Sleepover

For his birthday this year, Jack wanted to have a bunch of his friends over for a sleepover. We ran it by the usual suspects for parents, they all signed off on it, so we said, Ok. Pizza, chips, Fudgie the Football ice cream cake from Carvel, Avengers movie DVD....check, check. Then more trips out for balloons, candles, plates, juice boxes, chocolate chips for cookies, more potato chips to replace the ones I ate....

Jack was beside himself with excitement all day. Counting down the hours. Looking out the window (Jack, it is still two hours before anyone will be here). Random whoops of enthusiasm. Finally, around 5, the first friend showed up. Jack spirited him up to his room while we made smalltalk with his mom. Second kid shows up, Jack comes downstairs long enough to collect him and again disappear. Repeat.

For the first hour or so, they ran around the house. It was like kids getting out of school or prisoners getting out of jail, I guess: they just wanted to run and yell and tell fart jokes. And since Jack had received the Fartmaster 2000 or whatever for Christmas, not my fault!, they had a lot of fun with that last one. Indeed, I was unaware it was possible to have a running conversation about farts for as long as they did. It was really impressive. You know, in a way. They ran, they laughed a lot, they were happy. It was cool.

We ordered pizza. You would think a bunch of boys would polish off a lot of pizza, but it was more like they didn't want to be bothered with stuff like eating. I think they did polish off 2-3 juice boxes each, because all that running around yelling makes you thirsty. Then we brought out Fudgie the Football (Carvel makes a Fudgie the Whale cake, and they make the same cake in football shape, thus Fudgie the Football) sang Happy Birthday, and the kids wolfed it down (along with a whole lot of chocolate chip cookies....hmmm maybe that's why they were all up so late....) and rushed off to watch The Avengers.

I expected them to be riveted, but in fact, a couple wanted to watch, a couple wanted to talk, or ask questions, or have more cookies, or another juice box, or play NintendoDS. There was some random tension over differing motivations, and then the team Assembled and finally we...uh, they...were all focused on the movie. At one point they acted it all out, pretending to be Thor, or Hawkeye, and arguing which hero was coolest. Jumping around in their pajamas (midway through they decided to change) --- you know, just like real superheroes. Pretty cute.

They went up to bed around 930 I guess, and what followed was laughter, yelling, more fart jokes, and of course one boy nervous and wanting to go home. And then stay. And then go home. After an hour or more of that,  I took him home. He came back for breakfast the next morning. Kind of rough, but we also expected it; for most it was their first sleepover.  They were all up past midnight, a milestone they celebrated with raucous cheers, and then slept...until 530 a.m. Ouch. They woke us up, natch.

Coffee, breakfast, happy, tired kids, and then it was time for them all, one by one, to go home. Some, I would later hear, had long naps that day, others (like Jack) were just behind and groggy for the next 2-3 days. But they all had a blast, and we...uh, they....got caught up on sleep eventually.

Maybe a year from now we'll do it again.