Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - October 30, 2022

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Okay, we’re officially exhausted, and since we still have one more day of Halloween fun to go; we’re calling it a night early and will make this a short update.

The movie and sleepover last night was as special for us as always – a bit more-special since it was Aiden’s birthday.  Tai Chi by the river, breakfast, church, and Sunday school were all really great; and then we spent the afternoon with our families – carving pumpkins; going for a bike ride on the trails, and eventually having dinner at the Inn.  The buffet was one of the highlights of our day; we came home and pretty much got ready for bath-and-bed time; we took care of a few chores first; and now we’re ready to crash and nap; so that’s all for tonight.  We plan on continuing the fun all day tomorrow, but to be honest; we’re feeling a bit burned-out tonight; and we’ll be ready for what won’t really be a little break before we jump into the Thanksgiving and Christmas season.  For now, we’ll settle for a long nap; so we’re out of here and off to dreamland.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - October 29, 2022

 

Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden:

Happy 11^th Birthday, Aiden!

We’re ending Aiden’s special day the way we started it – with a co-ed sofa sleepover and movie in the lounge.  Tai Chi by the river this morning was great; we had Aiden’s Mom and sister with us for Aiden’s birthday breakfast while his Dad was busy at the Inn; and then Aiden only pretended to get a chores-free birthday while helping the rest of us with the work at five yards.  That sounds like a lot, but we’re near the end of fall clean-ups; and we actually managed to get done by three-thirty.  That gave us time to clean up; have a band warm-up for our show tonight; and then have Aiden’s birthday dinner – again at our house; and with his family and our usual gang of friends.

That needed to be a quick meal because of the Haunted Halloween Walk, but we managed to get through the usual birthday fun including the cake, song, and gifts; and then we all headed for Witch Falls Road.  We set up our band gear and did a micro sound check first; had time to check out some of the booths; and then we were the first band on the schedule for our little stage.  We were amazing; played all of our Halloween songs plus an encore of our ‘winning’ song from the festival; and then we were free to have fun for the rest of the night after packing up our gear and giving up the stage to the next group.  While we won’t get the final numbers until sometime next week; it sounds like our Halloween E.P. sales will be in the hundreds for tonight – thanks to the thousands of visitors in town for the walk; so our next recording sessions might be fully paid for thanks to that little show!

Our turn for going on the walk didn’t happen until a bit after ten, so we made that our last activity for the evening – or nearly-so; since we picked up some Halloween treats on the way home and watched and danced through two of the songs from the band that was on-stage from ten-to-eleven.  Since getting home, we had to take care of our band gear; do a bedtime visit with Mom and Dad; and get cleaned up and changed – the last part because we’d stayed in our band ‘costumes’ all evening.  Now we’re into the cuddling and movie part of our night; we’ve done all we can to make sure that Aiden has had an awesome day; and judging by the grin that is currently on his face; he’s very happy to be cuddling with Ehlana for another night.

With all of that happy to be so blessed with; that’s really all we have for today.  Whatever time of year you’re reading this in the future; we hope that you’re as blessed with at least as much happiness and joy! ;^)

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - October 28, 2022

 

Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden:

Naomi and the Haunted Harmonies was a hit at the school dance – and that was at least a small surprise to the older teens that didn’t expect to like the music from a tween group!  That’s definitely been our highlight of the day, but it has been very busy all day; so let’s get to the full story.

Tai Chi was by the river and chilly; we had an easy-breakfast; and then our school day included a lot of Halloween-themed lessons and a test; Halloween dance gossip and the final football game of the season topped the entertainment highlights list; and then we were busy after school with getting ready for our band set at the dance – including getting our gear set up at the school.  Naomi and Aiden were with us for the small family-and-friends’ dinner; we were part of a gang that went to the football game; and we had fun with that through until we needed to head into the school and finish getting ready to open the dance – including getting into our costumes.

We played for the first hour of the dance, and while we didn’t officially get paid for the gig, we sold quite a few of the digital EPs and music videos; and we’ll put our ‘profits’ toward the studio time for the Christmas album.

For three of us, getting to be at the dance a year early – and staying for three-quarters of it – was part of the awesome for tonight; Ehlana and I had fun dancing with Aiden and Naomi respectively after we were finished on-stage; and loved getting share those first experiences together through until Mom and Dad came to pick us up along with all of our gear.  Naomi and Aiden came home with us for the night; we did a dance recap and snack break with Mom and Dad after getting our gear upstairs again; and now we’re watching a Halloween movie while winding down toward our co-ed sofa sleepover.

