Mimi's Sleep "Under"

Tonight, Madeline had her first "sleep under," which is like a sleep over, but the fun ends right before bedtime (or a bit beyond, as ours did tonight). She and her best friend, Elle, have been cooking this up for more than a month, and at last, the big day arrived. The night before, Madeline was so excited that she was buzzing in bed until 10pm, then woke up at 4:30am to get things started. She's very sad that she'll miss her friend's birthday party, which is a month after we move, so we decided to celebrate a little early.

Right after Elle opened her birthday present, the girls had a store front on the driveway, selling homemade bracelets, random trinkets from Madeline's room, and best of all, miniature marshmallows (5 for 5 cents). I watched from the window as they yelled "marshmallows and stuff" to people and cars. One preteen boy stopped with a quarter and picked out a plastic lion Madeline made out of beads you melt with an iron -- he was a little confused (I think he was expecting lemonade), but very gracious. Eventually I went out with a dollar for each of them and bought a bracelet. That's all they would part with in case they had a rush of customers.

Next, they raided the dress ups. Then they had a ballet and gymnastics performance involving quite a few cartwheels and leaps off my bed. At last, Rob got home from work -- he took the boys out for pizza, and I took the girls to The Bay for baked mac 'n cheese. On our walk home we stopped for ice cream cones. The moment we came in the door, the girls ran upstairs to put on their matching "BFF" (Best Friends Forever), grape-scented pajamas from a store called Justice, which I have avoided like head lice for two years. But I figured since we're leaving the country, I'd take Madeline there so she'd have the experience under her belt. We cued up The Lego Movie, and I loved listening to their adorable chatter as I sat in the next room.

Rob ran Elle home the moment the movie ended; of course Madeline wanted to go along. When she came home, she literally ran across the room to give me hugs and kisses. I think it was a smashing success!!