Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 5, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 13^th Birthday, Sophia!

Happy 29^th Birthday, Stephanie!

Ethan and I have been okay with having May Fourth and Fifth on the weekend this year while avoiding recent history with Star Wars themed jokes and events at school, but that didn’t keep Zack and Eli from having the force with them yesterday while doing their best to annoy Naomi; and that’s why she had some jokes today about ‘revenge of the sis’ instead of ‘revenge of the fifth’ – though she didn’t actually do anything to Zack and Eli in retaliation for their pranks and jokes last night.  Maybe that’s because she still got to have some quality alone time with Ethan after parental intervention that got Zack and Eli out of the way and they had fun with their co-ed sofa sleepover; so they were happy when we met up again at church this morning.

Sophia had Aaron with her last night, so she had a happy start to her birthday, and while we’ve had a dusting or three of showers today; her family-and-friends’ birthday party this afternoon was awesome!  Stephanie only got to make an appearance at that party while busy with work at the Inn today, but Cassie and Michael were there and also took care of Sierra, Stuart, and Luke while their parents were busy at restaurants or farm.  Sophia’s party included some canoeing, games and music that were a mix of indoors and outdoors as needed thanks to the weather; and then we all eventually headed to the Inn for the late buffet.  Stephanie and Sophia shared the birthday fun during dinner and for nearly an hour after that as there was a bit of a social hour that went along with the usual post-buffets clean-up at the Inn.  We loved getting to help out with celebrating Sophia’s and Stephanie’s special day and getting to spend time with Cassie and Michael was great too.  They, by the way, are helping out with Stephanie’s birthday fun by taking her kids for the night; and we don’t need to comment on what Stephanie and Jake might be doing with their kid-free night!

Ethan and I came home with Mom and Dad from the Inn and we’ve pretty much been winding down toward nap time since then with bath or Jacuzzi time; a bit of music fun; and the usual computing and twin chat.  This weekend has felt different to us in-part from being reunited with Naomi, Cassie, and Michael, but we’re also heading into a very busy week that includes the start of baseball season.  Ethan and I will have our practices on Tuesdays; and there is a very good chance that we’ll also see a return of Pizzeria pizza picnic nights to go along with that; since some of our favorite parents are also coaching our teams and our cousins’ teams too.  We also have birthdays, anniversaries, and a wedding on-deck this week; so we are definitely going to be very busy!

That’s enough of a reason for us to wrap this up and get some sleep, so while I am tempted to offer a world news commentary; I’ll resist the urge and save that up for another night – something that is easy-enough to do when those stories don’t actually seem to change very much over time.  In fact, maybe I should just have a standard report to insert now and then into our journals, since there are always wars going on somewhere in the world; our political leaders make the same dumb mistakes over and over without learning anything; and normal, average people pay the price for the fights that are usually over resources and power.  I really didn’t want to go there tonight, so that’s all for now; and we really are going to move on and get some sleep.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 4, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 1^st Birthday to Liam Warren and Katie Reynolds!

Yes, a year ago we had two births in a day without them being twins!  That’s fairly-rare in our little town; and got some notice today – especially from everyone involved in those births last year!

We weren’t involved very much in either birthday, but can mention that Cassie and Michael will be at Liam’s birthday party and they’ll help out too as well as taking care of Luke while he’s at the party too and his parents are busy elsewhere at the pizzeria or farm.  There could be more on that story for our next update, but let’s move on to our own news of the day!

For me, the opt story was Ethan’s welcome home for Naomi, and he surprised a lot of people around us with his extremely-enthusiastic hug and kisses with Naomi that he definitely initiated and led while Naomi enjoyed the rare need to catch up to him – along with the sidelines action that included lots of jokes and commentary that Ethan ignored until he was finished letting Naomi know how much he loved and missed her.  That did give me time to welcome Cassie, Michael, and others home while waiting for Naomi to come up for air; and the fun rolled on from there as we helped out with getting luggage to several homes and then eventually gathering at our house for the family-and-friends’ dinner.

Naomi’s parents missed her too, but her Mom still needed to work at the salon, so we only stopped in for a visit and dropped off food; and then Ethan and Naomi went for a visit at her house after the salon closed before coming home again for our co-ed sofa sleepover.  Sophia and Aaron joined us for that and about half of the evening too, but they spent time with their families first too.  Aiden and I did more work around dinner than Ethan and Naomi did, and they managed a bit of alone time too, but we actually didn’t end up staying up all that late because Naomi and Aaron were tired after a long travel day and busy week.  We also knew that chores were on the schedule for today; so we didn’t want to be too-tired for that work.

