Slumber Party

For Kendal's 7th and 8th birthdays, we had her parties at one of our local pools. Lots of fun and the kids love it, but decided to change it up for her #9 birthday and have it at the house. Not only was it at the house, but it was a SLUMBER PARTY!!!!! Her first ever! A somewhat unlimited guest list at the pool...no big deal. A big deal when it's a slumber party at your house. Not sure what I was thinking when I allowed her to invite 13 little girls. Not a typo...THIRTEEN!!!! I guess some of what I was thinking was that most of these girls, while I know them from being in her class occasionally and going on field trips, their parents don't know us so they probably wouldn't be able to stay the night. That is our philosophy on sleep overs, but we are apparently "not the norm". Out of the 13 invitations, one girl couldn't come because of prior plans and one could come for the evening, but couldn't stay the night because they were going out of town. So, that means that there was Kendal, 11 of her friends, Payton, Bransyn and one of their little friends that ended up staying the night as well. Grand total of 15 (16 for a few hours) little girls running through our not-so-big house. It was LOUD, to say the least. :)

the whole gang

the whole gang...again

acting nuts (they all actually are :) )

some trashed, I mean played, in Kendal's room :)

some watched movies in the playroom, sort of

Bsyn hanging with the big girls

Payton crashed early...early being around 10

Around midnight, I finally told them that they needed to get settled on their sleeping bags and start winding down. Jeff had to work the next morning and the last thing I needed was for them to wake him up, surprisingly, they never did. I told them that they could watch a movie and/or talk quietly but that the noise level had to go WAY down, then I got my pillows and blanket and settled in on the couch to hopefully get some sleep. As you can imagine, it didn't take long for it to get louder, a little louder and yet even louder.

Notice Bsyn at the front of the pic (with the monkey blanket), she was still going strong when I told everyone to get settled at midnight. It didn't take her long though and she was OUT!

Some went to sleep pretty quickly, others I don't think had any intention of going to sleep. At TWO A.M., I finally took my pillows and blanket and laid down on the playroom floor as well. That did the trick! Everyone was QUIET and went to sleep. I even managed to doze off and when I woke up an hour later, had to say a little prayer that I could make it up off the floor. I WAS SORE! I am not a kid anymore and sleeping on the hard floor at my age...not a smart move! :) I managed to make it up and drag my belongings back to the couch where I got in a few hours of restless sleep before getting up to make everyone a pancake, scrambled eggs and sausage breakfast. I thought I would have plenty of time to get breakfast made and maybe even have to wake them up to eat. Boy, was I wrong! I have seriously forgotten what it is to be a kid. The first few came out a little before 7 and the rest were close behind. I hadn't consumed enough coffee yet so I really wasn't ready to see those sweet, sleep deprived, disheveled little faces so I told them to get their things together, get dressed and go outside and play till breakfast was ready. I should have had an 8:00 pick up instead of 9:00.... By 9:15, all the sweet, darling, little angels were gone and then the mad dash to get everything cleaned up and back in order began because even though we were all functioning on less than the recommended amount of sleep, we were meeting friends at the pool. Priorities, right?! :)

We spent a few hours at the pool, where as always, we had fun with our friends. The plan when we got home, was to get bathed and then have left over pizza and birthday cake and watch a movie. That did not happen for a couple of exhausted little girls!

This is how I found Bransyn after her bath. I sent her to her room to get her PJ's (which she has tucked under her) and when she was taking too long to come back, I went to see what was taking her so long. I get her half awake to get her dressed and ask her if she wants to eat or go to bed. She wants to go to bed. In the mean time, Payton has already been bathed and is dressed for bed and REALLY wants to eat. She is our dramatic, "I'm going to throw up if I don't eat right now" child. I tell her she has to wait a few more minutes so I can get the sheets back on Bsyn's bed so she can go to bed. A few minutes was too long...

She was sound asleep when I came out of their room. They both were in bed by 5:30 and slept until 7:30ish the next morning. They were obviously WAY tired! Kendal, on the other hand, stayed up watching movies until I made her go to bed at 10:30. She slept until 9:30, very late for her.

Four bandaids, two ice packs, some tears (some from the birthday girl herself) and one splinter, but overall, it was a very good slumber party. They were loud and obnoxious, but very good at polite and everyone seemed to have fun together. Kendal said she had a lot of fun. I am not opposed to any more slumber parties, but next time the guest list will be considerably smaller! :)

Until next time...