A Sleepover with 4 Year Old Boys

Although Brycen often sleeps over at his cousin's house, he has been asking to have a sleepover at my place for a long time. Probably since we implanted the idea in his head over a year ago. Happily, his good friend and his good friend's mother have been onboard since the get go. It was just a matter of finding a date that would work, and a date when I was up to the task.

Thankfully, his little friend's mama is a good friend of mine, and totally understands my situation. There were a lot of times when I sat in comfort with the boys, monitoring a game, while she cooked or put things away or washed dishes. Thank you Sarah, for being so awesome!

Here are some fun things we did to make us parents of the year make sure the night ran smoothly:

1. Trail Mix Station:

2. Supervised games:

3. Fun dinner idea the boys could make: pigs in a blanket:

4. And dessert: simple vanilla ice cream:

5. Things got serious when we broke out our fort building skills. I have learned the key to making a good fort is rope. We tied the rope in 4 places, making a weird quadrilateral shape, and covered with a HUGE sheet. (another key: blankets pull things down, sheets are easier, save the blankets to make excellent floors). And one last thing all complete forts need: a string of holiday lights. Okay, a fort is just fine without, but we were honestly working towards a Ph.D in fort building. Or at least a badge of some sort:

Brycen would like me to say the lantern is also needed for staying in a fort.

6. Once the fort is completed it is time for:

7. Then we wound down for bedtime:

8. They actually did sleep in the fort!

9. I don't have any breakfast pictures, but my friend made sausage and pancakes and I made little fruit salads. B of course ended up eating applesauce and a cup of dry cheerios.

10. We totally forgot to make special drinks last night. Not wanting the ingredients to go to waste, we decided 10am is a great time for Shirley Temples:

11. We had some time to kill this morning, and since the weather was not favorable for going outside, we used the energy we had left to paint with the boys. I will probably do a separate post about making homemade Valentine's this week. It ALWAYS helps to have all art supplies ready before even mentioning painting or an art project!

In which I become the Incredible Hulk.

As far as cancer goes I did really well! The hardest part of having Brycen here is never knowing if he will sleep through the night. So I wake up in anticipation every hour! But the boys slept nearly to 7am and I still felt good. After our friends left around noon my brother came over to help me . . . and suddenly ALL my energy was gone. It didn't slowly deplete, I went from full gas tank to empty in 9 seconds. Luckily Brycen loves his uncle and didn't mind when I disappeared to nap.

Overall: Sleepover success!!