Ethan and Ehlana:
We’ve had another awesome day, with the highlight being a trip to the Pumpkin Patch farm! Our morning started out great with Tai Chi by the river at Aiden’s house and breakfast with his family – and Leah; since she stayed for the night with Hailey. The church service and Sunday school helped to make the rest of our morning happy and fun; we had a small gang at our house for a snack-lunch; and then we hit the road for the Pumpkin Patch. The fun and games there were expanded a bit this year, but that was partly an ongoing rebuild after the pandemic to go along with some tech changes that include a GPS-linked app to help with the larger corn maze navigation. We are getting too-old for some of the games, but that didn’t keep us from helping our youngest cousins out with having that kind of fun; and there was still a lot for us to do too – like the haunted barn, pumpkin-picking hay ride; and other games and activities. We stayed at the farm for about three hours; headed home in time for dinner that for some of our gang meant a visit to the Inn for the early or late buffet. We didn’t go to the Inn too – mostly because Dad needed to get to work after taking most of the day off. Ehlana and I helped Mom with making dinner and the clean-up, but then we stayed out of the way so that Dad could focus on his work this evening. Mom did a Magi lesson with us and we had a quiet music practice in our room that was mostly for music class and school band, but we went over some songs for our gigs next weekend too; and then bath or Jacuzzi time was needed before getting started on our bedtime computing and twin chat fun.
While we’ve been having fun all day, Cassie and Michael have been working most of the weekend. They are getting to do that with hot, summer-like weather, so we can’t feel too-sad for them, but they also aren’t getting to enjoy much play time; and they’ll be moving from Suriname to Brazil for the next leg of their trip. They’ve made new friends along with all of the new contacts; and we’re pointing that out because that new friendship is more than just business; and they’ve apparently gotten together for two meals in addition to the work luncheon and meetings that were the business part of their connection with the couple. We’ll see where that relationship goes in the future, but Cassie in particular has a talent for keeping those friendships going for a long time – even when those friends only keep in touch infrequently.
Moving along, we still need to cover the rest of our story from Saturday; so let’s do that now. Paige is one of our ‘farm kid’ friends; so we needed a ride out to her family farm when it was time to go there. Her parents, Luke and Ashley, mostly work the dairy operations for the family, so thanks to the nice weather; her party was different from others because we could spend time around the cattle and other farm animals. Her party was in and around one of the hay barns; there were dozens of adults around to help with the pre and post-dinner work; and the barbeque meal was great – even though a few of the tween food games bordered on the edge of too-much. Without trying to sound egotistical, our highlight of the party was the music; Naomi and the Haunted Harmonies led the dance fun for our friends and everyone else at the party; and we ended up playing for a total of nearly two hours with a half-hour break in the middle. We loved giving that gift to our friend; and Paige really had an amazing birthday! Seth Green gets some credit for that, since he had a special gift for her and was her favorite dance partner. Paige’s younger brothers might have tried to mess with her, but they were either warned off ahead of time or kept from causing any problems for their sister by their parents. By the time we started the dance, even Miles and Joshua decided to play nice, and while they didn’t totally avoid a few tween drama moments; they managed to get through the night without getting any of the girls too-mad at them. They danced with Caroline and Jennifer respectively, and earned a few points for that; so it was a pretty good night for most of our friends. That wasn’t universal, since there are some tween drama stories going on with couples that aren’t working or not happening at all or pairings that aren’t working for other friends. That’s normal, and we don’t want to mention specific names; so let’s leave those stories private – where they belong.
The party wrapped up at around eleven o’clock – though Paige kept two best friends for a sleepover. We had a pre-arranged ride back to Aiden’s house; got home and unloaded by midnight; had a bedtime visit with Hailey and Leah; and then we wound down toward our co-ed sofa sleepover with a Halloween movie, chat, and cuddle time. None of us managed to stay awake to the end of the movie, but we enjoyed that quieter time together; and needed the little bit of extra nap time – even though that still only meant getting a handful of hours of down time.
There is more that we should write about – including Sophia and Aaron’s contribution to our music last night that should have been included with the band and dance news, but we’re getting tired; and really should go and get some sleep now. Our final full week of October is going to be very busy; so we should get as much sleep as we can on the nights when we won’t be up late with work or all of the Halloween-themed adventures. Stay tuned for those stories; and we’ll go and have naps to re-charge and be ready for all of that fun starting right now!
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
