No Slumber in Suburbia

Having a "slumber" party which involves six eight-year-old boys is a bad idea. I know that most people are aware of this already; I was actually aware of it prior to last night. That did not stop me from hosting said slumber party for Soccer Boy. He just could not narrow his guest list down from the five boys he invited, and I figured at least one of them wouldn't be able to make it. They all arrived bright and shiny at 7:00 p.m. last night.

Within 10 minutes of their arrival, they had found the soft drinks, shaken them up to see how much foam they could spray (thankfully this occurred outside) and settled in to their first burping contest of the evening. Within 20 minutes of their arrival, I had established the following rules: no running up and down the stairs and no slamming doors. In many ways, the evening did improve from there. There was pizza to be eaten and Spiderman 1 and 2 to be watched. I did naively assume that once we started the movie, they would quiet down. Not so much.

Did I mention that Adventure Guy was still away on his business trip last night? Our schedules have been so crazy that we couldn't work the party in any other time. He was on his way home, and our plan was to have the guys watch the first movie then pause to do cake and presents when Adventure Guy got home. The evening would wrap up with them settling in for the second movie and falling asleep. That was the plan. Only Adventure Guy, who I thought was arriving at around 10:00 p.m., actually didn't arrive until midnight. We had moved on with the presents and cake by that time, but he officially took over party duty for the viewing of the second movie. I also did not feel the least bit guilty about letting him do the morning donut run and the corralling this morning when the boys woke up at 6:30 a.m. He has now taken them to see Spiderman 3. I am sitting in a totally quiet house. I am not going upstairs because I have a strong suspicion it will make me very unhappy to see Soccer Boy's bedroom and the gameroom.

I'm now off to make a dessert for the party we're going to this afternoon. It should wrap up pretty early, and it will definitely need to be an early evening for us in Suburbia tonight. We've earned it.