Before we get to the news of the day-so-far; let’s back up and comment on the rest of the story from Thursday that we haven’t written about yet.  Leah’s birthday dinner was fun and challenging thanks to extra effort that Zack, Eli, and a few of the other guys put into having the kind of fun that really annoys girls of all ages.  Thankfully, some parents put an end to that by taking those boys to the Inn for game night after dinner and allowed Leah and her girlfriends to have fun without the pranks, jokes, and food or drinking games.  Ethan and Aiden stayed and helped out with clean-up work and more while I helped out with entertaining Leah and her friends.  There was music, mini-makeovers, and a movie; and the girls were still having fun when I came home with Ethan and Aiden.  I kept Aiden again since Hailey was with Leah anyway; Ethan eventually left us to our co-ed sofa sleepover; and we all called it a night fairly-early because we were tired by then.

As for our chores adventures so far today, it has been cooler and a bit damp, but the work had to be done; so we got to it at multiple houses; Naomi and Aiden worked with us while Sophia and Aaron moved on to work at their own homes or elsewhere; and our only extra work was at grandma and grandpa’s house; since we wanted to get it ready for their return home sometime during the coming week.  They will be home in time for Mother’s Day, but side-trips along the way are always possible on a whim; so the exact time or day is not something we worry about at all.  We will be glad to have them home again; and they will be home for the summer and probably into the fall; so we’ll try to find a bit of time to hang out with them now and then while they are here! ;^)

That pretty much brings us up to now.  We’re finished the work; have gotten cleaned up; and now we’re ready to move on to having some fun again.  This update is early again because I’m going to meet up with Aiden and will be with his family for the rest of the day while Ethan is with Naomi and the Seagers.  No, they are not starting a new band, but I do hope that they have fun; and maybe they’ll even manage to avoid any Zack and Eli issues – though that might be a lot of hope for when the two boys have been in fine form all week and may have also been saving up some pranks after a week away from Naomi.  We’ll let you know how that goes for us, but we need to move on now; so that’s all for this report.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light – and May the Fourth be with you!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 3, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

***RESTRICTED UPDATE***

Gwyneth decided to attempt yet another attack on Cassie, Michael, and Naomi this morning – this time with an old favorite of hers; and we all had a problem with trying to crash their jet.  Cassie and Michael teamed up to keep her from doing that using a combination time phase and a phase shift on the literal junk that Gwyneth tried to destroy the engines with while the jet was still climbing toward cruising altitude and a bit more than one-hundred miles from the airport.  The other Magi on the plane were aware of what they did, since the entire jet needed to be shielded while they worked, but that couldn’t be avoided; and we’ll guess that our Magi friends got to have a very interesting Magi lesson that they probably would have never been taught here at home!

None of that is really funny, but Cassie and Michael did manage to keep everyone safe; and we’ll hope that Gwyneth still hasn’t figured out how they have managed to stop her yet again when she usually has such great success with pretty much everything else she tried to do.  That attack was the last they’ve had today; and we’ll guess that Gwyneth will need a little break anyway; if for no other reason than that she’ll be busy getting ready for the upcoming exams at Princeton – whether writing any of them or monitoring and grading them for any undergrad classes she’s working with this year.

That’s all of the bad and good news for today, but if anything changes; we will keep you posted.

***END OF RESTRICTED UPDATE***

This is a micro-report because we need to help Mom with some dinner prep work; and then get to the school to welcome Naomi, Cassie, Michael, and the rest of our traveling family and friends home from Washington!

Tai Chi by the river and breakfast with Mom and Dad helped to make for a great start to our day; we had fun at school mostly because we’re fired up about having those same favorite people home again; and now we’re just transitioning from school to the weekend before going to help Mom with that work and some chores.  I’ll add that Ethan has taken extra time to look his best for Naomi; and I’ll try to cut him some slack on that; since I know how much he’s missed her.

The rest of our story for today can wait for our next report, but we do expect to be busy for the rest of the day and night; and there will be co-ed sofa sleepovers involved – though we haven’t worked out where that will happen or if we’ll all be together later tonight; since there are parents that want to spend time with their kids tonight and this weekend too.

Stay tuned for those stories; and we’re out of here and back to living those adventures!

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 2, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 11^th Birthday, Leah!

Happy 23^rd Birthday, Diana Connor!

