Sleepovers are right up my alley. I had fun stuff planned. The girls were going to make masks (Monster already made one), we'd go to the park, we'd all snuggle and read in our jammies, when we got up, everyone would have a fun breakfast. I think big. With a 5, 4, and two 3 year olds, things don't always follow a plan. It was still fun though! When the girls got here, they all just wanted to play inside. I was all prepared to let them dig in the dirt outside, but no one was interested. I made dinner and they all entertained each other. I tried to sneak in some extra veggies with Kraft's new Veggie Mac and Cheese. Not so good. The two oldest devoured their first helpings and asked for more. They each took about 3 bites of their second helpings and were done. Monster came over and whispered to me, "The more bites I take, the less good it is". The two youngest wouldn't touch it. So, that was a fail. However, the zucchini cupcakes were a hit...I can't take credit for those though. The girls' mom made them.
When dinner was done, we all headed out to the park. Me and four kids. It went better than I anticipated for the first 20 minutes. Then, there was almost a trip to the ER. Sunshine fell off the teeter totter and landed on her arm. It was hanging limp. I have to say, the kids were AWESOME for this. I told everyone we had to go and get Sunshine home so Mr. R could check out her arm to see if we had to go to the ER and they all hustled! Mr. R just happened to be walking up to the park to meet us at that moment and checked it out. Sunshine was able to move it and freaked out about not being able to stay and play, so we figured she was fine (and she is). We got to stay for another 20 minutes at the park before we all walked home. All the physical activity must have worn everyone out because when we got home, one of the girls asked if it was bedtime yet! I was going to make the masks with the girls then, but everyone just wanted to play. I love that all four of the kids were able to get along. The four year old was such a great helper. We were looking for the GloDoodle pen and she helped me pick everything up and organize to try to find it. By the time we were done, we still didn't find it and it was time for bed. I expected some tears for feeling like she didn't get to play since she was helping me, but there were none! My kids would have lost it and I would have heard, "But I didn't get to play!". I may have to borrow her every night to teach my kids to clean up!
Bedtime went a lot more smoothly than I had thought. Mr. R. read stories to the girls. I tucked everyone in. Then, Mr. R. read stories with Monster. One of the girls asked why Monster got to stay up and read stories. I let her know he would be going to bed soon, too, but he was older so he got to stay up a little later. A problem that I didn't foresee was Puppy. Puppy desperately wanted to sleep with the kids. Any of the kids. He first tried Sunshine, but was shooed out. Then he tried Monster and was again shooed out. Then he found he could bother the girls. The girls asked to sleep with the door cracked open. Puppy kept nosing his way in. The last time I had to drag him out, one of the girls came downstairs to tell me Puppy was in the room and when I found him, he was hiding on the far side of the bed facing the corner as if to say, "You can't see me!". After we finally locked Puppy on the porch, everyone fell right asleep.
Husband blew up an air mattress and we camped out in the living room. By 9:30, I could no longer keep my eyes open and fell asleep while Husband watched TV. At 3 am, Husband and I collided. Either he didn't blow the mattress up enough or there was a slow leak, either way, the mattress was going flat and we rolled into each other. We spent the next 3 hours trying not to move or bump into each other, unsuccessfully. Finally at 6am, we gave up and tossed the mattress aside and slept on the floor.
A little after 7:00, the girls got up. A house rule is that, on weekends, kids don't get out of bed until 7:30. I'm a firm believer in everyone following house rules, even if they are guests. Luckily, I know these kids well enough to know they (and their parents) will have no problem with this. I have the oldest one go to the bathroom. She comes out and her sister goes in. While her sister is in, she whispers to me, "I didn't flush so I wouldn't wake anyone up." About 10 seconds later, her sister flushes the toilet. The look on the older one's face was priceless. It was a mix between panic and annoyance. She stops and listens and then says to me, "Good, that didn't seem to wake anyone." Such the little mama. They both got back into be and just hung out in their room until 7:30 (after I had made coffee and had my first cup). We were building with Lincoln Logs when my kids got up. I could hear Sunshine upstairs, super excited her friends were here. Monster came down and started building with us. When Sunshine came down, the first words out of her mouth were, "No! I don't want you play with that!". And so the struggle began. From that point up until we left for soccer, Sunshine was no ray of sunshine. It's obvious we need to work on sharing.
There was a 40 degree in drop in temperature over night, so soccer was cold. Very cold. The girls and I all went to soccer while the boys got their haircut. We froze. After about 10 minutes, I asked the girls if they wanted to sit in the van. They jumped on that opportunity. The older one came out and joined me again, but the younger one wanted nothing to do with being out in the cold drizzle watching Sunshine kick a ball around.
After soccer, I took the girls home. Monster was a little sad I didn't bring the girls back to play more. We had a lot of fun with our sleepover! I was beat. I actually took a 2.5 hour nap. The kids can't wait to do it again. Now that we know the girls will definitely sleep here, we will most definitely do it again! Hopefully next time, I can work in all my fun plans :)