Cousin Slumber Party

Our MillRod cousin crew is headed on a family vacation soon, and seven of the ten cousins will be in one bedroom.  It's a big bedroom, but we are really hoping and praying that some sleep actually occurs.

As a trial run for the family vacation, I invited all the cousins who will be in the big room to come to Memaw's for a slumber party this week.

We had these six kids plus Lee Lee.

 

We set up sleeping bags in the basement, plus Lee Lee's pack and play and we just tried it out.

I had no great hopes for an early bedtime... I only hoped was (one) for everyone to fall asleep, and (two) that after everyone did fall asleep that they would have a smooth night until morning.

Nearly 90 minutes of bedtime rituals until seven children fell asleep...

70 minutes of reading aloud (from "Little House in the Big Woods")

15 minutes of rubbing backs

Once everyone was asleep, the children had a very smooth night -- I couldn't believe that no one woke we up during the night.

Everything went smoothly until morning... when three cousins awoke about 5:45am while my four were still sleeping.  I was doing a workout up stairs and I knew the cousins were awake, but I figured they would just mosey upstairs eventually.

They started to get very loud, and I heard something about standing over Howard's head... so I ran downstairs and told them to get upstairs and let the Miller kids sleep.

So, I think the big room in Branson will definitely work... but we will have to establish rules for when early rising children awaken before their still-sleeping cousins.