A Party, Pretend Play, and a Portfolio

Julia got invited to a birthday sleepover in June, and she couldn't be more excited.  Madeleine, on the other hand, is heart-broken.  She can't bear to be left behind, and doesn't want to spend a night apart from her sister.  To remedy the situation, Madeleine has decided that we should move the birthday sleepover to OUR house, and Madeleine will invite a friend to sleep over as well. 

I tried to explain to her why age four is a little young to have a sleepover.

ME: Well, kids who are four don't USUALLY do sleepovers yet.
MADELEINE: But Mama.  Why not?
ME: Well, when you're four, it's still kind of hard to spend the night away from your mom or dad or your relatives.
MADELEINE: Well Mama.  No it's not.
ME: It can be.  You know how you want Mommy to lay in your bed and give you snuggles every night?  Wouldn't it be hard if you were at a friend's house to sleep and you didn't have Mommy there to give you snuggles?
MADELEINE: Well Mama.  YOU could just give my friends snuggles at night.
ME: I think your friends probably want their OWN mommy to give snuggles.  You know how you get scared at night sometimes?  Wouldn't you want your own mommy to give you snuggles if you were feeling scared?

Madeleine processed this discussion and decided to use various elements from our conversation in the creepiest way possible.

MADELEINE: (to one of her preschool friends) Do you feel scared when a DIFFERENT mommy climbs in your bed and snuggles you?
MADELEINE'S FRIEND: No.
MADELEINE: Uh, Mom, she said she DOESN'T, so we can do our sleepover!

I think it's a GREAT idea to let four year olds make these kinds of decisions.  It's a plan!

When Madeleine is not busy pining away for Julia, she is acting the role of Mommy with her baby dolls and stuffed animals.  She even enacted a baking lesson with Hello Kitty and Seala the Seal, much in the way that she and I bake together.  Madeleine counted aloud the number of cups of various ingredients she was pouring into her mixing bowl and let her stuffed animals take turns helping:

When it came time for Madeleine to use the electric mixer, which, in her game, was the play coffee maker, Hello Kitty and Seala were apparently ready for naptime:

MADELEINE: Mama?  They're SLEEPING, because I told them to take a nap.

I don't know about you, but I find nothing more appetizing than a seal lying belly up on my kitchen counter while I'm preparing food.

Anyway, Madeleine and Julia also collaborated today on some pretend play, putting together a school in Julia's room for ALL of the dolls in the household.  Not only were the American Girls part of the classroom, but even the baby dolls got to get educated.  I've never seen a one-room schoolhouse so packed with students before!

While Julia spent a good amount of time with her dolls, she has also been active in her novel-writing world.  In fact, she has recently started SO many new books that she can hardly keep track of them.  Today, in an attempt to organize the clutter all over the dining room table, I began paper-clipping the unfinished pages of each book together to keep them from getting mixed up.  It was then that I stumbled upon what promises to be a real masterpiece:

Safisticaiton

By Julia Rowe

I can't WAIT until this one is finished.  I'm sure it's going to be a truly safisticated read!

I am also looking for a good place to store Julia's art portfolio, which she got to bring home from school on Friday.  It is full of really lovely artwork, and the outside of the portfolio itself is so charming that I had to take a picture:

Julia's entire personality is evident on this portfolio cover.
You are my friend too!

And speaking of pictures speaking volumes, here's Madeleine's latest drawing:

Yup.  Sums her up perfectly.