The Sleepover

Last friday night Kyle hosted his first sleepover here at the house! He invited his "look alike" cousin Lawrence to spend the night. Lawrence is only 1 yr older than Kyle and shares a lot of the same interests as him.
Jim set up a tent in Kyle's room - a rather large tent - big enough to comfortably fit a family of FOUR! It barely fit into the room but somehow it all worked out. The boys were both very excited about sleeping in the tent, in sleeping bags. Nothing like a little indoor camp out!
When Lawrence finally arrived (over 2 hours late but not unexpected seeing as how he's on what I affectionately call "Vargas Time") Kyle was besides himself with excitement! The boys spent a few hours playing with cars, trucks, army guys and swords. Around 9:30p they got into the tent, anxious for me to turn out the lights so they could officially begin their camp out. Kyle was exhausted, after having been up since 5:45a and normally going to bed at 7:30p! Earlier in the day Kyle had great plans for his night in the tent with Lawrence. He filled the tent with flashlights, tap lights, books and 'quiet toys'....however....about 10 minutes after I got the boys situated into their sleeping bags...

Kyle simply could not resist falling asleep.

And just 5 minutes later,Lawrence was out like a light too!!

So by 10:30p both of the boys were sleeping peacefully. I had a feeling that one, or both of them, may wake up in the middle of the night though seeing as how this was their first sleepover, and for Kyle, the first time ever sleeping in a tent, on a very hard floor - so I decided to go to bed myself at 11p.

Well, it's a good thing I did. At 1:30a I heard someone "whimpering". I thought maybe one of the boys had a bad dream. I quietly went into Kyle's room and found poor Kyle, sitting up in the tent sobbing. He had forgotten where he was and was very distraught. I remember thinking, at that very moment, just how young Kyle is. It's easy to forget that he's only 4, when he usually acts so much older! After giving him a little hug and reminding him of his whereabouts he decided that he'd rather sleep in the comfort of his bed (can't say I blame him!). He snuggled up to all of his stuffed pals and was asleep again within minutes.

At 3:00a Lawrence woke up to use the bathroom. He accidently tripped over some toys though which woke up Kyle. Who decided that he needed to use the bathroom too. Eventually everyone settled back down, around 3:30a. But not for long. The sounds of muffled giggling could be heard at 6:15a. I just laid in bed and smiled - afterall, isnt this what sleepovers are all about??

Here's a pic of the boys having a little pop tart snack before breakfast - as I was simply too tired to deal with the kitchen at that hour..

they spent some time playing with Kyle's V-Motion game..

And then they resumed playing with the toys for the rest of the morning. They got along amazingly well and really had so much fun together. Jim and I took them to the Grand Prix to play a few games before heading to Lawrence's house. It was a perfect ending to a near perfect sleepover :)

After we dropped Lawrence off we headed home, completely exhausted. Kyle had at least 5 meltdowns, as a direct result of the lack of sleep he experienced the night before! He barely made it thru church at 5p - he almost fell asleep sitting on my lap. After church we came straight home and got Kyle into bed. By 7p he was out cold - and remained that way for the next 13 hours!