at breakfast this morning, and left gifts for Valerie when we saw them last week; so we did what we could to help with her birthday fun.  We did not make another trip to see her today, but then she was having a friends’ party; and that started after school when we couldn’t have been there anyway.

As for our day, we had a happy morning with Tai Chi and breakfast with the bonus entertainment; another awesome day at school with bonus outdoor time; and then we missed out on the biking and play time with our friends after school because we really wanted to spend at least a bit of time at the lab or archives this week.  We had a little visit with Cassie and Michael along the way to the lab, but that was just a cameo moment and then we played with beakers or books until dinnertime.

We needed to be home on time for dinner; helped with the clean-up but not the cooking; and then we moved on to game night at the Inn.  Our family didn’t win any titles tonight, but we had a lot of fun with family and friends; and then we extended our evening a bit by taking Silkie for a walk while seeing our best friends to their homes – and we walked that far with Cassie and Michael too before coming home again.  Mom and Dad had some work to do in the office, so we did a Magi lesson with Mom; added in some time phased work that added a few hours to our day; and now we’re winding down toward nap time.  That has all added up to a very long day; we got a lot done; and had a lot of fun along the way!  We can’t ask for more for ourselves, so we’ll head off to our beds now; knowing that we’re blessed to have everything that is most-important in our lives – especially our family and friends!

We have another busy day on the schedule for tomorrow, so we really are out of here now; and off to dreamland!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - September 27, 2023

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 18^th Birthday, Jaimie Proctor!

We are sure that Micah and the rest of Jaimie’s friends will do what they can to make her day special.  Mom and Cassie coordinated a short vid-chat with the gang at Jaimie’s townhouse during our breakfasts, and gifts had been sent, but that was all we could do with her on a school day.  Jaimie was popular this morning too; so that chat was short and we had to share her with everyone else that wanted to have virtual visits with her; so we got back to our normal school day morning and moved on.

The academic adventures of our day included a test, we wrapped up a project, and started a new module a bit early because we could; so the fall and Halloween fun started for us today too.  We had bonus outdoor time at lunch and with one class; and then we needed to rush around a bit after school to grab our band gear and get to the studio for our third recording session.  Sophia and Aaron joined us for violin parts on one song; they did that first and stayed for the Pizzeria pizza picnic dinner; and then they moved on while we continued to work through the three songs we wanted to get done today.  We hit that goal; packed up and headed home again with help from four parents; and then Mom only did a Magi lesson with us tonight because she didn’t want us putting in hours of work too – even if that could have been in a time phase.  Let’s not comment on why Mom and Dad might not have wanted to stay up late too; since we really don’t want to know any details! ;^)

Moving along, bath or Jacuzzi time worked for us instead; we’ve been doing our bedtime computing and twin chat since then; and now we’re pretty much ready to call it a night and get some sleep.

While we didn’t spend any time with Cassie and Michael other than that little vid-conference this morning, we know that they were busy with work today; and the countdown to their next rip seems to be speeding up a bit – though that really is just perception while we are all very busy right now.  The busy for all of us is going to continue, and we will need to continue to share our sister and brother-in-law; so we will do our best to enjoy the time we do get to have with them.  That does go both ways, since they share us with our families and friends, so maybe we need to change our perspective anyway – especially when our schedule is probably busier than theirs is this week.

Instead of pondering anything at all, we’re going to wrap this up and get some sleep; so we’re out of here.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - September 26, 2023

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

This has been another long day and we are getting tired fast; so let’s keep this update short and sweet – if we can.

Tai Chi by the river and breakfast with Mom and Dad got our day off to a happy start; our academic adventures kept us busy and entertained; and then our first highlight of the day was our first school band practice – of the school year for Naomi.  We are the most-junior musicians, so we weren’t challenged with the parts we were assigned, but Naomi made sure that I got to sit next to her in the trumpet section; Ehlana is having fun playing the flute; and Aiden will likely make the next steps up in the band thanks to being one of only two tenor sax players.  We got teased a bit about missing the first practice last week while away in the city instead, but we’ll do our best to improve our attendance record during the rest of the school year.

Our music fun didn’t end with that practice.  We came home for dinner with Mom and Dad, but then Naomi, Aiden, Sophia, and Aaron met up with us for a practice to get ready for our next recording session tomorrow.  Sophia and Aaron stayed for the entire practice and we all did some homework too, but they’re only helping out with one song; and we’ll get them to record their parts as early as possible so they won’t need to stay for the entire session.  They headed for their homes after the studying; Naomi and Aiden stayed for a group Magi lesson with Mom; and then we took Silkie for a walk while seeing them back to their homes for the night.

While calling it a night then might have been nice, we wanted to get some family business and charity work done tonight, so we worked in a time phase for as much of that work as possible; put in the equivalent of five hours into that blast of busy; and then Mom ordered us to cease, desist, and head up to our rooms for the night.  We did that, but then we also ended up with a bit of extra bedtime computing to go along with our twin chat that included talking about some of the news of the day and our plans for the rest of the week.  Getting into a commentary or three on current world events would definitely stretch out this report – and our night that has already been too-long; so we won’t go there and continue to hope for better from our world leaders.

Cassie won’t be old-enough to run for President for more than a decade; so that might be too much to hope for anytime soon! ;^)

Seriously, we really need to wrap this up and get started on our nap time, so stay tuned or read on; and we’ll get re-charged and ready for another awesome day!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!