Megan's school had their junior high dance on Friday night and she had been wanting to have the girls from her class over to swim again after some missed her birthday party. So once I heard it was going to be too cold for me to run the race on Saturday morning (that I did not train for but did make a shirt for), I figured this would be a good night to host the girls. This is definitely an age where I will not allow anyone to be left out and there are only 14 girls in the 6th grade so we do have room to invite everyone over. They all made it! Thanks to some other parents for helping carpool them here after the dance.
Sorry, no room for boys in this hot tub, it is full! I overheard them playing truth or dare a little so I think this was a good bonding time for the group. They aren't often all together and I'm afraid they are starting to break down into groups merely out of convenience, so it was great for them to all talk and have fun together. We always have an adult in the pool house but we try to stay out of the way. With the music up loud I don't hear much of what they talk about, I'm definitely not the cool mom trying to be part of it. And I am not the cool mom who leaves them alone in there. I don't know at what age we will be comfortable with that, probably never if boys are involved! This is the innocent age where I don't have to worry about them sneaking boys in though.
I washed most the swim suits and then moved this rack to the entryway when parents came to pick up. I think it kept people from thinking my house is too formal or stuffy… I did overhear one girl, not sure who, tell the other girls that when she pulled up at our house last time her mom couldn't believe this was our house. As the Dowager Countess of Grantham replied when Isobel Crawley commented that she takes everything as a compliment, "life is more pleasant when you do". Something to that effect, I cannot locate the exact quote, no matter how much I google this morning. Anyway, my interpretation of people not believing this is our house is that we keep a low profile, not that the way I dress and the cars we drive lead people to believe we'd never live here.
I had to wake up one girl at 6:45 and it was too dark to get a photo of all 14 of them sleeping like sardines in here, the kid hangout. I figured that some would go sleep in the study area or Megan's bedroom. Nope, they all wanted to be together. I carefully tip toed around until I found the right girl to wake up and then she got up and stepped on several of them. So by 7:15 they were all up and looking for food. Ah, what? I went to bed at 2am when they started a movie and since Megan loves to sleep until 10am or later on weekends, I didn't expect them for a while. I had stayed up prepping brunch food but still needed an hour to bake everything so I hurried up and made them muffins and smoothies. Three hours later they had brunch with my running group who did get up and do the race. It ended up being 20 degrees instead of 7, so I suppose I could have ran but in the end it was much more satisfying to have given these girls a fun night and morning. They were up playing hide and seek the whole time I was prepping food. Sean was up playing his computer game, we really have the right schedule and amount of space to have sleepovers. The littles slept through the entire night of chaos. Anna had a friend over too but they went to sleep at 10pm and stayed asleep, with their door locked I'm sure. Meanwhile the girls were in and out of Patrick and Emily's rooms, they never noticed or woke up. I just kept trying to make them food to eat. I will need to prepare better next time, just did not have enough. Plenty of brunch food leftover though, I froze that so I can eat it for weeks… Anyway, Megan has taken all the lost and found items to school today, hoping she can get those items claimed.
I'm just glad they had school. This is our "eight inches" but it is negative two, so I wasn't sure if they would go today. This has to be it though, the end of winter. I see some spring temperatures coming soon. In the meantime, I will go read in the pool house and pretend this isn't happening still...
1 comment:
I hope this becomes a tradition for the girls. Really fun that there's a place they can all go together and feel welcome. And I think you are the right amount of presence - you're there so everyone feels safe but not in their business. Good job!
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