We’re biased, but still know that our first semi-official band gig was a major success; so we’re very happy tonight.  We’re going to be even-busier tomorrow – including with another round of fall clean-up chores and the Haunted Halloween Walk; so we should wrap this up; and fall asleep before the end of the movie.  We’ll see whether the second part of that happens, since we’re still fired up from the dance, but that’s all we have for this report; so we’re out of here and back to the real world.  We definitely expect the holiday fun level to keep going up tomorrow even with all of the chores, so we’ll look forward to that – and our co-ed cuddle time for the rest of tonight; and write all about it whenever we get around to our next report.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - October 27, 2022

 Ethan and Ehlana:
This is going to be a short update because it is late and we’re tired.
Our morning and school day were good, the weather stayed about the same as yesterday; and nothing newsworthy happened while we still had a really happy day.  Naomi and Aiden came over for our band practice at school; we all had dinner with Mom and Dad; and then game night at the Inn was Halloween-themed and the entertainment highlight of our day.  We joined Mom and Dad for some work in the office after getting home from the Inn; did that for a bit too-long, but got a lot done; and now we’re past-ready to crash and nap – so that’s all for tonight!
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - October 26, 2022

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

It was freezing this morning for Tai Chi by the river, but we went out by the river anyway; followed that up with a hot breakfast; and then our school day was Halloween-themed, fun, and not newsworthy at all.  While it was sunny and warmed up into the low-sixties, we went to play at the lab after school; did a band practice with Naomi and Aiden after dinner; and did a group Magi lesson with Mom while our best friends were still here.  Mom let us do an hour of family business work after that; and now we’re winding down toward nap time with our twin chat and computer checks.

That’s also enough for this report because we’ve had enough fun for the day; and really want to get at least a bit of extra sleep.  the next five days are going to be very busy; so we’ll rest while we can; and get back to the holiday fun again in the morning!

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - October 25, 2022

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Our top news of the day is that Naomi and the Holiday Harmonies recorded three Christmas songs at the Galleria studio tonight.  That was also the fun highlight of our day too, and while it felt a bit weird to be focusing on Christmas music heading into the Halloween weekend; we were feeling the holiday spirit and our music was awesome!

As for the rest of the day, all of the rain yesterday came with another major cool-down, and we were still getting some rain this morning; so Tai Chi was indoors.  The walk to school was damp, but the rain ended by lunchtime; and it warmed back up into the mid-fifties – a big difference from the eighties on the weekend.  Naomi and Aiden came home with us after a no-news school day; we practiced for the recording session; and then we had dinner with Mom and Dad before heading over to the Galleria.

This is a good time to mention that most of the stores in the Galleria are not open during the weekday evenings right now except for Friday, but that actually works for the studio; since it is much-quieter.  Yes, the recording rooms are soundproofed, but that isn’t true for the control room or the rest of the studio; so they do a lot of evening or night recording sessions for bands or other groups while the daytime sessions are more about ‘fun’ recordings from customers that are basically recording karaoke songs or making videos in the green room studio.  Our other point for the other stores being closed tonight is that Mom brought drinks and snacks along for all of us; and brought her computer along to do some work while we were busy with the music.

We’ve written about the cost of recording sessions back when we were doing the Halloween songs, so while we don’t need to do that again; we can report that we expect to pay for all of the sessions we’ll have for the Christmas songs with the money we’ve had come in from the sales of the Halloween songs and videos.  No, we’re not getting rich from our music, but we’re still number one for local artist sales for Naomi and the Haunted Harmonies; and hope to do the same with the ‘holiday’ version of the band!  Stay tuned for more news on that; and we’ll move on and wrap up this update.

When we finished at the studio, Ehlana and I took Silkie for a walk while seeing Naomi and Aiden to their homes for the night.  We didn’t do any work in the office tonight, but Mom did a short Magi lesson with us; we did a bedtime snack and chat with Dad; and then came up to our rooms.  It’s late now, and we need to get some sleep; so that’s all we have for tonight.  We don’t have time for another studio session this week, but will do two of them next week; since we want to have the Christmas album and songs ready by Thanksgiving.  We’ll be focusing on Halloween music for the rest of the month – especially for the school dance and Haunted Halloween Walk fun, and we need to get some sleep to be ready for those ongoing adventures; so we’re out of here and back to the real world and some quality nap time.

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