I lived to tell about it

It is over. I am so tired. Violet is beat. Mr. Incredible is wiped out.

I think everyone had a good time, especially Violet. She was rather worried (okay, crying nearly hysterically) about sleeping in the tent, but once she settled down she fell right asleep. In the morning having survived the night in the tent she reported she loved it.

What I learned:

Always have a pickup time specified on the slumber party invitation. Otherwise your wonderful husband will be trying hard but will tell them at least an hour later than you really wanted and another family will decide it would be better to come after church. I thought those kids would never leave.

Your kid's two best friends probably won't get along. Tinkerbell had some sort of bone to pick with Red all weekend. I have no idea why but she seemed incredibly jealous of Red and antagonized her the whole time. Red was a pro and ignored her. Tink seems to like to push people's buttons. She was pushing mine the whole time. I don't find it empowering in children, I find it obnoxious. You can teach your children to think for themselves without teaching them to argue with the mom in whom's home you are sleeping. Mr. Incredible gently said I let her get to me too much and it thereby encourages her to keep it up. He's right. I can't help wanting to strangle her sometimes.

Edited to try to explain: I do really like Tinkerbell, she's a really nice kid and a good friend for Violet. I think the problem is she is so different from Violet and I am so used to Violet (and not particularly good with kids in general) that I have trouble adjusting to her kid style.

Before planning a backyard campout find out if there will be an outdoor festival three blocks away with live music until 11 pm first. No one could sleep until the music finally ended (well, Red and Cookie crashed a little before). Then I listened to the traffic for another hour.

Always have extra projects planned. I know, rookie mistake and I know better. But I didn't expect half the daycampers to decide they didn't want to do one of the projects. Luckily we had all crafts and all the girls who stayed over really got into them (of course that led to some competition between Red and Tink over who could braid better and faster). The daycampers decided to play on the swing set and pick berries instead. (I was all for them picking the berries, then I don't have to and don't have to feel guilty about not doing it.) But by morning we were out of crafts and I had to send them out to draw on the driveway with sidewalk chalk.

If you want help from a mom during the party, ask ahead of time if anyone is planning on staying. There were kids from 5 families at the party (two sets of siblings and Violet made up the 8 total), 3 of the moms always stay, none of them did this time. Yikes. Thank goodness for Mr. Incredible.

I didn't take any pictures but Mr. Incredible did, so I will try to get some to post. Tonight I am happy to be indoors, going to go to bed in a bed, and with my one and only wonderful kid here at our house.