The Law of September
My oldest son has been in a small school with the same 15 or so kid for 6 years now. Five of these boys, including my own, have birthdays in September. This means we are in the middle of the birthday party and birthday sleepover marathon.
The Law of Sleep
Forget about it.
Seriously, here is a trick I have discovered. Wear them out. Take them swimming. Have light saber fights in the front yard. Keep them moving. Then gather them all in your TV room, sleeping bags spread all over the floor, and put in a movie. Very few will see the end of the movie.
The Law of Friday Night
Related to the Law of Sleep, we always hold ours on Friday night, becuase they are tired from the week and have not had Saturday to rest up.
The Law of Revenge
At our most recent sleepover we used all the fireworks left over from the Foruth of July right after the half hour light saber battle on the front lawn. All at 11:30 at night. This was a special gift for my neighbor who cuts his grass early on Sunday morning.
The Law of Leverage
If you find you are having trouble getting to be quiet or to sleep, you then need to look for the right leverage. Last year my wife conveniently needed to be out of town during the sleepover and it was left in my capable hands. After repeated requests to get the X-box playing horde to be quiet enough to not wake the sleeping 2 year old, I found this leverage:
"You guys can stay up as late as you want tonight, midnight, 1 AM , 3 AM, I don't care. But if you wake the baby, two things are gonna happen - one, you guys will be the ones to get him back to sleep, and two, after you are done with that, you all will go to bed."
They have never played more quietly.
The Law of The Grin
All the planning and chaos is worth it when my son comes over with the big grin to tell me this is the coolest party.
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