Sleepover

Friday night, we had some friends over for dinner: a friend from church (whose husband had just left on a mission trip) and her two kids and another couple with their son. We all had a delicious dinner together (if the cook can say such a thing :). After dinner, the four boys played in the play room and the five adults played Taboo (baby Lydia hung out with us while we played).

We were all amazed at how well the boys played together. They finished their dinner in about ten minutes and then played mostly independently from 7:00 pm until they went to bed at 11:30, with hardly any conflict. I think an adult had to intervene three times the whole evening. We've all been friends since these boys were two and three years old, and it is MUCH easier to have them all together at four and five than it was then. Ethan, the baby of the group, doesn't seem to have much trouble playing along with the big boys.

Anyway, they interacted so peacefully that us adults were able to talk and play games all evening. Baby Lydia got tired around 8:00, so she crashed in Ethan's retired crib. Around 10:30, we told Lydia's Mommy that she and her two were welcome to stay the night so she didn't have to wake up Lydia and drive home to a dark, empty house (something she and I both really dislike doing). She happily accepted, so we moved toward putting Caleb, Ethan and her son, Matthew, to bed. Jack, our other friends' son, wanted to join in on the sleepover, so he and his mother decided to stay the night as well. It was a little chaotic getting Caleb, Jack & Matthew to go to sleep in our boys' queen bed, but Marcus read them a book, Matthew's mom read them the riot act, and they finally conked out. I put Ethan down in our bed, but he fought sleep even longer than the big boys. Finally, around midnight, all five kids (and Marcus) were asleep. The other two Mommies and I stayed up talking until almost 2:00, when even we finally had to crash.

We were really hoping that the kids would sleep in a little, considering their unprecedented midnight bedtime, but they did not. Baby Lydia was up at 6:00 and her brother joined her shortly after. My boys slept in until 7:00, but they made up for the 7-hour night with a 4-hour afternoon nap. And they weren't even grumpy in the morning! We bid all our friends goodbye at around 8:30 am, and then the boys' and I headed on errands: the bank, the grocery store, Michael's, the library, and the shoe store to get them new shoes. That is a lot of errands for them even on a well-rested morning, but they were cheerful and cooperative all morning. Kids are so unpredictable!