Sleepover!!!

Not long ago, when asking Ellie what she wanted to do that weekend, her response was "I wanna go swimming! Wih Brynn! And I want to go to da farm wif Brynn... and have a sleep over wif Brynn... and go to Bounce Town wif Brynn... and go to nastics with Brynn... and go to da zoo wif Brynn... Hey, Mommy? I have someping to tell you. I want EVERYTHING to do wif Brynn!"

And so this weekend we crossed another item off the list... with her very first sleep-over! After telling my coworkers that I was nervous about hosting the first sleepover, they actually had the nerve to ask "How many?" HOW MANY? HOW MANY? Isn't one more enough to tackle for the first time?? How many? Humph.


But no, it was just Brynn and Ellie this time around. After we ate dinner at Chick-Fil-A (safe-bet, where BOTH girls ate ALL their food, mind you), we came home and put on our PJs. Sleep-overs are always done with PJs on as soon as possible. I just love the feet PJs combined with the princess high-heels. These girls know how to start a sleepover with class!


And ask these girls how excited they were to sleep together for the ENTIRE night? You get something like this - a little crazy with a few giggles and LOTS of jumping.

After the jumping craziness calmed down a bit, we played hide and seek. It's always fun for me to watch the girls play because every time they get a slightly clearer understanding of how the game works. This time they picked different hiding locations from the one I chose, but they always hid together. When I commented on it, they would look at each other and insist "But we are best fwiends and so we get to hide together, right?"


Though Brynnie brought her own bunny, she did not hesitate at Ellie's offer to have one of her Bun Buns. I'm telling you, only the cool girls get to have Bun Bun. And these girls are COOL, with a capitol K!


It probably comes as no surprise to you that I had to take a lot of photos of my daughter's first sleepover. So, it would be expected that some of those photos show off the girls' fantastic fake smiles. Ha. Fake smiles make me laugh. At least they humored me and smiled for the camera...


... only because I bribed them with dessert (frozen yogurt... Yummy). Even with sleepovers, you have to make the most of the saying "you give me what I want and I'll give you what you want." It works like a charm. A fake smile charm.


After dessert we set the girls up on the pull-out bed in the basement and watched the movie Shrek. Brynn has never been one who can sit still long enough for an entire movie so we did other activities too...


... like painting their finger nails (matching colors, of course)...

... and decorating piggy banks.


Finally when it was time for bed, they had a very difficult time falling asleep. I KNOW! I was shocked too! If there was one thing I learned, I think I will put the girls to bed a half hour earlier during their next sleepover. I actually finally ended up having to lay between the girls, and once I thought of that brilliant idea, both girls were passed out within minutes.

I was actually a little nervous about bedtime because Brynn had never slept away from her parents AND her house before. If she slept elsewhere, her parents were with her and the one time she slept without them was at her house. After my first attempt to get the girls to sleep, they were actually quiet for about 5 minutes AND I was sleeping in a different bed, but then Ellie spoke up and said "Mommy? Ummm... Brynn is sad" in a very worried tone. I got out of bed and asked Brynn why she was sad but she said she didn't know. I then pulled out my magic weapon - a felt heart filled with lavender. I had gotten two from Etsy (I am so addicted to that site it's not even funny), one green for Ellie and one blue for Brynn (they've practically defined themselves by their favorite colors). I told Brynn that the heart would help give her good dreams. Ellie was nice enough to confirm that what I said was true and Brynn seemed to believe her. I ended up staying until they both fell asleep and then they slept until about 6:30 in the morning. Not too bad. Go Niffer!


So Ellie's first sleepover went well (perfect if you look past the being tired from going to bed so late part). Both girls were pretty well behaved and they spent quite a bit of time confirming that they are indeed best friends and will be forever. Whenever either of them wanted to do something that was opposite of what we requested, they'd gang up against us. Brynn would say "We're best friends, right Ellie? And we don't want to stop playing yet, right?" or Ellie would say "We're best friends, right Brynn? And we don't want to go to sleep yet, right?" Though they were all talk (and ended up listening to us anyway), they were definitely right about the best friend thing.


And Addie??? She had her first sleepover too! She slept away from us for the first time on Saturday. Both girls went over to Gramma's house (she's a brave woman) to spend the night. And with the exception of Gramma not knowing that Addie still takes two naps a day, I think it went pretty well. The detail you should remember is this: Daddy and I got to sleep in until 7:30 Sunday morning AND then we stayed in bed until 8:30. FANTASTIC.