Sunday, September 16, 2012

Reflections on a sleepover

This past weekend Audrey had her 9th birthday party with friends.
She wanted a sleepover. 
{shiver}
But I made a plan, and we went forward with it.

Step 1:  Send Chad & the kids to my parents' house for the night so as to cut down on chaos.
Step 2:  Enlist a few friends to help out (again, so as to cut down on chaos).
Step 3:  Plan plenty of fun activities to keep girls busy and expending their energy in a purposeful direction (again.....so as to cut down on chaos)!

Audrey & I decided to make it a "spa" party.
My friends and I gave the girls facials, hand massages, manicures & pedicures. 
Goody bags included mini-manicure sets, eye masks, body lotion, nail polish & flip flops.
The girls really seemed to enjoy it all!
Success!
We started out with pizza on the deck.
Not very spa-like but hey.
 My friend Kathleen used to own a spa and she came and gave the girls mini-facials.  While they were getting facials, I gave them hand massages.
 We even put cucumber slices on their eyes!
 Ahh, relaxation.  This was the quietest they were all night.
Well, until they fell asleep!
 After facials we played a game that Katie made up.
We had them wear their eye masks and then we had them all smell different lotions and try to "guess the scent".

Next up was manicures & pedicures but we were so busy painting 140 nails that I really don't have any good pics.
Suffice it to say, they soaked their feet in foot spas, and Katie scrubbed all those dirty feet and painted all the toes.
Then I painted all the fingers.
Thank heavens Katie really enjoys doing pedicures, because in general....feet gross me out.
And let's just say - some of those feet were pretty dirty.  :)

After this was cake & presents.
 Which I probably should have done earlier in the evening because I got them all good & sugared up right in time for bedtime.
 In fact, this girl finished up all the leftover cake from everyone else....
Then Audrey opened presents.
Her friend made her this pet rock!
And she got a bunch of gift cards among other fun things...she is so excited to go pick out some new stuff!
So off we go to the mall tomorrow....

At bedtime, the girls took awhile to settle down but I went down to where they were "sleeping" around 11pm and did a final lights out.  
They went right to sleep!

The next morning I gave them breakfast and then actually....it was a pleasant morning. 
They hung around and played....and I sat with a cup of coffee and hung out in peace!  
It was fun....but I'm glad it's over now!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

First Day for Chloe

This morning Chloe FINALLY got to go to her first day of preschool.  She was really excited!

 She hopped right up on the step, grabbed her sign, and started smiling. 
She knew just what to do!
I could tell she was so proud of herself.
 This was taken right outside her preschool.
She went in with no problems and didn't even look back.
 She came  home with a cute little report about her first day.
But apparently her teacher forgot how to spell "Chloe"...  :)
 We decided to go out to Petrucci's to celebrate her first day.
On the way there, Audrey & Carter sang "Happy 1st Day to You" (to the tune of Happy Birthday).
Chloe was beaming.
"Best Day Ever!!!!!!" 
I think she will be happy to go back Friday.
And hopefully, she won't be crying when she realizes that tomorrow is NOT Friday....