8 Screaming Girls

I tried to blog last night during the party but it was impossible. The girls were out of control. It wasn't like I didn't have enough for them to do: they had pizza and ice cream cake, they opened presents, the painted little wooden jewelry boxes and they even made buttons. It's just that I gave them the ability to decide what they wanted on the buttons and then it took me forever to find and print the pictures and the button maker wasn't working properly and it turns out you have to precisely cut the pictures or it won't work so my husband had to cut the pictures and help make the buttons. And if you leave 10 year olds to their own devices they fight and get their feelings hurt and cry and you have girls taking sides and then the whole party gets out of control. I can take the running around screaming, but I can't take the emotionalism.

Then when it was time for bed, some didn't want to sleep on the floor (it's a sleep over with sleeping bags, what did they think they were going to do with them when they brought them). I tried to stay up until 1:00 which was their bedtime, but fell asleep and woke up at 1:30 to hear complaining. It turns out that two of the girls (the two that had been fighting earlier) were now in Samantha's bedroom because they were mad at the other girls and Samantha was crying. The girls had been playing truth or dare (which I told them they couldn't do) and the two girls wanted their friends to make a crank call but the other girls wouldn't do it because they are "Christians." (I am going to explain the concept of caller id when the girls wake up.)

I rounded up the wayward girls out of Samantha's room and told them they had to sleep with the rest of the girls.

"But they kept talking about us." This seems to be a common complaint.
"Well, they won't anymore because you're all going to sleep."

I made everyone lie down and I sat in the room with them waiting until they settled down and went to sleep. I noticed two of them talking.

"What's going on over there, get to sleep."
"The light is bother me, I can't sleep."

Ok, so now everyone has to move because we had to put the other light on (softer light) so that those who needed the light could sleep near it. And then they started to fall asleep and so did I, I woke up at 4:00 am and went to bed. And now, I have the sound of silence, isn't it lovely. It won't last long, since I know they are going to be fighting with the two girls again when they wake up.

Remind me not to do this again next year.