Four Sleepovers in a Row

This is a picture of my two nieces, Emily and Aly, finally getting to eat their marshmallow Minions. We saved these two specifically for them, and they were pretty excited about eating them.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Natalie had two of her friends sleepover the night of the party, Friday night. Aspen and Ally are two of her friends on Team Beijing, which is her particular swim group in club swimming. When I tried to tell them to get ready for bed, one of them, Ally, asked, "Why, we're not going to sleep yet?" They were determined to stay up until at least 11pm, which is when Aspen's mom said she had to go to sleep, and they did just that.

Aspen had to go home at 10:30 the next morning, because her grandparents were in town visiting, but we asked Ally to stay over one more night. We didn't use to do this, but Alex has "broken us in" with his multiple day sleepovers. Ally's mom was shocked that I would want her daughter to stay with us that long and asked if I was sure. I didn't mind and she lives way across town, so I didn't want her mom to have to drive over so soon.

My niece Emily arrived on Saturday afternoon, along with her mother Melissa. My sister Cynthia arrived a short time later with my nephew Nick. My other niece Aly arrived with her father later that night. They had been visiting relatives elsewhere. So, on Saturday night, Natalie had four girls (including herself), sleeping in her room. They were getting along so well, though, that I enjoyed watching them interact. This is a picture of them on Sunday morning playing Twister. Emily was the super player who won pretty much every game. Aly was the tough one who hung in even when they called it a draw between her and Emily. Natalie was usually the first one to lose her balance. Poor Ally broke her elbow a couple of months ago and couldn't straighten it, so she never made it very far and ended up being the one doing the spinning.

Ally went home at about noon on Sunday. Next, I had made plans a couple of weeks ago for Natalie's friend Maya to sleep over. Natalie and Maya have been friends since they were in day care at six weeks old. Maya had been as busy or busier in her Taekwondo competitions as Natalie has been with her swimming competitions this summer, so they haven't spent any time at all together. In fact, Maya was in a competition that weekend in Dallas, which is the reason why she didn't make it to Natalie's birthday party. Maya got first place in sparring and second place in XMA Forms there--yay, Maya!

So, Maya came over soon after arriving back home. She spent the night over on Sunday night. My family all left, except that my sister Melissa, Aly and Emily all stayed in town at the local Marriott Hill Country Resort--so not too far away. This is a picture of Natalie and Maya at the Longhorn Cafe. We went there to eat dinner after church on Sunday evening. The two of them were definitely very quiet and asleep by about 10:30pm.

Maya spent most of the day with us on Monday, and went home just before Natalie had her orthodontist appointment. She had spacers put in with braces to follow. For one last sleepover, Patrick dropped off Natalie with her aunt and cousins on Monday night. This is a posed picture that the girls allowed Melissa to take. I love it because it shows how goofy they can get when they're together. Natalie again went to bed too late, but at least she was starting to sleep a little later. She came home on Tuesday afternoon, when Melissa and the girls were going home.

Natalie's friend Aspen actually texted her on Monday to ask if she could spend the night at Aspen's house on Tuesday. This time we had to say "no", with the promise that she could do that another time. Four sleepovers in a row makes for a grumpy, grouchy Natalie. No one needs that!