The Sleepover: How it all got started

Ok well it started like this...last year I wanted the boys to have a sleepover. I initially said during fall break. I never got around to doing that, what with photography and just being worn out with having such a little one,etc.

Well, we finally had one. Their birthdays were 8/2 and 8/11, but I wanted to wait until I could somewhat breathe at work, so we waited until last night. I am still crazy busy with work and getting the house under some control, so it was hard to commit to this date. So hard, in fact, that I invited one of Spencer good baseball/football buddies before invites were made, on Sunday, before I could actually commit to it. Then I knew there was no changing it. I invited another one at church on Sunday, and it was a done deal. I planned on staying up Sunday to do invites, because I had handmade some before and just loved loved loved them, but oops who had grading and lesson plans to do late Sunday night? me, me, me. booo.

So Monday night I sat down, at 11 PM, and whipped up some invitations out of card stock. I had no fancy little embellishments like I planned to make, so there was really no point in making them myself at all. Should've just went ahead and bought them. But ah well. They did have a little cute timetable about what all we would be doing that night, so that was pretty cute. And Spencer loved them. Love his heart, he's so good to me :) And we all know Riley loves everything, so it was a success.

They handed out the invites on Tuesday. The sleepover was set for Friday. I thought, well, I'll let them each invite 5. Then 2 or 3 each will come, and it will be great. My biggest fear was that no one would come for one of them. Or just one, and the other would have several. So I sort of wanted to overinvite, in hopes that as long as 2 came each, they would be so happy they wouldn't compare. This is just Spencer and Riley we're talking about, btw.

Well, I know they have more friends that what they could invite, so I asked them if everything went ok and if they had their friends put up their invitations asap, so no one would see. (Well in Riley's case, I had his wonderful teacher take care of it, so as not to cause hurt feelings.)

Spencer said that Jordan unfortunately showed his invitation to 2 boys, who were also good friends of Spencer's. They came up to Spencer during recess and asked why they weren't invited. I thought about it and thought about it, and know that Spencer plays with these boys pretty often. I had to make 2 more invitations. Also, when I asked one dad if they would be able to come (a teacher), he sort of said something about making plans for the other 8 y/o brother, so I went ahead and scooped him up in case no one came for Riley. My boys love them, so I knew it would be great. So that's 3 more than I planned for.

Mrs. Ewing said that one little boy wouldn't be able to come for religous reasons, so I went ahead and made another invite for the other friend that Riley was sad about not getting to invite.

so 3 more invites went out on Wednesday. The RSVPs started coming in on Thursday. yes, yes, yes. The only "no" was one of Riley's friends who had to go to a wedding. Everyone was coming. O. M. G.

The boys were beside themselves with excitement. So was I! I had to clean, clean, clean--clean as though I hadn't clean since school started, clean! LOL But it was worth it. I knew they were going to have so much fun! I was thrilled for them. 12 kids. Plus my 4. 15 boys and a baby. And we're talking all boy boys. But I couldn't help it I was so happy for them to have this experience! I was caught up! I couldn't wait!

We haven't had a big sleepover since Spencer was in Kindergarten, and that one was a HUGE success--I mean I loved loved loved it--maybe 6 or so kids. Plus we had Riley and Talan was about 8 months old. We reserved a baseball field and had them play baseball, a walk in the dark with flashlights, oh wow it was really fun for them all. I enjoyed that experience, and it had been so long ago. We were due. I couldn't wait!