MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP

It's only 11:15 right now. The night of Maddy's slumber party. So far so good, but I'm ready for sleep. I may have a long night ahead of me.

I made each child agree that 11:30 was quiet time. I made the parents leave contact info on a form I provided so I don't have to search to hell and back to come up with the nighttime number if should need to reach them. One of the moms from the new school asked me if I was a teacher. (No, just a former tech writer. Oy vey.)



Here is a shot of my kid. She's happy. Imagine 8 happy girls having fun with her. Got that picture? Now imagine them doing warm up games, big art projects, dinner, presents, cupcakes and ice cream, dancing to HSM2, nail painting, board games and puzzles, truth or dare, spin the bottle (what? I have no idea - but no kissing), and movie watching. We didn't get to the bunko. Or the karaoke. But the night is still young.


Our neighbors stopped by. OK, I had called them with a false die emergency (I didn't think we had enough dice for bunko - not that we ended up playing the game, but the situation was remedied with ransacking all of our board games, so emergency averted). Anyway, after my call I think they wanted to make sure I wasn't losing my mind. Here is Bob with his beautiful son and daughter. Not officially checking up on me. But kinda, maybe.


More importantly, here are Nicholas and Cambria up close. They woke up shortly after this and we got to hold them and kiss them. Yeah! That is the very best kind of visit. I love them and feel so lucky to have them nearby every day but especially on slumber party night.


Here is the art project we had them do. Each girl decorated 2 wooden blocks with cut paper, known as paper piecing. One block needed to be monkey - that one goes to Madigan. The other is to take home. We have a bear, a sea cucumber, an afro dog, and a LOT of monkeys. The project was a huge hit and Maddy will have these works of art to remember her 10th birthday for years to come. Awesome.


And since I am the Crummy Cupcake - here are the rolled fondant monkey cupcakes I made. Kinda crummy, dontcha think. Just what I was going for.

I will post more on Kiddos when I get the express written permission from all of the parents involved. Stay tuned. I have some lovely pics of the girls on their adventures. What a delightful thing that I get to help my kid celebrate her birth with this amazing group of girls. I am feeling very grateful and a little guilty that I was so nervous.

I say that now, but the night is not over yet...