My Daughter's Sleepover Party

The weekend arrived and three of my daughter's friends came over for a sleepover. We found this great book of ideas for things to do: lots of games like "would you rather..." and "mad-libs." She brought several of her favorite DVDs into the living room and made a big bowl of microwave popcorn. My son went to his friend's house to spend the night AWAY from all of the giggling and carrying on (good choice!). At first the girls all went upstairs to my daughter's bedroom to listen to music on her new stereo. They listened to her new CDs and I could hear them dancing and singing along. Later, they changed clothes, fixed each other's hair, put on makeup, and did "makeovers." Then they took pictures of their new looks and styles. Finally, they settled into the living room and watched DVDs on the big screen tv. They ate pizza, popcorn, and other snacks. Sometimes they stopped the movies and played some of the games from the book. I could hear them laughing and talking before I finally fell asleep around 1: 30 am. Eventually, they wore themselves out and fell asleep in the living room (later they said it was around 3 am when they finally settled down). In the morning, I found them sound asleep, and I was surprised to see that they had only left a few things out and there was not a big mess in there. All in all, they were very well-behaved, they had a great time, and they did not disturb us, the parents, at all. Oh, how I love these innocent days! One of my biggest fears is THE big, messy, rebel-rousing party that many teenagers eventually throw...it would be wonderful to skip that, if at all possible. I guess many of those occur when the parents are not around, so as long as we are always there as chaperones, maybe it won't happen...I hope! For now, I really am enjoying the early days of parenting teenagers. I guess they really haven't hit the rebellious years yet...there is SOME of that, but it is quite mild so far. And if and when those times DO occur, I can always remember the calm sleepovers like this one! :) My daughter seemed to really enjoy her party, and the girls seemed to have a good time, too. So the 13th birthday party/sleepover was a success: a good time was had by all, and the parents survived. So far, the teen years are going well in our house...but what about those crazy "Sweet 16 parties" of the future?