Leighton's 12th Birthday Girls Night

 

Leighton (and her friends) have been asking for a slumber party for years. We hadn't said yes to anything because we know that once we open up the slumber parties it will be constant, and it is hard to say yes for one family we may know and not for another (even our closest friends have teenage sons and nothing good happens past 11 PM any way right?). 

Despite my persuasive efforts, Leighton was still asking for slumber party for 12th birthday with two friends. The two friends, Maddie and Lydia, parents also had not ventured into the slumber party world. So I had the idea of getting a hotel for them here in Cleveland and letting them spend the night together but in a non-home, special environment. They seemed to love it and were so excited. Leighton and I got snack food at the grocery prior in which she told me "This is an exciting part getting junk food for a slumber party; I have read about it in books". We then picked up Maddie and Lydia and headed (maybe 10 minutes) from my house to Crocker Park. It is a shopping area and they browsed, and we had dinner. It was so cute watching them and they are very easy to take out. Then we headed to the hotel nearby and they swam for a while then watched a movie before bed! I would call it a success. I had plenty of alone time for my audio book and bible study so it was like a Mother's Day retreat for me.