I spent most of the day yesterday in preparation for the party – after school, I got busy in the kitchen, making a fridge tart, and then did some other important things that needed doing and I nominated yesterday to do them – like making pumpkin fritters with the pumpkin I cut up about two weeks ago which had been sitting in a packet in the cooler drawer. Happily it hadn’t gone funny, so those are now frittered.
The first girls arrived on time, and I launched into a game straight away, sticking the name of a personality on their back which they had to guess. That went on as the girls arrived and was quite hilarious. They also found the “Sleepover Survival Pack” bearing their name, and were mildly impressed with the contents (tissues, a cake, pencil, beaded cross). When all the girls had arrived (8 in all), we had pudding. Along with the fridge tart, I also whipped up a strawberry fluff, and had ice-cream available. Sad to say, the fridge tart and strawberry whip were almost untouched, the ice-cream finished, but most of it was left in their bowls to melt. I settled them down for a serious talk shortly after that, and kept it casual, so I don’t know if I actually made my point. I know a couple of them take to heart what we teach, where others don’t give a fig. But for those who listened, I hope it’s a lesson they will learn – that their bodies are not made for sexual immorality, and that God wants to be involved in their date life. For a group of 8-10 year olds, you would think this would be a lesson for the distant future, but it’s nearer than I thought for some of them. What followed after that was a chaotic night of screaming, laughing, running around, jumping around, DVD, eating stuff, and too much noise. I had laid down two house rules – no drinking in the lounge, and no screaming. Unfortunately at one point I actually shouted at them all because they were screaming! It had a momentary impact on them, but they carried on with the fun in only slightly subdued tones after that. In the meantime, Nick had been out visiting Paul at his mom’s place, and they watched a guitar DVD. He came home at about 10 pm, and went straight upstairs and played guitar for another two hours. At 10.30, I told the girls to brush their teeth and get settled, and then put on a video for them and told them to go to sleep! This sort of worked, and by 11.30 they were all ready for lights out. Sleeping in a lounge with 8 little girls is not conducive to a good night of rest though, with all the sniffing and shuffling that goes on.
The boys were awake at their usual 6.30 this morning and couldn’t wait to come downstairs to wake the girls up. I kept them quiet until 7 am though, by which time most of the girls were awake. Then the noise and high-energy activity started again until I could finally usher them out the house for Good News Club at 10! Phew! After the club they had to come back for their “stuff” and then went home. They all want to have a sleep-over again, definitely more than once a year, but I don’t think I’m going to be entertaining thoughts about that. I’m happy that they enjoyed it though. Next year maybe Nick will sleep in the school-room with Caleb and Aaron, so that noise won’t be a problem.
Today has been hot and sunny, with a clear blue sky. Spring perhaps? I wonder if this is the end of the cold weather, though somehow I don’t think so. September is the windy month. Nice to have some respite from the wind and clouds though!
I think I’ve forgotten to mention that some of the schools on the island are closing down. There are a lot of unhappy parents and teachers, but the sad reality is that the population on the island is dwindling, and some of the classes are down to about 10 kids. It’s apparently not viable to keep all the schools open, so at the beginning of the school year next year (September 2007), Pillings Primary and some others will permanently shut their doors.
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