Slumber(less) Party

This year for Cole's 7th birthday, he requested a slumber party with his best pals.  I told him that he could have a real shindig of a party somewhere (like the bowling alley or something along those lines) and then have some friends come home with him to spend the night, but he really just wanted a slumber party.  I thought that was a splendid idea. 

Since there wasn't an official party for the grandparents to attend, we invited them out to lunch before the slumber party festivities began.  (Although Cole was positive that Grampa would want to be at his slumber party. Grampa was having a slumber party of his own that night with friends from out of town, otherwise I'm sure he would've!) So we headed to The Rock to celebrate the delightful Cole Robert!

Shorty after lunch, the guest boys came over for the main event.  Grampa and Gramma were kind enough to watch the little boys, so Chad and I were able to take the four big boys to dinner and the movie sans our little gremlins cherubs.

Yogi Bear

Red Robin!

After dinner we came home to play with our new toys...

And watch movies and go to bed! (Notice I said they went to "bed", not to "sleep".  There wasn't a lot of sleeping amongst the children until very late.  But that's what slumber parties are all about!  Emphasis on the partying - not the slumbering!)

The next morning the boys were up bright and early for a tasty breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes.

There are two things that stand out to me about our slumber party:

 #1.  I think I was as excited as Cole was about this extravaganza!  I felt like a real mom taking a group of boys to the movies and dinner, and then hosting a sleep over.  It was thrilling!   I loved it!
#2.  About taking a group of boys to the movies and dinner, I was a little nervous.  I wanted everyone to have a super fun time, and also I wanted to keep everyone safe and sound.  (I'm always a little anxious when caring for someone else's children.)  Let me just say this, these four boys were absolutely fantastically well-behaved and delightful the entire time!  I was so proud of them at the movies and dinner; I guess it's clear that 6 to 7 year olds really have their stuff together.

Happy Birthday to my sweet Coco Puff!