Another blog post, another exciting first for our kids...and us. What was the occasion this time? It was us playing host to Ellie's and Ethan's first sleepover last Friday!
Now, I don't know if it's normal for parents to be excited about hosting a sleepover or not. However, we were very excited for this one. The biggest reason for our excitement was that our guests were the kids of our friends, the Lindholts.
Their lives have certainly changed quite a bit since we traveled to Texas to hang out with them last August. For one thing, Allen has been deployed as a chaplain with the U.S. Army overseas. For another, Kayla and the kids have spent quite a bit of the summer traveling to see family which definitely can wear people out. In fact, when we asked Kayla if the kids could come over for a sleepover, her excitement at having a night to herself was palpable. Honestly, we were just excited to have the kids over; we never even considered that Kayla would be excited about that too.
The two youngest Lindholts, Lydia and Miles, are actually the same age as Ellie and Ethan which makes it really fun for them to play together. Also along for the ride was their older brother, Jackson. Truth be told, I was actually super excited that Jackson wanted to come as well. We had a great time playing video games and hanging out last year in Texas so I was stoked for that to happen again.
When the kids arrived at our house last Friday, Ellie and Lydia immediately headed to our guest room where they closed the door and sat on the bed talking about whatever six-year-old girls talk about. Whatever it is, they were having a great time doing so. As for the boys, they set up shop in the living room, playing with cars, action figures, dinosaurs, and basically anything else they could get their hands on.
While all of this was going on, Jackson joined me in the family room for some video game fun. It honestly took Jackson a while to warm up to my selection of video games. For one thing, my system of choice is a PlayStation 3 that I purchased in 2010. In other words, basically an antique in terms of a video game system. We went through several various games before I finally joked about getting out the PS2 and making him play that. To my surprise though, Jackson was actually intrigued. Therefore, I wandered downstairs and dug out the system and games. After searching through the lot, Jackson decided he was interested in playing Star Wars Battlefront II. Now, you have a pretty good idea of how the two of us spent the rest of that afternoon and the next morning.
While all of this was going on, Bethany was whipping up a batch of homemade pizza dough for dinner. Once it was ready, we had the kids all gather in the kitchen where they were allowed to make whatever dream pizza they could think of with the variety of toppings we had on hand. After dinner, we took the kids down to the subbasement for a movie night on the projector. The movie of choice was Over the Hedge. Unfortunately, it got a little late and we weren't able to finish the movie that evening as our house full of kids really needed to go to bed.
If I'm being honest, bedtime was probably the most difficult part of our sleepover. For one thing, there was plenty of excitement in the air and no one really wanted to stop playing for something like sleep. The main reason for that was that Lydia and Miles both found themselves struggling with sleeping in a new environment. Bethany honestly had to take shifts comforting both kids and encouraging them that everything was going to be alright. Lucky for us, she's a champ at doing stuff like that and before too long, our entire house was fast asleep.
The next morning, once everyone was awake, it was time to make pancakes for our house full of children. After that, everyone congregated back in the subbasement to finish Over the Hedge. A highlight of that experience had to be Lydia snuggling up next to me. Apparently, she's really been having a rough time with her dad being deployed so I was happy that I could help her in that small way. Once the movie ended, it was time to head outside for a little playtime before Kayla made her return to the house around noon.
Altogether, I'd consider the kids' first sleepover to be a success. Not only did Ellie and Ethan do a great job coexisting with their friends, but I got the opportunity to play many a long-forgotten video game with Jackson. Who doesn't love getting to play video games?
#DaddyWrite
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