Growing Up Lanese: Christmas Party 2012!

I had 20 kids sleep over at the studio on Saturday night.

20 K-7th graders.

All by myself...all night long.

I was fully confident that I could do it. They're my team kids. I know them. They listen to me and are very respectful. I totally handled the whole night just fine :) It was a lot of fun (especially for them).

At one point in the night I heard one of the girls yell, "this is the best night of my life!" This may have been around midnight...oh to be 6 again...

{cake and marshmallow pops made by one of my awesome moms...to match the studio of course!}

{One of my other families set this tree decorating up as well as decorated the whole place!}

{It was only 7:30pm when these two came up to me (ages 5 & 6)..."Miss Chelsea, we're ready for you to read us our bedtime story"....they were for real, "Girls, everyone isn't here yet...we haven't even played any games yet or opened presents.." Too cute!}

{Remember, we just got back from Disneyland} :)

We only had a few mishaps.

1. 11pm, I'm trying to get the 10 and under crowd to bed. I go to put "Elf" in. DVD player does not have any sound. I try to call Matt. He says he has no clue. I adjust all air mattresses and sleeping bags to fit around my laptop to watch it. No once did I hear anyone say, "I can't see!" (that was my goal)

...I rock. Problem solved.

2. 1:15am-ish, movie is now over and I'm exhausted. None of the kids are asleep. My plan of all my little ones falling asleep during the movie failed. How they managed to all stay awake is beyond me. (Oh wait, could have been the fact that they were all eating candy canes in bed!) 1:30pm I tell them I don't anymore talking because I'm so so so tired. Older girls are now on the other side of the room in a little huddle giggling and just being middle school girls. Oy. At this point I do remember one of my 6 year olds jumping up, chasing around balloons yelling, "I've never been up this late!!!" To which I replied, "PLEASE GO TO SLEEP!"

{I had to document...}

3. 2am, finally all the little ones are sound asleep. One of my kids was scared and insisted on sleeping with her foot and hand on me, "I just want to touch you". Fine. No big deal. 2:30am, I'm finally asleep as well and...smoke detector battery dies. Beep. Beep. Beep. Every minute it was beeping. One of my seventh graders, "Miss Chelsea! That's freaking me out!" UGH...I get the big kids to come over. We stealthily move the air mattresses, with children on them, to the sides so I can get a ladder (yes a freakin' ladder) to fix it. Done...I rock again. Back to sleep.

3. 3am, yes, just an hour later. "Miss Chelsea, Kiera is puking!" Oh shit! (No I did not say that out loud) I get up to help her, as she is indeed puking (all over the mattress and thankfully not on the little girl sleeping with her). My older girls, remember they're just 12, had already cleaned most of it up and held her hair and rubbed her back before they thought to wake me up. Apparently they had it under control. Which actually, they did...now, they rock! I called her mom and she was there with in what felt like just 5 minutes. I didn't have to clean up a drop of puke. The kids did it. (I made them scrub their hands for a while!) I was so proud of them. At this point, I-am-exhausted.

7:15am Alex arrives and we wake the kids up. Oy. The last child left at 10am.

I went home and felt like a teenager again all day. You know that weird yucky feeling you always had all day after a sleepover. So. So Tired. I actually still am feeling it.

But...will I do it again? Most definitely.

Especially if they had that much fun! :)