Surviving Sam's Slumber Party

Sam only wanted a slumber party to celebrate her 6th birthday.  No matter how many other suggestions I threw her way, she would only consider having a sleepover with her closest girlfriends.  Personally, I thought at age 5 turning 6, she was too young to have this kind of party.  And, let's not forget I am still traumatized from Ian's birthday slumber party last year.  In fact, I am pretty sure I vowed there would be no more slumber parties ever.  How quickly I cave when it comes to my kids and wanting to make them happy.
 
We invited four girls to spend the night.  Two were from her preschool days and two were from her kindergarten class.  The slumber party started after school on the Friday of her actual birthday (May 23rd).  It was not that bad!!  One of the biggest reasons this party was a success is because of my mother-in-law.  She was invaluable and a huge help.  Looking back, I don't think it would've gone as well as it did without her.  Marcia jumped in and assisted the girls with every aspect of the party; the craft (decorating picture frames), making their own pizzas, cleaning up, etc.

All the girls were very well behaved.  We only had one small glitch when one of the girls started melting down around 7:30pm. She burst into tears and said she missed her mom greatly.  This girl had never spent the night at anyone's house before.  Her mom told me this might happen and to give her a call.  To wind down the evening, I put on the movie "Frozen".  There is nothing cuter than listening to 4 girls sing the soundtrack to "Frozen". 

By 10:10pm, everyone was asleep and didn't wake-up until nearly 7:00am the next morning.  Yay!! 

The next morning I made chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs, watermelon and orange juice for breakfast.  The girls didn't do such a good job eating breakfast and I quickly turned into a restaurant trying to offer breakfast foods they would eat.  I have to say, this was the only part that became a pain in my rear.  But I didn't want the girls to not eat. 

With it being a 3 day weekend, it was nice having the party on a Friday night and still having the majority of Saturday, all of Sunday and all of Monday to recover.  I am not saying I would quickly offer to do a slumber party again, but I would consider it.  Sam loved it and I think all her friends had a great time too.

Sam and her BFFs

The girls making their own pizzas



The girls decorating their picture frames. I took a picture of each
girl with Samantha and printed it out to put in their frame. 
For Samantha's frame, I took a group photo of all the girls.

The girls watching the movie and singing along.

The GREAT Sleepover

As I write this, we are winding down the last few minutes of a social experiment. It all started with Ian and his friends spontaneously asking if they could have a sleepover, as they were walking out our door one evening.  Then the siblings (fellow preschool playmates and close friends themselves) chimed in very quickly saying they wanted a sleepover too.   Somehow the idea formed that we would do a complete kid switch and free up the evening for one set of lucky parents from any parental duty.

In December, Ian and Sam went over to their friend's house for a sleepover.  And this past Saturday, we hosted the twin boys (Ian's age) and their little sister (Sam's age).  To say I was nervous was a very big understatement.  With the exception of Ian and one of the twin boys, we are dealing with some very strong personalities.   Laid back and go with the flow aren't really in their vocabularies.  The nickname I've given the girls and a few other of their preschool buddies is, "The Purple Screamers" if that gives you any indication of what we are dealing with.

I really wanted Jeff and I to go first in hosting.  I was certain I could handle the worst possible scenario if it came to be and abort the mission before Ian and Sam descended on our friend's house.  I was more intent that our friends remained our friends than having our turn at a kid-free evening.  But the timing worked out that Ian and Sam took their turn first.  Boy, did I hold my breath that all went well.  I hoped Sam could fall asleep and stay asleep through the night.  Turned out the experience for both sets of families was a good one.  Jeff and I enjoyed a great date night without having to pay for a babysitter and could even sleep in the next morning.

This past Saturday, we were able to repay the kindness and have our friend's 3 kiddos come for the night.  I was fully prepared for a very long, long night where none of us got much sleep.  To my delight, this could not have been further from the truth.  The boys were asleep by 8:55pm.  The girls proved to be a little more challenging and after many "I'm too hot, I'm too cold, It's too dark, It's too light, It's too quiet, It's too noisy, I want to sleep on the floor, I want to sleep on the bed, I don't want a blanket, I want a blanket, I want to change my pajamas, etc", they were both asleep by 9:17pm.  Not too shabby!

