Sleepover for 7!!

On Thursday the girls had a half day due to parent-teacher conferences and so the girls asked if some friends could come home from school with them. I happily agreed thrilled that they were reaching out to their new friends at their new school. Well, that quickly turned into 5 girls coming home and last time I counted I had 4 children myself and since I do not drive a bus (I have admittedly thought about it though) I needed to make some arrangements. My sweet next door neighbor Carrie (who has 5 children herself) agreed to take Jordan and Livi home in her car so needless to say both of our vehicles were at max capacity! They quickly changed out of their uniforms and the beautification process began. Everyone started trying on each other's clothes, the hair straighteners were fired up and everyone was giving each other beauty advice. Oh, to be 12 again. (And to try to eliminate the little girls bothering the big girls, Jordan and Livi went to Grammy and Papa's house for the night. Jordan didn't like this arrangement and definitely let me know.) And so after a carb loading pizza lunch we headed to the mall. Wow! Have you ever chased around 7 tweens in a mall...EXHAUSTING! I was trying to be a cool mom and not hover over them but I also felt uneasy about letting them our of my sight so I followed at a safe distance and only got the occasional "Mom, we are fine!" Luckily it was mid afternoon, during the week and so the average age at Chesterfield Mall was about 65. Did I mention that it was 7 degrees? I think most reasonable people were huddled at home under a blanket. This cold weather won't keep the Crowells home!

The big shopping goal was for each of them to find a pair of colored skinny jeans for the big middle school dance. Each girl was successful in their hunt and I believe we have every color under the rainbow spoken for. They should be quite a sight at the dance. They also found matching necklaces, sunglasses and other treasures. So, the shopping trip was complete and headed out. When we got home of course they were starving after their shopping workout so we quickly prepared a spaghetti dinner. They woofed that down along with garlic bread, 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies, mozzarella cheese sticks, chex mix, about a dozen clementines and toffee. Whew! Enjoy it ladies because it won't last forever!

And then they informed me that they wanted to see Mandy Moore's movie A Walk to Remember. And so I headed to Blockbuster... well, the last copy of this 8 year old movie had just been rented. What are the chances of that? And so I headed to another Blockbuster (did I mention that now it is 4 degrees?) and finally found the movie. Praise God. So everyone got settled with every blanket and I mean EVERY blanket in the house and layed in a big pile and watched sappy "teeny bopper" love stories. They all cried! Ha!

About midnight I put Aaron on watch duty and headed to bed. They were perfect. No drama, no fights, no hurt feelings...nothing! If anyone has daughters you know what a miracle this is. We might have broken a world record! And so the first Messiah sleepover was a huge success. These are some of the sweetest girls I have ever met as well as their parents and I can't wait to see how their relationships develop in the next few years. We are truly blessed to be a part of this wonderful community. God is sooooooo good!