Oh What A Night....

Katherine and Madeline finished school for the year yesterday. Madeline even "graduated" from Pre-K 4. Here she is in her graduation ensemble.

In a fit of my new found maternal freedom I agreed to host the third grade end of the year party at my house. We had the whole class, plus some siblings and parents over for swimming and barbecue.

The girls of the class (11 of them including Katherine) also stayed over for a sleepover.

Am I crazy? Maybe, but it was some of the most fun I have had as a parent.

I was armed with a swimming pool/slide/tropical paradise/kid fantasy backyard, movies, popcorn, pizza, chips, and tons of crafts. The girls were incredible, so fun and funny to watch. When the inevitable drama would pursue, I would divert them to a new activity. The crafts required little for me to do other than open the boxes and let the girls rip.

Once the boys left, the girls continued to swim (all part of my ploy to completely wear them out before bedtime). We ordered pizza, took a short break, then were back in the water until dark.

I lured them back inside with the promise of crafts - which (thankfully) kept them fully occupied for about two hours. Chris and I had moved out all of the furniture in the living room and covered the floor in rugs. We put all 11 girls down on the floor in sleeping bag/sardine fashion. The movies and popcorn started at 10:30. By some miracle, I got them all settled down by midnight. Not too bad for me.

The first girls were up at 0700. Chris had already gone to Homecut and hot donuts were waiting for them. After swimming till about 0830, I got them all dressed and started the dance party. I taught them the soul train, running man, sprinkler, grocery cart and rump shaker. Then they begged for "Low" (pictured).

We got the last little girl out the door by 1030. Then I took Katherine and Madeline to Schlitterbahn for a family celebration. We were there for five hours and did not stop the entire time! The weather was gorgeous in Galveston, so we had dinner outside at Benno's with the Seigels.

As I write this, my kids are still asleep and will likely sleep for 24 hours straight! It was a wonderful day.