BASE jumping? No big deal.  Alligator wrestling?  Soooo last year.  In 2010 the new adventure for true thrill seekers has got to be sub-four-year-old slumber parties.  Plus, in addition to the adrenaline rush you also get the good feeling of knowing that, while it may not ever be you, somewhere there are two parents who are having a quite evening including uninterrupted conversation, restaurant dining that doesn’t include a free toy, and (assuming the night goes well) no diapers.

Thus, it was our birthday gift to our friend Jason to take their two kids Caleb and Sammy (Jonah and Calvin’s ages respectively) starting Friday night at six with plans to return them the next day around noon.   However, I’m happy to report that the evening went surprising well and without major incident.  

Jonah and Calvin were already pretty psyched because we had been talking the evening up all week, so when their guests came through the door he immediately and very proudly showed them where they were going to sleep.  My gameplan was to try and keep the distracted at all times they weren’t asleep in order to avoid as much hooliganism as possible.  To that end, I rearranged the living room to make room for the air mattress, ordered a big pile of pizza, and set up my new Christmas projector to paint Star Wars (Episode IV, no Jar-Jar for my son yet) on the wall in ten foot widescreen glory.  The big screen wasdefinitely a big distraction; Caleb kept saying “It’s like a movie theater!” and “How do you do that, can we do it at my house?”  The combination of Pizza andMark Hammil’s plight to become more than and evaporation farmer kept the kids pretty hypnotized until Han and the gang escaped the Death Star the first time, then the plot slowed a little and our mini natives started to get restless.  The quick-fix answer was intermission, bath-time, pajamas, and doing laps around the house over and over again until every drop of energy was out.  Once everyone was sufficiently tired and snuggled under blankets, the lights went off and we let the rebellion finish off the empire (or did they?).  As if I didn’t already feel old enough recently turning 30, Jonah described the ending as “The spaceships blew up the plastic bad guy circle planet!”, I guess when you grow up in the age of Avatar, you’re not easily impressed by special effects from the 70′s.  My other favorite quote from the night was when they first landed on Tatooine and Caleb kept saying “They’re in Egypt!  That’s where the pyramids are!”

After final lights out, everyone went to bed including me on the couch as lookout/warden.  With the exception of Caleb and Jonah taking about an hour to find a position that they could fall asleep in, everyone had a much fuller night of sleep than I remember from my childhood slumber parties (sorry Ryan).  Everyone woke up the next morning in such a good mood that we were able to cook a big sausage, egg and toast breakfast for everyone, made finger paint birthday cards for the boys’ dad, and went outside for some good ol’ fashioned chalk on the driveway drawing.  All things considered I think I’m pretty lucky that even I had a good time and got a chance to throw another slumber party in my 30′s.  Plus, I think that our friends had such a good time that I think we worked the extra bonus that they are effectively guilted into watching our kids in the near future. (More pictures here if you’re interested)