Making Good on Promises

I'm not a slumber party person. When I say that, what I really mean is, I don't like slumber parties. I like sleep. I need sleep. And despite the name, slumber parties are pretty much the opposite of sleep.

But, the girls, at their tender age of 6, don't understand momma's need for sleep. They've been asking for a slumber party since their Pre-K graduation. And I promised that some day, we'd get around to hosting one.

And for some reason, I'm blaming it on PMS, this sleep-lovin' momma decided that the Friday before Daylight Savings Time was set to begin was the perfect time to plan a slumber-less party. Why do I do that to myself?

I cleaned for 2 days before the party. Why? I'm not sure. Traditionally houses get trashed at non-slumber parties right? Because there is no slumbering going on.

But my strategy was to keep the 6 year olds so busy with food, and crafts, and snacks, and movies that there would be no time left for the traditional trashing of the house. I felt like it was a solid plan.

First on the agenda was a short photo session as soon as the girls arrived. When I got a group picture I liked, I uploaded it to my favorite 1 hour photo lab and moved on to the next activity.

Dinner.

And then the first craft. We pealed crayons...





...and melted them in the oven. When they were done we had huge, melded together, flower shaped crayons. The girls loved it and it kept them busy for quite a while.

In fact, Brooke and Mary TuTu want to make more crayon flowers tomorrow. It was so easy and there was so little clean up that I'll probably let them. We will use less of the dark colors like blue, purple, and brown and more of the bright colors like pink, white, yellow, orange, and lime green.

Then we hopped in the car, and went to pick up our pictures from the photo shoot. When we got back to the house we decoupaged small clip boards to make cutie pie picture frames.

While the decoupage was drying, the girls ate some chocolate chip cookies, changed into their pjs, and arranged the sleeping bags in the living room. They settled in to watch Hannah Montana The Movie, and as the opening credits were playing I took a picture of the clock.



It has to be some sort of un-slumber party record. Peace and quiet before 9:00pm? It made me change my mind. I decided that I like slumber parties if the guests are all under the age of 7, exhausted from a long week at school, and think that staying up until 10:30pm to finish the Hannah Montana movie is the BEST! TREAT! EVER!


The movie was over at 10:30 and by 10:40 all four of the girls were sound asleep. I felt like the mighty conquering hero just home from war. It must have been the glittery stickers I bought for their clip boards that put them over the "this is the best slumber party ever, let's go to bed early so she'll invite us over again" edge.

And then the first girl came into my room to announce that she couldn't go back to sleep. And I took a picture of the clock. And I hated not-much-sleep overs all over again.

But they convinced me to cook breakfast anyway.

And we lived. And it was fun. And the girls really did have a blast. And the house didn't get trashed. But spring forward is killing me.