First Slumber Party

For Joey's 7th birthday he really wanted to have a slumber party. The kid has never had friends over for a birthday party before, so I thought he was probably due. The only slight problem was that I originally scheduled his slumber party for November 1 and didn't realize until quite a bit later that I was going to be in Atlanta then. Andy can handle a lot, but I didn't think our marriage would survive me scheduling a slumber party and then skipping town for the event. Thankfully we were able to reschedule the slumber party for this past weekend.

Joey and Hannah have both been to some amazing birthday parties with games, a real princess, bouncy houses, laser tag, go karts, party favors, and more. Throwing elaborate parties is not my skill set, which may be the reason I have never attempted a friend birthday party. Maybe that's why the slumber party idea appealed to me. Slumber parties are pretty low-key, or maybe that's just in our household.

Joey invited his two best friends from school, Colton and Josh. They came over in the late afternoon and played outside until it was well past dark. At one point Joey, Hannah, Colton and Josh were playing dodge ball over and around the little tot lot in our neighborhood in the dark. It was so fun that even I got in on the action.

After they played outside, we came in for Dominos Pizza that Andy picked up on his way home from work. Then Joey got to open his presents:

Hannah's face cracks me up in this picture because she was so over the moon excited about Joey's party. She certainly was just as excited as him and maybe even more so. She loved getting to hang out with the boys, and they were all very sweet to her.

As usual, Joey requested ice cream sandwiches in lieu of cake. The other kids chose to have their cookies on the side with a little ice cream sundae. We are very fancy around here with our dessert options.

Then it was pj and video game time.

Even the girls got into it. Hannah used the game pad for the Wii U and helped the boys using the "boost mode." Ellie has an old controller that she likes to pretend to use. She is a very enthusiastic gamer.

The night flew by and before I knew it, is was time to get into bed and watch some TV. Andy recently introduced the kids to the 1974 show, Hong Kong Phooey, and they love it.

The slumber party was super easy and the kids had a blast. Although I had a passing thought of caving to peer pressure, I didn't even hand out party favors!