November Thankful #19

In honor of Thanksgiving, I'm doing daily thankful posts. I'd love it if you'd join me by commenting here or on MichiGal's Facebook page.

November 19

Today I am thankful for sleepovers. Whether away from home or at home with friends, sleepovers are a childhood rite of passage. I spent many happy nights away from home as a child, and many with friends or cousins staying over at my house. And now I get to see my kids have the same kind of fun. 

My first sleepovers were with my cousins and my grandparents. I lived with my grandparents off and on throughout my childhood, but when I wasn't living with them I would often sleep over, sometimes alone and sometimes with a cousin or three. I also spent many, many nights at my aunts' and uncles' houses having pajama parties with my cousins. As I got older, I started having sleepovers with friends. I first specifically remember sleeping over at a friend's house in third grade. Once I hit fourth and fifth grades and beyond, a sleepover seemed to happen just about every weekend.  

Sleeping over at friends' houses gave me a glimpse into how other families lived. I was given the chance to try things differently and fully understand that not everyone lived exactly as I did. I experienced, a tiny bit, what it was like to have two parents and brothers and sisters. Plus, there is something gained in friendship with spending an extended period of time together, late night giggles, having dinner together and then waking up and having breakfast together too. Of course there are more opportunities for arguments too, but then you're forced to learn conflict resolution with friends as well. Being away from home overnight also helps kids learn a certain level of independence.

All of my kids participate in sleepover fun at some level. Mathilda is so far limited to spending the night at my in-law's, but the the other three have all had lots of sleeping over experience with friends as well as with grandparents. From a parent's perspective, when my kids are away from home it gives Chris and I a little break. Even just being down one kid makes a huge difference in the noise and general mayhem level around here. Then the kids at home have a chance to get a little extra attention from mom and dad. When we do the hosting, we have the pleasure of getting to know our kids' friends more than we normally would. What an awesome opportunity that is, because as parents we need to make a concerted effort to know who our kids hang out with, and what kind of people they are. As they get older, this is going to become more and more important. So I will relinquish a little control and let someone else look after my kids once in awhile. And I will sacrifice a little sleep and put up with a higher than normal noise level (is that even possible??) every so often. It's all worth it, because when my kids grow up their sleepover memories will some of their best.

Feet Firmly Planted In The Here And Now

Sometimes I feel like I live for summertime. It's like the whole year is just divided into waiting for summer to get here, and summer itself. Maybe if you've read any of my other posts, you might have gotten the idea that I'm not such a big fan of the cold. Cold weather depresses me, fills me with lethargy, makes me want to never leave the house. But that is not the only reason I so look forward to summertime. I crave the freedom to do whatever I want with my kids day after day after wonderful day. Sleeping in late, meeting friends at the park, trips Up North, going swimming...I love every second of it. This is sort of a problem for me and I'm working on it. I mean, I need to spend more time embracing the "now" instead of anticipating summer. I'm improving, but just right now, at the moment, I'm really looking forward to the break. Probably just because we've been having such a great Spring Break, and I'm getting sad about the kids going back to school on Monday. Deep breath. Live in the moment. Carry on. 

Yesterday we met friends at McDonald's to play and have ice cream sundaes. The best part was (well other than seeing my friends...) watching my big kids playing with Mathilda and taking her into the play structure with them, and boy Mathilda was having a crazy good time. Then Connor and Bethany went off to sleepovers and I tried to convince Lucy to have movie time with me and watch Tangled but that little stinker was not interested.

This morning Lucy had a field trip at a local Chinese restaurant where the preschoolers got to learn how to count in Chinese, make wontons, and eat chicken tenders and fries (???) while the parents sat at separate tables, had adult conversation and actually ate Chinese food (at a Chinese restaurant? go figure!). Bethany and Connor went on the same field trip when they were in 4-year old preschool. I think the best part for the kids was running around the restaurant as much as they wanted because it was not yet opened for business for the day.  When it was over I picked Bethany & Connor up from their friends' houses and we went to my mother-in-law's (where Mathilda was during the field trip) and all of the kids got to see their grandpa who has been out of town working for the past couple months. It was a happy, tickly, giggle-ish reunion. Yes I'm making up words here, but please just go with it.

Then Connor got invited to another sleepover, and I had to say yes because he has been the best sport about spending pretty much every minute of his Spring Break surrounded by girls. And then Lucy and Bethany were invited to play at a friends' house, so Chris and I dropped them off and went to dinner with Mathilda at Achatz Burgers, where we ate greasy but yummy burgers and fries and laughed at Mathilda's silliness without any other kids around to distract us from paying her our full attention. We went for a drive and looked at beautiful old houses in Mt. Clemens, the kind of houses I dream of living in someday because I love big old houses full of unique little quirks and nooks and crannies. I dropped Chris off at home and went to pick the girls up, and ended up staying there forever chatting with my friend while the kids played for "just one more minute" and it was really a lovely evening. We got home and the girls and I decided to pile into Connor's room (I think because he has bunk beds...although all 4 of us ended up on the bottom bunk) and watch Tangled together. Bethany was asleep within 5 minutes, and Lucy followed suit about 5 minutes later. Mathilda, however, stayed awake and watched the entire thing with me. I love that movie! 

The best part of the whole day was a late night text from my friend with some really fabulous news that she had been hoping and praying to hear but didn't think she would for quite awhile. I am so happy for her and her family. Good things do happen to good people.  Perfect ending to a perfect day.