A Great Night for a "Lateover"

What is a "lateover" you may ask? 

Well, it's what our family does instead of sleepovers.

We decided quite a while ago, when the kids were all still very little that we did not want to do the whole sleepover thing (except for the occasional cousin or grandma sleepover).  This is a very personal decision and for our family, it is the right one.

The reasons are this...

1.  I do not like having to deal with these lovely children after they have been up partying most of the night.  It makes for a very grumpy day at our house.  So whatever I can do to avoid grumpiness, I'm gonna do it.

2.  I like having my kiddos here at night.  Maybe I am too overprotective, but I like it that way.

3.  I know what I said and did at sleepovers and well...let's just leave it at that.

4.  Most importantly, we have prayed about it and feel that it is the right decision for our family.  Sound weird to pray about something like that?  Maybe.  But that's how we roll.

Anyhow--back to our lateover.

We had a bunch of giggly girls over for a few hours and man, did we have a good time.

We started out the night with a spaghetti and meatballs dinner.  Then it was game time baby.

First game?

The "Throw Cheeseballs at my Shaving Cream Covered Head" game.

(Ya, I made that up.  Not sure what the game is actually called.)

 I do know this....hilariously fun game.

The girls had a blast.

So did Bailey.  She was our cheeseball vacuum.  She may or may not have ingested some shaving cream.  She is still breathing so I guess she will survive.

The 2nd game of the night?

Cracker Whacker.

This is played by wearing a saltine cracker on your bum.  Everyone has a rolled up magazine or newspaper  and the object is to whack the crackers!

We sustained a few injuries, but nothing too serious.  Mostly just a lot of screaming and laughing.

Here's a video of the action.
*WARNING!*  THIS VIDEO CONTAINS LOTS OF GIGGLING AND SCREAMING.

And some more pictures.

Our final event of the evening was craft time.

We "tie-dyed" t-shirts, but we used Sharpies and rubbing alcohol.

Yes, it was something I had seen on Pinterest and No, it didn't turn out as planned.

The girls did a fantastic job decorating their shirts and when they were done, they looked amazing.  Then I made the mistake of putting them in the washer instead of the dryer.  Ya, didn't turn out so well.  I guess you need to put them in the dryer first to set the colors.  What happens when you wash them first?  The shirts turn a really great pinkish/greenish/brownish color.  Not so pretty.

I felt so bad!  They had worked so hard on these shirts and I was so excited to try a new craft.

Not to worry.  I solved the problem by running to Jo-Ann's the next day and buying a tie-dye kit.  We had a few of the girls come back over and we just tie-dyed those suckers.

Now...they look fantastic.  Live and learn I suppose.

The girls went home around 10 and then we crashed, and nobody was grumpy the next day.
It was awesome.