Slumber(less) Party

So my oldest turned eleven and talked me into a slumber party.

I've been promising my hubby for years now that we're going to tone down the birthday parties.

I love a good jumpy house, pinata, huge crowd type of kid's party.

That's what i'm good at.

Adult parties, forget about it...no clue what to do.

So this year we had 8 tweens for a sleepover and they are not the jumpy house, pinata type.

Pre-teens for goodness sake...they want music, food (OH they can EAT!), random items...i'll get back to that.

So my daughter gives me little on the "plan" and I don't work well without one. I'm completely freaked out that she'll have girls here for 21 hours and not a real plan. Yikes.

So the start time of the party is 1pm and end time is 10am the next day.

Girls start showing up at the door with sleeping bags, pillows, makeup, iPods and phones that are much much cooler than my own. sigh.

The running around, giggling, texting, iTunes, and chit-chat begins.

Luckily there was one planned event, t-shirt design. Cool.

By 3pm, the girls had done EVERYTHING my daughter had envisioned. PANIC. For me at least, they were fine with it.

I put in my earphones with my MP3 player so I could tune out and not eavesdrop. Not that I want to, but hearing less is more, trust me.

Dancing begins, singing, eating...more and more eating. I must have popped 6 bags of popcorn! Soda, a treat for the kids, went down quickly, cupcakes, gum, a dentist's nightmare of cavity-inducing party snacks.

Soon I hear a plan for "hide and seek at Target" and teams are being made up. Um...WHAT?! I do have to step in and be a mom and say, "sorry, but getting kicked out of Target isn't cool" and so they settle for shopping.

We get there and spend 45 minutes shopping for orange Crush, fake nails, and makeup.

The Dollar Store is next and we leave there with pedicure sets, nail polish, and silly string.

Pizza parlor and more soda and the girls are literally jumping off the chairs.

This may have been the time to send them all home, but alas they all came back to my house and bounced off those walls.

Makeovers and mani/pedis were happening and even a few girls came out of the bathroom with faces covered completely with blue and black makeup. Wow.

I flashed back to my eleventh year and thought that things sometimes never change.

More music, more food, Tiger Beat magazine, giggles and happiness filled the air.

Girls heading to bed at 2, 3, and 4am only to awaken at 8am for morning makeovers and pancakes!

"What was everyone doing at 3am?" I asked DQ....Eating...and talking. But of course.

Let me tell out of all 23 kid's birthday parties i've thrown for my 3 kids, this was byfar the easiest for me.

The girls had an incredible time and I was impressed how it stayed so drama free and I had nothing to stress about.

Oh and my 3 year old...wants a slumber party for all her classmates at preschool.

Twelve 3 year olds for a sleepover...hah...I draw the line right there. Not gonna happen!