Ethan and Ehlana:
Happy 9th Birthday, Sebastian!
Another early update is needed today because we’re hosting a gang of girls – and tween couples – at our house tonight while Sebastian has a lot of the boys spending the night with him for his birthday and then there is another group of teens at the Carringtons. A girls-only night was considered, but Naomi ‘won’ that non-battle; so Aiden, Aaron, and I are being allowed to stay – though we’re being drafted to do the work like keeping snacks and drinks supplied during the Christmas movie marathon and mini-makeover fun that the girls will get to after we get back from Sebastian’s birthday dinner. We’re currently getting cleaned up and ready for our guests after getting home from the Christmas tree farm, but we also need to cover the rest of the story from yesterday; so let’s rewind and do that!
Dinner at Cassie and Michael’s was an adventure that wasn’t always fun for good reasons thanks to Zack, Eli, and the guys they got to mess around with them with games and pranks. The youngest kids thought that they were hilarious, though, and that just goaded them on to lower-lows. Fortunately, most of the food options weren’t seriously-messy, so we didn’t need to hose down the house during the clean-up, but we did have a lot of work; and that gave the boys time to get into more trouble upstairs while multi-tasking video gaming. Our evening entertainment ranged from that gaming to live music to Christmas movies. Most of the toddlers ended up getting collected by their parents or grandparents instead of staying with us all night; the teens all moved on to other homes after staying with us until fairly-late; and the kids were two to a guest room with a bit of spill-over into the family room that had Brianna, Leah, and Hailey nesting with us – the three tween couples that still went with co-ed sofa sleepovers even with the house full of kids.
Sebastian was one of the boys staying with us last night; so Cassie and Michael led the way to get his birthday off to a happy start because his parents were busy with their own house full of weekend guests. We also still went with Tai Chi by the river that was frosty but easier to do compared to trying to do that workout with a house full of kids. Having extra exercise buddies was great; and then all of the work on either side of our morning meal was a mix of fun and mess that we won’t add commentary for just in case you might be eating while reading this in the future and lose your appetite or worse! Moving on from that thought, we managed to help Sebastian with a happy start to his day with a few gifts to go along with the food; the clean-up took quite a while; and then most of us needed to move on to our own homes or elsewhere for the rest of the morning while Cassie and Michael ended up cleaning their house without any help. Yes, some of us offered, but then we had our own chores to get to for the morning; and that kept us busy through to lunchtime. For Ehlana and I, that meal was soup and turkey sandwiches with Mom and Dad; we met up with part of the gang heading to the Christmas tree farm at the Carringtons’ home; and hit the road by twelve-thirty.
The Christmas tree farm is one of our favorite places to visit; and it was even-better today with so many people along for the adventure – including a lot of parents and families of the kids attending Sebastian’s party. It might seem like an unusual birthday destination, but Sebastian loved getting to pick out trees with his buddies as well as his family; and all of the other activities that continue to expand every year now kept us entertained. The special hot drinks and Christmas treats were as amazing as always; and we collectively put a visible dent in the store supplies by the time we headed for our homes with the trees and the rest of our Christmassy treasures and treats! Aiden and I helped out with the tree deliveries that were loaded up on several trucks; that gave Ehlana more time to get cleaned up; and now we’re each changed and nearly-ready to head over to the Ayres’ home for Sebastian’s birthday dinner – once we finish getting the lounge set-up for the guests we’ll be bringing home with us. Before we move on, we should mention that the weather was decent today but cold with another near-freezing high. That worked for giving us the right feel for our Christmas tree farm adventure without bad weather to mess with it; so we’re very happy even though we would have loved another warm-weather blast too. We should also mention that pretty much all of our collective families went with us today, and that was great, but we didn’t get to spend a lot of time with most of them – including Cassie and Michael. For them, that was because they were also taking care of Sierra, Stuart, and Luke; so they spent more time with the young parents, their kids, and some of their own friends that came along for the fun. Ehlana and I mostly hung out with our favorite tweens, some of the teens, and a parent or ten. We had to deal with some Zack and Eli ‘fun’ along the way too, but didn’t get put on kid-control because there was more than enough adult support thanks to Sebastian’s birthday plans.
That hardly covers everything we’ve done since our last update, but we need to get going soon; so that’s all for today. We still have one more day to go for this holiday weekend – along with the rest of the adventures for tonight, so stayed tuned for those stories; and we’ll get back to living them!
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
