The best sleepover ever!

I had the pleasure of having a friend's son spend the night last night.  He is a friend to both my sons and they were over the moon excited.  So excited that they started counting down about two hours before time. On the plus side they are learning about elapsed time.  On the down side they were about to make me lose my mind.

As soon as he got here the boys were on him, vying for his attention and talking about all the fun they would have.  As soon as dinner was done they went outside and came back in about ten minutes later.  The oldest kept asking him "is this your best sleep over ever?" after everything we did.

We walked to the park in an effort to burn some energy.  Well I walked.  They jogged, stalked, skipped, stopped, chased bunnies, snuck through trees and bushes, threw rocks in the water and eventually got to the playground.  I got the pleasure of watching them spend the next hour and a half running around, plotting, creating these elaborate Pokemon story lines and building bridges out of wood chips and mud over a puddle.  By the time they were hot and thirsty they were also muddy.  I was walking back with them teasing them about hosing them off.  They were very excited about that prospect so I told them they could turn the sprinkler on for a bit and just run through in their clothes before they took a bath.

They started joking about running naked and bathing in the sprinkler.  They were just behind me.  Then suddenly they weren't.  I turned around to see what they were doing.  They were having roll down the hill races complete with style points for different kinds of roll.  When they weren't giggling they were yelling "Look at me!"  or "Can you do it this way?"

Finally, as we made it back to the subdivision, we heard it.  The electronic song of the siren.  The tune that bounces off houses and tortures children everywhere.  The ice cream truck.  The kids went tearing into the house in a quest for a dollar (luckily Mom had three).  They stood on the corner waiting as the truck slowly made its way down the main road.  Then they raced back to enjoy their treats on the front steps.  I am pretty sure Bobby Flay has never made a treat as good as those popsicles.

The kids spent the remainder of the night playing pokemon in the sprinkler in their muddy clothes, bathing, finishing a puzzle and getting into bed.  I read the required (by my boys) two chapters of our current book, How to Eat Fried Worms.  Lights were off by 9 and they were asleep by 10.

This morning they ate matching breakfasts (seriously, when I got to the kitchen they were making identical plates) and are now playing Wii.  I hear giggles and shouts of "no GET ON THE ELEPHANT".  They are plotting what to do next and discussing what super power is the best.

I don't know about our guest but I surely had a blast.  There was no fighting.  There were so many funny lines that I wish I had kept a log (things like super hearing is like super seeing but with your ears).  It reminded me of the boundless joy of being a child and how lucky I am that I get to share it with them.  For me, it was the best sleepover ever.

Six degrees of separation

I know we are all allegedly only six people away from knowing everyone on the planet....but no where in the world is that more evident than on facebook.

Say all you want about how bad facebook is and how no one knows how to be social any more.  Or some of my younger co-workers who say they are "over" FB because it was started as a college only thing now anyone can do it (at which point I point out they are not in college any more anyway...haha).  But for a busy working mom with family and friends scattered over the states it is so easy for me to keep in touch.  Send a message, send an evite, look at pictures of my friend's son in Arizona, look at my friend's pictures of their Florida vacation (without having to take the polite five second stare at the pictures of people I don't know and don't give a flying fish about seeing....ooo did I say that out loud?)...its all there on FB and I can get through it while drinking my morning paper.  Any important news ends up on FB....and then I don't have to look at the paper's website.

But back to knowing everyone.  FB feels the need to suggest friends to me.  As if my life will not be complete until my friend list includes every registered user of FB.  Today two people showed up on the right side with 12 mutual friends.  Two people who I didn't recognize, didn't even think "oh I heard their name the other day".  Now let me back up and add, several of my dearest friends are townies.  They grew up here, their parents are here, their cousins are here, their siblings are here and their kids are learning in the same classrooms they did.   I am very used to them going on long conversations about so-and-so from high school.  There are tons of names I have heard that eventually pop up on my "suggested friends" list.  I clicked on the link to see who we shared.  Yup...all pretty close friends....  How in tarnation did I not know this person.  I clicked on the other name.  More "fringe" type friends.  I understood not knowing that person.  Back to the other girl though.  So then I clicked on "see all".  Holy cow, do you know how many strangers share 10 or more mutual friends?  It was amazing.  Maybe I am just six people away from Matthew McConaughey after all....wouldn't that be sweet?