The Sleepover

Julia had a wonderful time at her birthday party last night, and the best part of all was that she got to have three of the party guests sleep over afterwards.  She has told me repeatedly today that this was her best birthday party ever and that she had so much fun with her friends. 

Ethan and I weathered the experience and are looking forward to some sleep tonight.  We came to the conclusion that hosting a sleepover for a group of 7-8 year old girls is basically akin to having a newborn.  We took shifts for the non-sleepers and made every attempt to NOT wake those who were sleeping. 

The kid who stunk the WORST at sleeping was none other than Julia.  (Just like the newborn Julia, in fact.)  She felt the need to come up to our bedroom over and over to tell us that she couldn't fall asleep.  And then we would have this very productive conversation:

JULIA: I just can't SLEEP with all those other PEOPLE there!
ME: Why don't you come up here and sleep then?
JULIA: Because I want to be with my friends!
ME: Okay, well then just go back down and try to lay still and get to sleep.
JULIA: But I *can't* fall asleep!
ME: Why don't you try laying in Madeleine's bed with her?
JULIA: I can't SLEEP when there's other people there!
ME: Do you want to go lay on the couch?
JULIA: I want to be with my friends!
ME: Okay, then go try to sleep downstairs.
JULIA: But I can't sleep with all those other people around!

Do you see a clear solution to her conundrum?  Because Ethan and I sure didn't.

Finally, long after midnight, Ethan took Julia to the living room couch and lay her down there.  After she finally fell asleep, he carried her down to the play room and put her on the futon next to one of her friends.  The plan was ALMOST unsuccessful when Julia, upon being placed upright on the futon, apparently decided to continue sleeping sitting up instead of letting her body lay back onto the bed.  Ethan's attempts to whisper to Julia to lay down were of no use, and when he attempted to reach across the futon to try and prod her body to lay down, he knocked over a metal water bottle (which I had personalized and given out in lieu of goody bags to each girl) and the resulting clatter made all the guests startle in their sleep.  Finally, however, Julia slumped down into the bed and cuddled up to her friend and was out for the night.

I was awoken this morning by a chorus of stomping feet running excitedly to my bedroom.

JULIA: Mom?  We're HUNGRY!

So I dragged myself out of bed and made a batch of chocolate chip pancakes for the happy and chatty kids.  After breakfast, they all went downstairs to play, and they truly had a blast together.  Despite the lack of sleep, it seems like we managed to pull off a really fun sleepover party.  The only tears came from Madeleine, who desperately wanted in with the girls and couldn't handle not being a part of every little thing.  Luckily, the older girls came up with a helpful solution: after Madeleine, joining in the arts and crafts that the big girls were doing, designed what she called a "bounce-stairs" (pronounced to rhyme with "downstairs,") the girls asked her to make more bounce-stairs for each of them.  That kept Madeleine busy and feeling very helpful without causing her to disrupt the craft they were collectively working on.  I am sure the bounce-stairs is the new toy of the year; after all, who WOULDN'T want a fuzzy, colored puff-ball taped to a colored pipe cleaner to roll down the stairs?  So what if it doesn't *actually* bounce.  It looks cool, and I can't IMAGINE tape would come off of a fuzzy puff ball, right?  So it will likely last forever!

Now the very tired Rowe parents, whose very tired girls have both fallen asleep, are ready to try and crash for the night.  Party over, time to rest!