After her party, Cora had a couple of friends come over to spend the afternoon/evening with us and stay the night. Emma is becoming a regular at our house, but this was Lauren's first sleepover (and I was so proud of her - she was perfect and seemed so happy the whole time!) Because it's more fun for everyone if both kids get to have friends over, James got to invite Coltin and Will, who have both stayed over with us before. Just in case the kids weren't tired enough from the skating, and the non-air conditioned heat of the shelter, we took them outside to kick things off with a water balloon fight.
Jay found a gorgeous speckled kingsnake in our tiny pond, so he captured it to show the kids. Everyone but Coltin was impressed (poor dude just wanted Jay to let it go far away, which we didn't, since having a kingsnake out the back door means we're far less likely to have copperheads or cottonmouths out the back door!)
How can you have outdoor water play without adding bubbles?...
Once the bugs came out and the parents left, the kids settled in for some coloring and marble play. Which eventually turned into Barbies and Kindles.
(These are Emma and Cora's cat creations. Lauren's was even fancier because her cat was wearing a wig and a bow, but I didn't take this photo until after the kids had left on Sunday, and Lauren took hers home to show her daddy.)
The boys had climbed straight into their pajamas from their swimsuits (because they used the outdoor shower to get the majority of the bugs, bug spray, and little pieces of grass and leaves off themselves), but the older girls took a bubble bath upstairs (Lauren declined to join them because she wanted to stay with me, so we played with the kittens while we intermittently supervised the bathing beauties). As soon as we asked the kids to turn out the lights and snuggle into bed, they all complied, so they must have been tired (it was only 9:30, which is early in sleepover time). Lauren chose to camp out in her sleeping bag on the floor while Cora and Emma took the bed. Coltin chose the top bunk while Will and James shared the bottom bunk.
(I accidentally woke Will at midnight when I went in for my final check before heading up to bed around midnight - we watched a movie since we'd both had a lot of late afternoon coffee in an effort to keep up with the kids - but after bringing him water, he said he went right back to sleep.)
The next morning was Father's Day! And lucky Jay, he got to celebrate with 6 kids and donuts!
Kids stay up late at sleepovers, but they don't sleep in late, so they had plenty of time to play before their parents arrived. The boys were very intent on marble races once again, and the girls took over the kitchen with play dough.
We think they all had a good time and we were happy to let Cora celebrate her birthday with a sleepover. A year ago we weren't sure we'd ever do sleepovers (at our house or friends houses), but without having cousins nearby, we feel very lucky to have a few sets of friends that we know we can trust to keep our kids safe and well behaved, and we're thankful they feel the same way about us. It can be really hard to entrust your children to other people, be that school teachers or Scout leaders or other parents for play dates, and it's especially hard to do so overnight. We don't foresee sleepovers happening too often (we had a couple more than expected this spring due to my surgery and Stirlin's), but they're a really nice treat for the kids on special occasions.
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