Video Game Blowout

My boy turned 10 last Tuesday, and Saturday night he had a slumber party. We made tickets for his all night video game blowout and sent to about 10 friends. We ended up with 7 boys, aged 7 - 12 who ALL made it to daylight! It was so fun to watch a few of them as they beat their record for staying up late. We had video games going in two rooms, sometimes 3, plus hand-helds-a-plenty. Everyone had a great time.

We started the day with a special visit from Stella and all my in-laws. It was her first time here.


Then friends started arriving later in the afternoon for cake and such.


Later in the evening, my nephew and his family brought Chase for the sleepover. It was Joey's first visit here too.


But Mikey's beginning to know his way around...


After all the grownups left, the blowout was on!




We did have one little girl here - Angelina. She's 4, and her 3 brother's were staying, so I said just let her stay. I really expected to have to bring her home late that night, but she did fine. She asked to call her mom around 11. She said, "I want to call her, but I don't want to go sleep there." After that, she started playing one of the games they had going in the living room, and winning. She was beating everyone. The boys were calling "Next!" over who'd play this 4 year old girl next.


Angelina was the only one to fall asleep, around 1:30. She played till she dropped.


I have to admit, around 4:30 I was giddy. I had made some coffee at about 3 AM, but that just made me wired and giddy. Greg was dozing now and again, but I stayed awake. It was rough, but I wasn't going to just arbitrarily make them shut it down so I could sleep. So I began awaiting sunrise. At sunrise, I could tell them they'd all officially stayed awake all night, and then send them off to Gregory's room to watch a DVD. And that's exactly what I did. I had already told Gregory what I was going to do, and he was okay with it since he wanted his friends to see his new Invader Zim DVDs anyway. By 5:30 I was staring outside praying to see the break of dawn. And it finally came around 6:15.


So I went around the house, gathering boys as the game rounds ended, then brought them all outside for a picture (not very good since I really couldn't see).


I then told them all that they'd officially made it, but I needed to sleep. I asked that they all go to Gregory's room, grab a pillow and a comfy spot and watch the new DVDs. I let them know they didn't have to sleep, but I wanted them to stay in his room (with the exception, of course, of needing the bathroom). It got quiet quickly, and I went to bed. What I didnt know was that Greg got up shortly after that and was occassionally peeking in on them. He tried to take a picture, but couldn't figure my camera out (eyes rolling). He said they were piled everywhere, like a pack of little wolves. Anyway, he said they all slept until at least 10. He let me sleep til 11. :)

Everyone was gone by about 2. I drove about 45 minutes away to meet my niece-in-law to return Chase. We had leftovers for dinner and all turned in about 9:00. Gregory was still awake when I fell asleep around 10:30, but barely. He slept until 12:40 Monday afternoon.

It was quite exhausting, I still feel *off*, but I am so glad we did it. And so thankful for friends who let us keep their kids up all night. All of these kids have bed times and game limits at home, and no one gave us any grief about doing this or asked us to do any limiting. My son had exactly the party he wanted and I couldn't be happier for him.