The Slumber Party

This year for Alyssa’s birthday, we decided instead of doing a location party, we’d invite a couple of friends over for a slumber party.

A couple of friends morphed into five friends, which, including Alyssa, led to me stomping down the hall at 2am on Sunday morning to say, “Seriously! Girls, it’s time to go to sleep!”

But other than that one moment of frustration, the party went really well.

The girls began arriving at just before three on Saturday afternoon. Alyssa showed them where to take their stuff. We’d moved a mattress into the room where the girls would be sleeping so there was plenty of space for them to sprawl.

But 5:30, all the girls had arrived and it was time to put the giant pizza into the oven. I’d bought a ‘mega’ pepperoni pizza and then just moved some of the pepperoni around so that the one girl who wanted just cheese could have it, the other three who wanted just black olives and cheese could have that and the one who wanted just pepperoni had that option too.

Of course, there was also N, the nicest, most polite child I’ve ever met. Seriously. She’s so soft spoken, always says thank you, always compliments whatever you on whatever you’ve just served her, she offered to help clear the table and she didn’t complain when the other girls got grabby with the popsicles and left her with no choice. When asked what she likes on her pizza, N replied, “I’ll eat anything you make.”

Where did this kid come from and how can I have my child programmed to be more like her?

Okay, so I don’t want to actually change Alyssa. She’s pretty awesome already but I wouldn’t mind if she picked up a few polite habits from her friend N.

After dinner, Alyssa and I handed out t-shirts to the girls and they all painted something on them. It was cute and fun. It also gave the paint the rest of the night to dry before the parents started showing up at 9:30 the next morning.

After painting, the girls started eating popcorn. I only had to tell two friends to stop throwing popcorn into each other’s mouths (read, onto the floor!) twice before the whole group escaped upstairs, granting me blessed quiet and solitude. Did I mentioned Olivia was having her very own slumber party over at Gram’s house with Jaxon?

Looking back, I’m glad we threw the party but I think the next one will be limited to three friends, which, including Alyssa, would leave us with only four preteens running around like they’re still only three years old.

In a lot of ways, these girls are still so young and yet on the cusp of being so grown up. I’m lucky that Alyssa has a great group of friends who also have wonderful parents.

That N, though, is seriously, the nicest girl in the world.