Do you 'do' sleepovers?

To do or not to do?

Up to this point, most of the sleepovers that have happened with our kids have been our of necessity (traveling, early meetings, health concerns, etc).

The boys are getting older and want to have friends over... I've always said I'd like my house to be "the place"... the place to hang out, play the wii, pinball, watch movies, shoot hoops, etc. In order for my house to be "the place", friends need to come over.

The boys are in basketball camp this week and we leave early each morning. Two friends are joining us each day and it just made sense to me to have the boys spend the night... and a little friend for baby girl. This was also somewhat out of 'need' as two of the kids are siblings and mom and dad wanted to go to a concert so I asked for them to stay the night... made sense to me.

Now, here is the tough part. One of the friends got really nervous. I think it was a combination of over tired (3 hours of camp, 2 hours of running at our house, 2 hours running/playing on the soccer fields) and the nervous factor. Anyway... the little friend finally cracked. After trying to calm him down, I called Dad and he came to get him. Before they left he had worked himself up terribly. I felt horrible. So, the boys are 7... was it too soon? Phinneous has stayed the night with them twice... once our of necessity (Pepe was in surgery) and once for a family vacay they invited him on. I wonder if it was because it wasn't his idea. I called and asked Dad if he could spend the night and then told the boy later. We'll pick him up for camp this morning... I hope he is okay.

Then, during all of that fiasco, the little girl staying the night fell apart. Ugh. I've known her since she was 6 months old, she's spent the night with my kids several times, so I talked her through it and put them to bed. She slept great all night... I didn't call mom and dad. They were out having fun, and I KNOW this child. What do you do?

After all was said and done everyone was asleep by 11 (I started putting them to bed at 9:40) and they were up by 6:15... should make for a cranky afternoon. You know what... they've all had a great time and I'd still do it again. I'm not a fan of random friends staying over, but the friends we know and love or are getting to know and love I like having over. It's fun for the kids and well, fun for the kids. Did I mention I'm tired? Time to flip the sausages!