Now THAT Was a Party!

For awhile now I've been promising my in-town grandkids a sleepover.  Last night was it!  Because my birthday is early next week I decided, unknown to the kids, that the sleepover would be Grammies Surprise Birthday Party.  Seven grandkids between the ages of 3 - 8 were involved - with one of the 3-year olds just staying for the fun, not the sleepover part.

They arrived around 6:30 pm and found a bunch of animal face balloons on the table.  They took them out to the patio to play with where we soon discovered that in the combination of brick, wood and latex, the latex baloons were immediate victims.  It wasn't long before the deck floor was littered with the remains of cute animal faces.  All part of the fun though.

Kenzie, with Max in the background

Dead Balloon Critters

Then we went to the great playground/park across the street from my place where the kids played for about an hour and a half.  I had brought a bubble wand for each of them so we spent a lot of time blowing and chasing them.  It was so nice to see the cousins, siblings from  three families, having such fun together.  Even with three alpha females among them there was no quarrelling, minimal bossing, and lots of sharing and watching out for the younger ones.

The Alpha Girls - Kenzie (8), Brooklyn (7) and Charlie (7)

The gang - Charlie, Max, Kenzie, Elly, Brooklyn, Sydney, Aidan

Brooklyn catching her bubble

Brooklyn's Bubbles

Tire Swing Co-operation

Elly and Sydney

When I thought they had run off enough energy we went back to the house and ordered pizza - I got big points for that and told the ones who had never been to a sleepover before that it's a rule that you have to order pizza for a sleepover.  Excitement galore!  The one who would rather have a jam bun than pizza even got excited because Pizza 73 also deliveres curly fries, chicken wings, and vegetables with their pizza, and he realized he could eat a slice of cheese pizza if he really tried. (I made him a jam bun anyway).

Since it was a birthday party, I had made a bunch of the most delicious chocolate cupcakes with a marshmallow/chocolate/Cool Whip icing.  We put candles on them and everyone blew them out together.  They even sang Happy Birthday to Grammie.

Singing to Grammie

Blowing out the Candles

We played games and puzzles and painted bedroom doorknob signs and worked on melted beat pictures until 10 pm and then headed to bed.

Hard at work

Five of them camped out in the spare bedroom where the television was, while 3-year old Elly shared my bed (Papa was out of town so he missed all the fun).  Well, around 11 the kids came in and said the television was acting weird.  Since  I couldn't fix it, and since Elly was still up and talking my ear off, we all headed back downstairs to resume crafting and playing.  The giggling and noise reached new levels because by now they were all fighting sleep.  It was like New Year's Eve though and they kept asking if it was midnight yet.  They wanted to stay up all night.  I let them have their fun since everyone was getting along so well and I was enjoying their antics.  Finally at 12:40 am we all headed back up to bed.  Ten minutes later Max and Brooklyn came into my room saying that the other girls were still giggling too much so I told them to bring their sleeping bags into my room and camp out with me and Elly.  They did that and within five minutes peace and silence reigned in the house.  Good, I thought, they'll sleep till 10.

Ready for Bed

I was too aware of all the sleepers to get a good sleep myself and finally at 5:30 I got up and headed for the computer to download pictures.  Then at six Max got up.  By 7 everyone was up and hard at it again.  I made pancakes for breakfast and by 8:30 we were all over at the playground again for another hour of fun.

The parents started coming to pick them up and the last one left at 11:45.  I stumbled back to bed and slept for three hours and now I feel much better.  It was worth it though.  Everyone had so much fun. Several of them told me it was the "best sleepover ever" and the "best birthday party ever", and the parting comment from the oldest was "We'll have to do this again".  I agree.  It was the best sleepover and birthday party ever.  And we probably will do it again. 

TV Break - Sydney, Max, Brooklyn

TV time - Charlie

Getting Sleepy - Elly and Aidan

Picture Perfect -Kenzie

Charlie

 Grandkids are great!