Sleepovers

This was a sleepover weekend. My younger girls came Friday night (3 of them, all sisters) and the older girls came Sunday night (7 of them). Thanks to a long weekend, I could do both sleepovers and free up the rest of the weekends. I also took Friday and Tuesday (today) off to prepare and recover (and to do homework; I think reading a page counts, right?). It was also a chance to rest from the stress of work lately and prepare for the upcoming madness.

The sleepovers went will. With the little girls (grades 4-8) we mostly laughed a lot and danced around the living room to the songs on the 4th Ice Age movie (except the oldest didn't dance, either because she's too cool or she was tired from band trip) and they went to sleep before midnight.

The older ones are louder of course. They need to remember that there are other people in the building. We watched some movies and went for a walk, ending up at the playground. It's a well equipped playground (with a lot of spinning things to make kids sick) and it was late so there weren't many kids there. They love the playground. For supper they had kids' meals from Boston Pizza (it was the only way to get an all cheese pizza) and they loved that too. They aren't  quite as grown up as they think they are. Some time after 1:00 I got them settled down and put on Pride and Prejudice. They were asleep by 2. In the morning they were sluggish until I told them that there were mini boxes of cereal for breakfast. I've never seen anyone get up and to the table so fast!

It was a really good weekend. I was able to relax and (mostly) for get about work and have some fun. Now I'm feeling better about going back to work tomorrow, way better than I have in weeks.

Sleepover Weekend

This was a sleepover weekend. My Sunday School girls were over Friday night and the junior/senior high girls were over Sunday night (actually, it's Monday morning as I type and they are still getting picked up (side note; the parents are great about picking up the girls by 11:00)). It was a good weekend (thanks to some good naps). The younger group only had 3 girls and they were pretty low key and asleep by 11:30. The older group had 8 girls (a smaller group than last time; no one had to sleep under the dining room table or in the entryway).

It was a quieter sleepover in many ways. We've started doing crafts at sleepovers; the girls enjoy them and it keeps them more settled. Last night included some rock animals, painting, and a lot of friendship bracelets. We did watch some movies: RV and The Princess Diaries. Later, when they were starting to fade but wanted another movie, we put on The Sound of Music; by intermission they were almost all asleep so I turned it off.

When they decided to start talking about boys I took control. It actually started with them talking about what they would do if they had a baby when they were teens: raise it or give it up for adoption (which actually came from one of them mentioning that her cousin, who had a baby at 17, was pregnant again). From there we moved to how to avoid teen pregnancy (I had to convince them that "only date nice Christian boys" was not a guarantee). They I steered them to what they should be looking for in a potential husband and then to what they needed to be as well. We talked about fear of the Lord, wisdom, discernment, and integrity as well as the negatives: not abusive, not quarrelsome, not a gossip. There was a lot more as well. (I relied on God's Wisdom in Proverbs as a guide because there was no way I'd remember everything on my own and I wanted them to think about this Biblically and the Proverbs book conveniently provides Scripture references). Anyway, it was a really good talk, one that I plan to repeat as often as possible to keep them thinking properly about relationships (and not just dating; we talked about what these characteristics had to do with  being a good friend and child as well).

This morning they cleaned up (and they are very good about doing most of the tidying up; there was only a bit left for me, plus things like taking down the garbage and then vacuuming). Then, after breakfast, we watched Tim Hawkins and they all went home (they're all gone now). One mom brought me coffee from Timmies, so I'm happy. The only thing left to decide is whether I should vacuum before or after nap time!

The Sleepover

I have survived another sleepover with my girls. There were 10 of us sleeping in my living room last night (and for the record, it isn't a big room). We had a great time, watching movies, playing games, talking, and eating. They ate, among other stuff, 16 bags of microwave popcorn (although given the amount of popcorn I vacuumed up this morning, "ate" might not be the right word).

They're good girls and they make me laugh. The youngest is 9 and the oldest is 12 or 13, which doesn't sound like a big gap, but at their age is a really big difference. This is usually seen in their choice of movies. See, normally at the beginning of the sleepover we walk to Blockbuster to rent movies. I pair them up so we usually get 4 movies and there will be something for the little ones and the older ones. We spend a lot of time negotiating since the older girls don't want "baby" movies, but they tend to try choosing movies that I won't approve. This year I told them before the sleepover that if there were any arguments I would call their parents and ask if the movie was appropriate (I can accept the I may be more cautious than their parents although I doubt it). This decision already made them agree not to argue, so I thought it would be easier this year.

It turned out to be a moot point. It was windy and cold and threatening to rain yesterday evening so I didn't want to go out. Instead I went through my movies and pulled out the ones I thought they could watch.

The end result? My very grown up girls (who don't want to watch baby movies) choose, and sang along with, VeggieTales, including "Larry's Wonderful World of Autotainment," "Gideon, Tuba Warrior," and "Jonah." They also choose Shrek 2. They rejected E.T. five minutes in because it was "boring" (read: none of them stopped talking long enough to follow it and it wasn't animated) and only one of them wanted to watch "Narnia." My very big, so grown up girls!

Sometimes Being Spontaneous is Good

I like plans. I like to know how my day will go and what will happen. I do not do well with large blocks of unplanned time; I crave structure.

So maybe someone can explain the small sleepover that happened here Friday night. I can't. Usually I plan these a week or two in advance, not the night they happen. But, Friday night we had a wedding shower for a young couple from our church (who got married in December and then spent the semester in Israel, so this was as soon as we could have it). Near the end, as people were cleaning up and heading out, two of the girls from church cornered me and asked if they could sleep over that night (they had missed the last official sleepover). Every instinct said no, but what came out was "ask your dad." Silly me; what dad wouldn't say yes to having half his children taken off his hands for a while! Then they convinced a third girl's mom to say yes too (because they knew that I wouldn't object; I'm such a sucker).

And so I had 3 preteens sleeping on my living room floor that night. They ate a pile of popcorn and some Popsicles and whatever else I had in the kitchen, played some games, and watched The Sound of Music. And, sweet things that they are, slept until almost 9:00 the next morning.

And it was fun. There was no planning, no stress, no worries. They ate and watched whatever I had and it was good. We laughed a lot and played games and talked and had fun.

That was my foray into spontaneity. I should plan to do it again some day!