This is another early update because we’re booked to help out with Leah’s dinner and party; and need to head over there soon.  We aren’t involved with Diana’s special day too, but she is a friend of Cassie’s; so we’re mentioning it and wish her well while also noting that our sister is missing out on another hometown event with friends while away.  They might actually prefer that to their Capitol Hill day with the Grade Eight class, since none of us are interested in politics beyond working around the problems that our leaders here and around the world cause for us!  They have been busy with the usual tours and a luncheon with our local congress-critter, and while we will be at a birthday party; they’ll be going out for a last dinner and an evening shopping opportunity before heading for home in the morning.  Let’s also mention that Uncle Nick won’t be at Leah’s party either because he is with his class in Washington, but then he will be missing out on a girls-only sleepover at his house later tonight; so that isn’t all-bad for him!

Moving along, I had a lot of fun last night with Aiden, his family, and the rest of the guests for his father’s birthday dinner and party.  We didn’t keep that going late, and Aiden and I did a fair bit of work too and then helped with some kid control during dinner, but then we also got to enjoy the rest of our evening and the co-ed sofa sleepover that was on our own because when Ethan did eventually get home from the archives; he only did a short bedtime visit with us before going on to his room for the rest of the night because he didn’t want to mess up my sleepover with Aiden!  He was happy with the work he got done and tired too; so I’ll also note that I had a lot more fun than he did last night!

Tai Chi by the river for five and the hot breakfast that we had after that were great; our academic adventures kept us busy through to now; and we expect to have an interesting next few hours ahead of us – especially for the parts of the evening that Zack and Eli will be around for at Leah’s party.  Yes, she is having a girls-only night, but aunts, uncles, and cousins will be there for the dinner and maybe a bit longer after that; so she won’t be able to completely escape from whatever Zack and Eli will try to do while they are there too.  Ethan and Aiden will try their best to keep that from getting out of hand, but that’s a tall order; and we’ll just hope for the best!

They can’t get started on doing that unless we get there; so that’s all we have for this report.  The rest of our story can wait for our next report, so the last thing that I will add before moving on is to mention that Ethan is cheering up as we count down the hours until Naomi will be home again!  We’re both happy that Cassie and Michael will be home again too, but we’re getting used to their travels; and it isn’t the same with Naomi; since we’ve rarely been apart from her for more than a few days at a time.  I’d suggest that we won’t have that happen again, but we will be doing our Grade Eight trip next year; and doubt that Naomi can manage to convince anyone that she should come along and be Ethan’s personal chaperone!  Then again, she did manage to find a way to get us into school dances a year early; so I could be wrong about that! ;^)

Okay, that’s all we have and we’re out of here and off to party time with Leah and our family and friends.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 1, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 45^th Birthday, Nathan Draper – aka my father-in-law-to-be!

This is an early update because I need to meet up with Aiden to help with his father’s dinner party – and I am his date too.  Ethan is going to play in his archives instead of trying to party without Naomi; and he’s even taking a picnic dinner for one along instead of stopping in for the dinner that Mom and Dad will be at the Drapers’ for too along with the rest of the family-and-friends’ guests.  The party details will need to wait for our next report; since I’m planning on bringing Aiden home with me for the night as a bonus ‘gift’ for his parents – and we’ll go with that story even though everyone knows that his Dad will still need to go with his usual early bedtime ahead of a work day early morning start at the bakery!

Our morning started with Tai Chi by the river; the high today is topping out in the mid-seventies; and we had some bonus outdoor time with one class and our breaks; so our academic adventures were pretty good too.  That doesn’t come close to as-exciting as the day is that our favorite visitors to Washington are having – and not only because it is even-warmer there.  Today is their Arlington cemetery and Monuments day; the weather has continued to be perfect for them to enjoy their outdoor adventures; and we are sure that Naomi and some of our friends are having an even-more-awesome time thanks to doing everything with Cassie and Michael as two of their chaperones!

Okay, it isn’t really fair to suggest that my day isn’t going to be awesome too with a party and co-ed sofa sleepover on my schedule, but Ethan feels differently; and really wishes that he could have been with Naomi this week and sharing all of those new experiences with her.  Sophia feels the same way for that with Aaron, but she’s dealing with it a bit differently by spending more time with some of our girlfriends; with her Mom; and she’s had a couple of visits with Aaron’s family too.

I do not have any idea why Ethan hasn’t thought about hanging out with Eli and Zack all week while Naomi is away – not! ;^)

Okay, that’s enough for this report, since I really do need to get going soon; so that’s all and we are totally out of here and back to our real world adventures!

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