Everyone slept through the night.  Victory!  The kids got along great.  There was no whining, no tears, no fighting, no arguing of any kind.  Manners were at an all-time high.  

There comes an inner peace from knowing that your children (even at ages 4 and 7) aren't so high-maintenance they can't sleep at a friend's house.  The kids are showing they can be adaptive to a new environment for sleeping and do just fine.  It is a great feeling that very little instructions are needed when dropping them off. 

Yippee!

Sleepover? Close, but no cigar

You never know how something is going to turn out until you give it a try. Ian has been talking about having a sleepover since the beginning of the summer. I am still not sure where he first heard about them, but he talks non-stop about all the friends he will have over to spend the night.

Being the naive and fearless parents we are, we decided to throw Ian a bone and let him get the sleepover thing checked off his to-do list. Everyone who has kids and knew me well enough, told me that Ian was way too young and this was a crazy idea. We picked Ian's lowest maintenance friend, Johnny, and asked him over. Johnny's incredibly cool parents were up to the zany idea and willing to give it a try. The plan was for Johnny to come over at 4:00pm and be picked up to go home at 10:00am the next morning. All day Ian was looking forward to Johnny coming over. He kept asking how much longer until he arrives.

A particularly funny moment happened when the boys proved you can be outnumbered. We had gone to the mall earlier that day and allowed Ian to pick out all the colors of m&ms he wanted from the candy store. He was so excited to be able to share these with Johnny when he came over. We told Ian he could have them after dinner. Dinner was a success and both boys ate well. As we are getting up from the table, Jeff started his speech on the perimeters for eating the m&ms. While Jeff was talking, Ian and Johnny worked together to get the step stool, grab the HUGE bag of m&ms from on top of the microwave and walk out of the room together with the goods. Jeff is still talking. It was hilarious and I couldn't stop laughing. Clearly he was not in charge.

The boys got along fabulously (as we knew they would) and when it came time to go to sleep, they eagerly got into their pajamas and brushed their teeth. The sweetest thing was when Ian asked Johnny if he needed to borrow a Gymbo (Ian's lovey) to sleep with.

Between Johnny's CARS pajamas, CARS sleeping bag, CARS pillow, Ian's CARS bedding and pajamas, it looked like the movie threw-up in his room. Ian has a rule that he can't watch tv when having a friend over. But seeing as how the friend wasn't leaving, we said they could watch one thing before bed. They chose the movie "CARS". Fortunately we only kept it to an hour and then turned it off.

At first there was giggling, talking, endless "last" trips to the bathroom, a call to Johnny's mom to say good night, and then it got quiet. Ian fell asleep, but Johnny was still awake. Wide awake. Johnny has this lingering cough (not contagious) that will go away once he falls asleep. But until then, Johnny was coughing this half-cough every 10 to 15 seconds or so. For 1.5 hours. Jeff and I weren't sure if the cough was keeping him up. I felt bad that it was taking him so long to go to sleep. I called Johnny's mom and asked if there was something we could do to help him. After a quick discussion, Johnny's mom offered to come get him. I wasn't sure what to do. I know how badly kids need their sleep and I didn't know if Johnny could fall asleep in a strange bed. Johnny's mom said he usually falls asleep pretty fast. I guess it was best for us to call it a night and for Johnny to go home. Better at 10:30pm at night, then 2:00am, right?

When I went upstairs to tell Johnny his mom was coming to get him so he could go to sleep in his own bed, he instantly broke into tears. He didn't want to leave. It broke my heart and I felt so bad that I was doing this to him. Ian woke up briefly when he heard Johnny cry and started crying too; he didn't want Johnny leaving either.

We had plans for Jeff to take the boys to get bagels the next morning. Johnny really wanted to still do this, so we stuck with the plan and picked Johnny up at 8:00am to get some breakfast with us.

I think my friends may have been right. But you never know until you try. Ian is already going back to his list on who is next to sleepover. I think we are going to give it more than a few months before trying again.