Ethan and Ehlana:
This is a morning update because we’ll likely be too-busy for the rest of the day to write one later this afternoon or tonight! Our day has barely started with Tai Chi by the river and we’re taking our turns getting ready for the day before breakfast; so this is really just going to be a party and sleepover report from last night.
Aunt Leanne put us to work on kid control pretty much as soon as we got to her house. Ehlana and Naomi helped the girls; and Aiden and I did not have very much early success with keeping Zack and Eli from doing their very best to annoy the girls and impress their buddies. All of the laughter they earned just egged them on, and since that sometimes came from parents and the girls for the wrong reasons; our job might have been impossible before we even tried to help out! Thanks to the weather, paving the dinner part of the party outdoors was an option; and most of the early party fun was outdoors too. There weren’t any organized games, but along with the backyard play time, there was also some biking, a visit to the park, and some canoeing for a handful of the kids that weren’t worried about the risk of a cold-water dunking or just getting wet with splashing water. We can report that there were not any dangerous pranks last night; so no medical attention was required.
That admission might seem impossible to anyone at the party for the food and drinks games that Zack and Eli led during dinner, but all of the boys involved in those challenges survived the ‘contests’ that included eating fast, eating more, and chugging drinks. That was often scary and occasionally gross; so the only detail I’m going to add for that part of the night is that Ryan, Emma, and the other youngest cousins managed to stay cleaner than Zack did – including with the cake and ice cream. The messiest guys did at least get cleaned up before playing video games, but that was also another reason for why being outdoors worked for the party – the ‘floor’ could be hosed down as part of the clean-up! ;^)
Moving along, the girls and adults stayed out of the way of the rest of the party for Zack and his buddies, but Aiden and I still tried to help out and keep them out of trouble for the rest of the evening until we headed for home. That’s why we weren’t really in on the welcomes for our incoming weekend guests. Jayden and Marcus joined us for the gaming after they arrived, but their parents stayed with the other adults; Kaitlyn went to meet up with Jeremy; and Valerie went to hang out with the other girls. I know for sure that everyone else had more fun than Aiden and I did through until we went home with Mom, Dad, and our guests at around nine-thirty. Yes, we have all of the Malloys with us, but we also kept Jayden, Naomi, and Aiden with us; added in Brianna and Faith so that Brianna didn’t get stuck at home with a gang of boys; and Lady was brought along for a doggie sleepover with Silkie. Jayden’s parents are staying with the Everetts this weekend; and we’re fairly-sure that Kaitlyn ended up staying with Jeremy last night – though we’ll get confirmation on that sometime this morning at school or when we all head over to the park for the festival.
By the time we got home last night, we were all ready for a quiet wind-down. For the parents, that meant a chat in the living room while the kids, tweens, and dogs headed upstairs to the lounge for a movie and chat time. Brianna and Faith were tired and ready to sleep by ten-thirty, but they – and the dogs – ended up in Ehlana’s bed when they did finally fall asleep. We talked with Jayden for another hour or so, but he was feeling like a fifth wheel by then and went to his bedroom for the rest of the night while Ehlana and I settled in for a co-ed sofa sleepover with Naomi and Aiden. We still needed a bit more time before we were ready to sleep; so we ended up wrapping up our day with a vocals-only practice for the songs we’ll be doing tonight at the teen dance. We did eventually get some nap time in; and that brings us up to this morning.
Tai Chi was indoors because we’re getting a bit of rain, but that is supposed to wrap up soon and the rest of the day will be decent – though not as warm as the past two days. We would have loved another hot, sunny day with highs in the eighties, but to be fair; we can’t really complain about no rain and high-sixties – especially when our day is starting out warmer than it’ll be later tonight. We need to move on now, since we are sharing bathrooms and need to help out with the work around breakfast too; so that’s all for today. Look for what will be close to a double-update tomorrow night while we get out there and enjoy the fall festival adventures with a lot of our favorite people!
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
