Our oldest is nearly eight and so far we've gotten away with NOT hosting friends for sleepovers. While the boys have gone to sleepovers at friend's and cousin's houses, I've never let on that it was an option for US to have a sleepover. Since I spend my days with kids, and those kids are my kid's best friends, the subject of having kids spend the night has never come up. Until now.
The boys are only two years apart in school and they have many of the same friends. They've waited very patiently for us to have a free-ish weekend to have a slumber party. I had plenty of activities planned for the kids in case they got bored (they never did, but they happily indulged in my activities).
Edible slime. I made this earlier in the day for daycare and the kids loved it so much that we did a round 2 when the big kids came home from school. I had to giggle when the school friends were unsure about the slime ("what is this again?" they asked, as they reluctantly poked at it) and the daycare kids encouraged them to play with it. They then went on to explain to them how it was made and urged them to play with it different ways. Sometimes I forget that not everyone is used to our antics here!
Pizza for dinner, then hide and seek around the house, followed by a movie and popcorn and M & M's for a mid-evening calm down.
The kids went outside in the backyard for a late night game of hide n' seek in the dark (with flashlights of course). Eventually it turned into them chasing each other and playing "Goosebumps" (their movie and books of choice at the moment) far later than I would let my kids play outside. The kids were having a great time until they heard fireworks in the distance and asked to come inside.
Matt got this cool picture of our huge sycamore trees in our front yard. The sky was a cross between cool and eerie as the rain got ready to move in.
It took a while for all of the kids to get jammies on, teeth brushed, and one last trip to the bathroom in. Once they laid down though they were out! Getting out that last burst of energy in the backyard did them good!
Elizabeth wasn't initially part of the sleepover, but she quite successfully made herself a big part of it, including sleeping on the floor with everyone. She was the last one to stop talking, the last one to fall asleep, and the first one to say "let's play guys!" in the morning.
The cats were THRILLED with all of the sleeping options. They moved from blanket to blanket all night long.
I didn't want to leave the bathroom light on all night so instead I put a sound machine with a nightlight in the bathroom. The kids thought it was funny but it helped with the early morning bathroom breaks.
I was impressed that the kids all slept in until 7:15/7:30 a.m. While they played, I made homemade donuts. These are official slumber party donuts. My mom used to make these for my friends for every sleepover I had as a kid. I decided I should carry on the slumber party donuts tradition.
The kids LOVED the donuts, but only ate one or two before they ran off to play again. The Drake Half Marathon route went by our house. The kids spent a good portion of the early morning waving at the runners through the window.
They built a fort to play in. Actually, they took more time building it than playing in it.
The kids were all very well behaved, played well together, and had fun. I couldn't stop being in Daycare Provider mode however. I had activities planned for them to do (I'm told that this is not the slumber party norm but whatever) and I totally wasn't comfortable letting them sleep by themselves. As someone who constantly looks in on the daycare kids napping during the days, I chose to curl up on the couch so I would be there in case something happened. While the kids had fun, I found myself exhausted from the experience. Next time I'll try to pull myself out of daycare provider mind set so it's not quite as tiresome!
I was pleased that the night and morning went so smoothly....although that just means that there's already talk of "the next sleepover."