Phoebe's first sleepover

Phoebe has been begging to have a sleepover at Grandpa's house for literal ages...probably about half of her life, if we're honest. She's been fully begging for at least a year (as documented here), but has been longing to join in on sleepovers for even longer than that. 

But she's been working hard on a few essential sleepover skills, like (1) staying in her bed at night rather than getting up in the middle of the night to do weird stuff or cry for hours at a time for no reason, and (b) staying dry. 

We're still a little iffy on the first item listed, but she's been so great with staying dry! 

She hasn't even worn the Chummie to bed in a month (I've never seen a child more happy to yeet a piece of technology than Phoebe was when we said goodbye to Mr. Chummie) and has been doing so well. 

So last Saturday when Grandpa and Darla came to the Front Porch Recital, we made a plan to have a sleepover this weekend. 

"We can have a sleepover whenever she's ready," Grandpa said. 

"Oh, she's been packed for weeks now," I said.

Phoebe literally helped me put the Chummie into its box and said, "Well, I'm going to go pack for my sleepover!" and started lugging a heavy backpack around the house just in case it ever happened to be time for a sleepover.

She was overjoyed when she learned it was really going to happen. On Thursday morning when she came into bed with me for "70 minutes of snuggling plus 100 more snuggles," she explained to me all about how today was Dad's long day to be on campus and then she would have one more sleep and then it would be time to sleep over at Grandpa and Darla's (and she hoped I wouldn't be lonely without her).

She was thrilled to pack up in Grandpa's car when he picked the kids up. And she just...had a blast. She loved the independence.

Here she is racing down the driveway with Zoë and Alexander:

And here are the kids decorating some Halloween cookies (Darla has the best sugar cookie recipe):

I do not know why Alexander looks so solemn (actually, he looks like he has his mouth stuffed with candy).

The kids had corn dogs and Clementine (oranges) for dinner. They watch K-Pop Demon Hunters. They went on a walk in the dark to look at all the spooky Halloween decorations. They went to bed.

Phoebe got to sleep in the "treehouse room," which has a fancy bed that looks like a treehouse (according to my kids), but she woke up in bed with Zoë. She had needed help going to the bathroom in the middle of the night, so went to find Zoë and then...well...one thousand and one snuggles sounded better than sleeping in her own bed, so...yeah. We're still working on staying in our own bed all through the night, but the fact that Phoebe simply went back to sleep for/with Zoë is a positive thing. 

Grandpa and Darla brought the kids home in time for the first session of General Conference (so just before noon) and they stayed to watch that session with us. It's fun to have grandparents close by enough that we can do things like this!