I was always the girl with the toothpaste in her ear or the frozen panties at slumber parties. I lose interest in anything right quick when I get sleepy, and I can get sleepy in the middle of any activity. I had no problem - at eight, ten, twelve - adjourning myself to go right off to sleep. I may be an anomaly this way.
Jake was given a choice between a big party with one small gift or a sleepover with five friends and a big gift. He went for the sleepover and big gift, which he requested be a trampoline. Later he asked for a trampoline's amount worth of Harry Potter-abilia. We ended up with three friends sleeping over. This is a very significant event in Jake's life. For various reasons that are identified elsewhere in this blog, Jake's living situation has never been conducive to having lots of friends over. This is the first time any of his friends from school have been to his house and only the second time he's ever had a non-relative sleep over. He was so excited to have his best friends from school see his room and meet his dog. It reinforces that we have kids who've been dealt more than most but just want to be like all the other boys, and they shine when they feel normal.
Corey and I bought him four Harry Potter wand replicas and a Horcrux locket. (This makes no sense to you if you have not seen the movies.) So the theme of the party activities was Nerf guns and Harry Potter play.
First there was playing upstairs, and we let Landen participate. Until Jake came down and said that Landen was being mean to his friends. I'm not entirely sure this was true, because Corey heard his say something about his "dumb brother," which got his ass called back downstairs with a stern warning about never punking his little brother to his friends again. Landen was allowed to visit the boys upstairs a few times during the evening, but for the most part, he remained downstairs with us watching TV and snacking. He had an offer to go have his own sleepover at Cydney's house, but he was reluctant to be away from the action.
This is the second time I can recall where the difference between their ages actually caused a separation between them, other than being in different grades. The first was the crushing blow of not being allowed a rolling backpack like Jake's, because you have to be in the fourth grade to be allowed a backpack with wheels. The second was tonight, and the realization that Jake had his own friends and his own interests outside of Landen, and temporarily preferred those activities to being with this little brother, was difficult for Landen to grasp. Jake did go and tuck Landen into our bed when we put Landen down (with a movie the sleepover boys weren't allowed to watch) so I think a tiny part of Jake understood this separation was alien and sad to his brother.
We ordered pizza, and there's not a slice of it left. We had cupcakes (with no icing but Ready-Whip for those who need a little extra sweets) and presented Jake with his trampoline amount of Harry Potter presents. Very animated (read: loud) play resumed after dinner until Cydney and I made palettes and Corey made every one lay down and turned on a movie. He went back upstairs twice between 11:30 and 11:31 to tell them it was late and the noise level needed to come way, way down. They needed reminding in a louder, sterner voice one minute after the original "shut the hell up" declaration was made. Seriously? Nobody told anybody to shut the hell up. The worst it got was "did you not hear what I JUST said?"
I sent Corey to bed before midnight because he had to go in to work today. At midnight I went upstairs and told the boys, who were all sitting in the middle of the floor playing with each other's Nintendo DS, that when the movie was over, the TV and all electronic devices needed to be off. I had to go up at 1 PM and shush them. At 1:30 it finally went quiet and I went to bed. At 7:30 AM, they were up at at 'em. Dammit! In the morning, before Landen's eyes were open all the way, he was asking if he could go upstairs, and I asked him to go let the big boys know we had donuts. That message didn't get delivered because when he appeared upstairs, they asked him if he wanted to play.
There was a Nerf guns versus swords battle outside earlier this morning, after breakfast. They returned upstairs to continue the destruction of Jake's room and have been watching Jake play his favorite Medieval Total War on the computer. They're still including Landen this morning. These are all very well-behaved kids. Thre have been no arguments. They mind their manners. I didn't have to go back upstairs to tell them the room needed to go dark when the movie was over last night. They self-enforced that. One little boy LOVES my house. Another little boy brought a present for Landen. As far as overnight guests are concerned, I'm quite certain I subject my mother to worse. But, I can't wait for my nap. We're going to have a mandatory quiet time this afternoon. As soon as these mamas come get their boys at noon.
A note about the people in this house who did not enjoy slumber-partying. I got this face from Corey when the noise level was at its highest, around 7:30 PM.
Murphy did not care for all this commotion. It was very disruptive to his chi. They would get going upstairs and he would stand up and huff at the ceiling. Once I let him upstairs to see what he'd do, and he stood in the doorway of Jake's room and barked "BE QUIET" as loud as he could.
I couldn't get a picture of Miss Lily. I do know that she spent part of the evening hiding in the shower and jumped out and scared the beejesus out of one of our houseguests while he was using the potty. I heard her around 1 AM walking around Jake's room and meowing her head off, which is what she does when it's past everyone's bedtime and she wants people to get in the designated places and go the hell to sleep.
Overall, I guess it turned out successfully, because one boy was allowed by his mother to spend the night only after she met us and saw our house. I passed some sort of private-school mother acceptance test, and that's damn cool. Another boy who was on the fence about sleeping over decided about two hours in that he wanted to stay. The biggest measure of our success in an endeavor bigger than a sleepover was when Jake asked Cydney if she thought it was always like this. Like what? Did she think everybody always had this much fun at a sleepover?
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