Sleepover

I love the neighborhood we live in.  It is filled with kids.  Sara has Ady just 4 houses down, Aaron and Nate have Taryn and Mallory just to the left of us, we've got the Masons (with 5 kids) just kiddy-corner from us, Savannah has Ellie 6 houses down from us....and then we've got Liam and Brynne just to the right of us.  As soon as the day starts, we've got those two knocking on our door to see if the kids can play, and they usually head home at bedtime.  They eat at our house just as often as they eat at their own house, and most days I feel like I have 8 kids instead of 6.  I love that my kids have such great best friends.  Liam is 6, so he plays with both Josh and Aaron (but mostly Josh), and Brynne and Savannah are like sisters.  Brynne and Liam are the ones who Owen lived with the week we went to Disneyland, so they kind of think of him as their little brother.  They are pretty much family.  If it's dinner time and I don't know where the kids are, I know that I'll find them next door at their house.  And if Anne is looking for her two kids, she knows they must be over here.

One thing our kids love doing, is having a "late night" with Brynne and Liam.  They come over (or our kids go over there) in pajamas and watch a movie and have a treat.  Then when the movie finishes, they just head home to bed.  It's much better than doing an actual sleepover, with the same fun late night giggling and hanging out.

The night after Josh's birthday, we still had the tent up and were going to let the kids sleep in it again.  They had been with Brynne and Liam all day, and they all decided that they should ALL sleep in the tent.  They finally got up enough courage to ask us if it would be ok, and we told them we were fine with it.  So they headed over to get permission from Brynne and Liam's parents.  Their mom wasn't home, and their dad said he wasn't going to make that decision, so they headed back over for a late night movie inside till Anne got home to give permission for all night in the tent.  Every 10 minutes they would all run next door to see if Anne was home yet.  Finally she got home and said "YES!", so we set to work getting 7 kids settled into the tent.

 (Sara was crying because "Savannah's being mean to me" as usual.)

Then Scott and I went in to watch a movie and opened the window so we could listen to the kids outside. We'd yell out the window every 10 minutes, "You guys are being too loud" and "You really need to go to sleep" and "If you don't stop talking, this sleepover is done!". Finally at 12:30, they all went to sleep. We had some very tired kids the next day, but I think it was worth the memories they made.