"Carnival"

For way too long, AJ and Ashlyn (mostly AJ) would get up in the middle of the night and do the typical "I need a drink" or "I need to go potty" when they really heard something, got scared, and just needed a little comfort... Well, when I am woken up at 2am, I am not comforting. So instead of adding grief to their fear, we came up with a chart. A basic grid of 15 squares (stamped cute with playful flourish stamps of course!) was crossed off one by one, each time they stayed in bed all night. They decided that when they filled out the chart they would get a backyard carnival. It took 3 months to stay in bed all night for 15 days. But somehow it became a habit and they are finally done waking me up!!!

So, yesterday, knowing the forcast for the rest of the week, we threw together our "Carnival". AJ helped me make invitations, then he and Ashlyn took them around to their friends in the neighborhood, and asked me to call a few of their friends that lived beyond their walking distance. At 3:30 they started showing up. We had out the slip n slide, a kiddie pool, watermelon, a cooler of water, a bubble machine that I forgot to put out until after just about everyone was gone, the tramp, the swingset, and the highlight of the party... Cotton Candy. It only makes one at a time, so I showed the other moms how to do it so they could help out. It took about 2 hours to get every kid some cotton candy. But to them it was worth the wait.

In attendance: 12 adults & 29 children. (2 kids were older than 7)