Slumber Party

When I was a kid, my friends had a zillion slumber parties. Slumber parties were big back in the, um, '70s, I mean '80s, well, back in the day. Anyhoo, I can remember tons of girls, lots of soft drinks, pizza, cake, pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey games, charades and late, late nights. I remember sneakily playing "light as a feather, stiff as a board" and Ouija board in the laundry room of one of my friends' homes late one Saturday night and getting the bejeebies scared out of me by my hostess' older brother. Good times...

I remember one great slumber party when I was in seventh or eighth grade (It's all a blur now) at my dear friend Christine's house. I so loved Christine (and still do to this day, I might add). She was one of my bestest buds in elementary school and through the first half of high school. She cruelly left Knoxville our junior year of high school for sunny Pensacola, Florida. The last time I saw her in Knoxville, I was 16 years old, driving away from her house in Broadacres with her giant stuffed animal strapped into the passenger seat of my blue Mustang and her little shamrock plant sitting on the floorboard, her final parting gifts, so to speak. Sorry, I digress...

The slumber party at Christine's was a birthday party, I believe. We all went to see the movie Footloose and then came home and danced to the ALBUM soundtrack -- remember those? -- at her house in her basement (was it the basement or the living room? My mind is fuzzy now, but in any case it was some large space). That party was FABULOUS. There is nothing like a little Kevin Bacon and Kenny Loggins to get all the tweens excited. At least that's the way it USED to be.

So why am I taking this stroll down memory lane? Well, this past Saturday, Sydney went to her first slumber party. Kelsey had her first slumber party this year, but it was only about 4 or 5 girls, not one of those big free-for-alls I think of when someone says *slumber party*. Sydney went to a slumber party with 13 other girls, a Webkinz party. (If you don't know what a Webkinz is, Google it.)

I was worried she wasn't going to make it through the night. Sydney is a different creature than Kelsey, still very needy sometimes, wanting me to pick her up and love on her. She is a creature of habit and likes to sleep in her own bed. So I put the cell phone up at the head of the bed when I went to sleep Saturday night, half expecting the late-night call. But when I opened my eyes at 7:00 a.m., I realized it had been quiet all night long, not a peep out of anyone. She had made it.

We went to pick her up at 10:30 the next morning and she was mad at me for not letting her stay longer! She said they went to bed at 2:30 a.m. after watching movies, having pillow fights, playing Twister and listening to a bedtime story snuggled in their sleeping bags. They ate pizza and cake and ice cream. She took her video camera and caught the pillow fight on film. It is truly hysterical.

You know, now in 2008, having a slumber party can kind of breed anxiety in a parent's heart. You never know anymore where you're sending your kids off to sleep. You hear horror stories about kids being snatched out of their bedrooms in the middle of the night, of house fires, of PREDATORS. So I am not as thrilled with slumber parties as much as I once was. But I have to say I am happy she had the experience this weekend. She had a great time and she really bonded with her girlfriends. And in true slumber party tradition, she came home, was a complete bear and I had to tell her to GO TAKE A NAP RIGHT NOW just like my mom used to tell me when I was a kid. Three hours after she laid down, she was back to her sweet self.

So whatever happened to my buddy, Christine? Well, a few years ago she found me on Classmates.com and sent me an email. She is still in Florida, a Florida University alumnus (Okay, guys, cut her some slack. Nobody is PERFECT!) with two kids and a husband named Joe (small world). We now e-mail regularly and send Christmas cards of our kids to each other every single year. She is what they call a keeper.

The pictures at the top are from Syd's slumber party. In the Twister picture, Sydney is the one wearing the pink High School Musical PJs. But then you probably already knew that... :)

~Peace