What I learned from a nine year old boys' slumber party...

First, do not let your husband talk you into inviting more boys than you are really prepared to handle. I was going to have my son only invite 4 boys, so we'd have 5 at most. But Mr. Wild said, "We should invite more, because you know some are not going to come." Then, about 5 days before the party, all boys had RSVP'd that they could come. Gulp, that makes 8! In the end it was 7, but it was still a lot.

Second, tell the parents you are actually going to feed their sons even with the party starting at 6 pm. We had three, maybe four, out of the seven who had actually already eaten. So the three large pizzas were not necessary. Lots of leftover pizza in our house.

Third, it's very hard to keep the attention of boys at ages 8 and 9. Trying to get them to be quiet to listen to how to play a game or even to sit still for a Harry Potter movie. It was too bad a couple of them couldn't stay in one place, because my son really wanted to sit and watch the movie all the way through. It made the movie experience not so good for the rest of them.

Fourth, you never know what you're going to get, behavior-wise. There were two boys I would have been much happier if they had never showed up. And these boys aren't what I would think of as ordinary boys, they were all of varying degrees of higher intelligence. I guess I assumed they would be better behaved. I suppose I should understand more that "boys will be boys" and that it takes all kinds of parents that make all kinds of boys. I hope my son isn't someone that parents want to send home when he goes to parties.

Fifth, boys can sleep on the floor in the winter in sleeping bags and be comfortable enough. Mr. Wild was all worried about the cold and them sleeping on the floor. He was afraid it would be too cold. No dice, they were fine. They actually did all hunker down and sleep by 10:30 pm. I'm sure if it had been girls they would have stayed up talking longer.

Sixth, homemade waffles, let alone pumpkin waffles, will impress today's crowd of pre-made toaster waffle kids. This is a sad statement on our society when at least three boys specifically made statements to me that they had never had waffles made from scratch. I thank my friend, MS, for getting me into more made from scratch things like waffles and scones and dinner in general. At least my kids will remember making waffles in a real waffle iron and maybe will do it with their kids, too. I will say, the boys were very nice in complimenting me on the waffles.

"These waffles are great Mrs. Wild!"

That was a pretty good end to the event.




P.S.-Did I mention we had a Harry Potter theme? Mr. Wild's handy work on the tokens for the game Aurors and Death Eaters found here. For Herbology class we made "dirt" sundaes, "repotting" our screaming mandrakes.