Survival

Well, we survived the slumber party, but just barely. Two girls in particular seemed determined to pick fights with each other throughout most of the night. We made it through the event with only four girls crying (one of them being our own) which is not too bad given the age of the girls.

I must confess that I can take no credit for this event. Kay should be sainted, for whenever the volume level would increase, she would come up with some new creative game which kept the girls occupied. By 10 p.m., I had just about given up hope for sanity and went for a drive around the block (thinking along the way of showing up at Solomon’s Porch to become the first emerging monk!). When I got back 45 minutes later, the girls were upstairs and it sounded like the volume level was decreasing, so I went into the bedroom, curled up in a fetal position, and went to sleep. Kay, on the other hand, was up with them until the last one fell asleep around 12:30.

So that you don’t think that I completely abandoned my wife, I did take over breakfast duties, cleaned the kitchen four times today, took out the trash at least 15 times, and rode herd this morning until the parents came. The level of conflict had died down, so it was a pretty easy task.

We spent the rest of the day getting Chinese food at the local mall with the kids, finding a cheap gelato stand, and attempting to find a new pair of rollerblades for Grace. After visiting about 8 million stores, we finally found them at Target (our fav), only to discover that they didn’t have any in her size. We gave up, and purchased a good old classic Playstation One. It ain’t cutting edge technology, but it’s cheap, the games are pretty good for a third grader, and Grace seemed happy.

Grace and I were sitting after all the girls had left trying to become friends again when she spoke up: “The next slumber party, I’m only inviting four people!”

Thanks Grace.