scarecrows at dawn and skye chloe!

I only had two things on my agenda today: helping Dawn with BYOP preparations and going to see "The Creator" with Barbara.

How could I possibly have guessed that I would be celebrating Chloe's birthday early?

Just me, not anyone else celebrating it yet... just me.

And how did that come to pass?

Well, first off, I had to go see the movie with mi amiga.

That's when I saw the super extra cool memorabilia AMC had for the new Paw Patrol movie.

Right time, right place.

This picture has the set for Rubble, the construction dog, but focus on the pink girl pup on the cup, please.

"Pink" is a color the younger sister only gets in hand-me-down clothes (though she will probably be handing her clothes up if her older sister stays so small).

Most of the film tie-in merchandise is absurdly expensive, so I was expecting this to be more of the same, especially as it had the mask, the cup, the popcorn bucket, and the toy dog.

I was shocked when Tom said, "$19.95", or some such.

Say what???

"And it comes with a regular popcorn and regular drink, too."

I thought, he must be kidding...

nope!

So, knowing that Miss Chlo would be 5 tomorrow, I bought the pretty pink one, the one I knew was the plane pilot for the Paw Patrol, the only blonde.

Her name is Skye.

 

Okay, so the first thing occurred and I felt quite happy that I had found something cool to give the little soccer-playing wiz for her special day, whenever that was to be celebrated.

That happened to be tonight.

I came out of the movie to find a text message from my first niece.

Did I want to join them for dinner at Carey the H on Skidaway?

Of course I did!

So I texted back and found they were just leaving Tybee.

Most excellent!

We should both arrive about the same time... and we did!

She and her girls were almost out of the vehicle as I drove up, and Michael was there, too, with his twins!

Most excellent!

Right time, right place!

As I didn't have anything for the other little blondes, I left the gift in my car, but I did tell Chloe that I had something for her.

So, we all eat dinner as night falls and have a good time, with the children at one end of the table and us others able to hold a conversation, per usual these days.

Mostly we were able to chat because we had that front portion of the restaurant all to ourselves, a minor miracle for a Saturday night.

Most excellent!

 

So, time comes to take our farewells and I rush over to my car, telling Christina that I have the birthday gift for Chloe, that I'd just bought it that afternoon, having seen it and immediately thought of Chloe.

So she and her two stayed, as did Michael and Leila and Alyssa.

Then I presented the gift to Chloe...

and, with a huge grin, she immediately put the Skye mask on!!!

Immediately!!!

And gave me a big hug and thanked me and told me she loved me!!!

She did that at least four times over the next twenty or so minutes that we stayed in the Carey the H parking lot.

Wow!!!

Every once in a while, I get it right...

i thank You, God.

 

Miyah immediately wanted to wear the mask, too.

Nope!

They have a 24-hour rule, which means a new item belongs to the recipient for a minimum of 24 hours before anyone else is allowed to wear it or play with it.

Nice!

Alyssa and Leila are soon to be 9, so they're a bit beyond the Paw Patrol scene, so they kept Miyah distracted until all were ready to leave.

I had Michael's mail with me, as well as an article from Smithsonian about school bus drivers that I'd saved for months for Melinda.

I think she'll really enjoy it and am sure she'll share it with other bus drivers.

No coincidences, we were all right where we needed to be tonight!

i thank You, God!

 

I was right where I needed to be all day, truth to tell.

Bunny and Steve, my former step-sister-in-law and her husband of almost 16 years, happened to be there at Dawn's this afternoon!

That's Bunny on the left, making bags of ghost poop and monster warts and the like, while Linsey works on brooms with pencils as the broomsticks.

I'm in the mirror, as I was at last Saturday's session.

Bunny and I had a little time to chat before Dawn started me to making BYOP treats.

And they were exactly the ones I wanted to make!!!

Right time, right place!

I even had my Big Red Swingline with me, knowing that a lot of stapling would be going on -

two arms, two legs, and a pumpkin head, all to be attached to a bag of M&Ms to make scarecrows!

Lisa was there again, and she'd even brought a neighbor, Christy, to help out.

Those two worked with me and we had a good time, getting into a rhythm and getting it done!

Every once in a while I'd whistle a song from my mental jukebox and sometimes one of the others - Grace and her daughter, plus Anna Kate and Madison - would chime in.

Then, when I started in with "Norwegian Wood", Bunny said she didn't know that Beatles tune... so I started singing it and Christy joined right in!

Woohoo!

We even started alternating the verses as we sang!

Dawn turned on the radio, so maybe my voice isn't quite ready for singing in public.

It's been a bit off ever since the A-fib hospitalization, but it's much better now... I think!

(smile!)

Before we knew it, an hour and a half had passed...

and we had used up all the candies for the scarecrows.

Done!!!

One less pre-BYOP task for Dawn!

We all broke for lunch - fried chicken! - then folks started peeling off to other places.

We were all so happy to have been able to help with the prep work!

That means Dawn and the Koz will have more free time to spend together...

and that's a very good thing!

(smile!)

 

Then I went off to meet with Barbara for the new science fiction film -

in the Big D screening room -

and it was superb and better get nominated for an Oscar.

Plus, I bought Chloe's gift there at the cinema -

definitely bonus for me -

and that also gave me the popcorn and Barq's for the movie -

most def bonus!

Like I said, right place, right time, all day.

i thank You, God.