How To: Find The Way Into A Boy's Heart~

Shockingly,

I do not have a nervous tick.

Our sleepover with about billion fourth (The actual count turned out to be14 plus my two youngest-but who's counting?) grade boys went surprisingly well.

I mean,

I DID teach middle school at one point in my life, and trust me,

a few of these boys met "Mean Teacher" a few times in the evening when I had to threaten them in regards to behavior that was not up to my expectations within my house.

My carpet is still white,

and nothing was damaged-surprisingly-,

no one was hurt-feelings or physical being-permanently,

and I am pretty sure everyone went home happy (tired, but happy-),

and definitely well fed.

So I figured out a few things while hosting this sleepover that I thought to share in case you have a crazy desire to do this (preposterous!) idea of a sleepover with way too many boys:

1. Three boys are plenty for me-I am positive there will not be more kids in my biologically reproductive years. If there was a slight question before-it was cleared up hearing the bodily noises and accompanying laughter (Gross!),

or the jumping on my furniture (I said, GET off my couch like that!),

or screaming for no apparent reason

(For the love of GOD: Please don't yell that loud!)...

Yes~THREE is PLENTY.

2. If you are crazy enough to do this yourself one day, take a few teacher education classes at the nearest university. Seriously. I sat everyone down when everyone arrived, and listed my rules. Then, I rotated these boys around in "centers" like I do in my classroom all night until movie and 'bedtime' at 9:30pm.

{Wii Dance, Dance, Revolution in the Great Room; Fooze Ball in Movie Room; Soccer in the Playroom-}

 Anytime they were in one big group it was chaos-manageable, yes- but chaos, for sure. I used every technique to get their attention:

"Give me five!", 

"I like how so-and-so is sitting and listening..."

"If you don't stop yelling, I will put you in time out.

 If you don't believe me-just ask one of my sons-"

(Two decided to try me-and landed on the red bench for awhile.

See? Me no jokey-)...

And so on the night went... 

3. Have food available. Junk food. I realized if the way to a man's heart is through food, the way to a boy's heart is through JUNK food. Five large pizzas, two family sized bags of chips, one Costco-sized jar of pretzels, and two boxes of microwave popcorn-that is, 6 bags-, and three packages of Oreos and 24 cupcakes shaped into a football...Gone-all gone. And that was just the evening...

4. Have MORE junk food available before you would imagine anyone who fell asleep around midnight would need it. 5:30 AM. That is the time I heard these boys awake. I mean, Come On! 5:30!? That is just crazy! I was so ready to never invite THAT BOY back if he woke up everyone that early...

and then I found out it was my own son...{Oh Come on!}

5. After a big breakfast, and less than five hours of sleep, most boys still don't want to sit and relax. No sir. Get the Wii Bowling out and get ready for a few rounds of tag-team bowling. Then, if you want any kind of peace and quiet-just for a quick shower

(so you don't look AS haggard for the arriving parents-)

turn on ESPN SportCenter. This will captivate your audience. At least for 10 minutes. Wait-That could be pushing it. Eight minutes, is really maximum sitting time for a ten year old boy. Then get them going in "Centers" again until their parents arrive...

6. Have your husband on hand. Tin Man is always around-but, he had the chance to be an extra {as "Detective John Smith"} for episode 16 of the television show, Detroit 187. And they were filming the same night as the party. (!!!) I knew how much he wanted to do this show, but he was conflicted about not helping me out.  I told him to go-and that we would be fine. And we were. But, when he walked in the door at almost midnight, I was asleep on the couch-exhausted. He gently woke me, and said,

"Go to bed-I'll get those boys to bed after their movie."  

He stayed up until the movie ended, and all the talking stopped, and he made sure everyone was sleeping. We made quite the team in the morning-getting the boys to pack up their gear, pouring breakfast drinks, and toasting bagels. Tinny and I worked well doing this together in the morning.

Dealing with boys is much easier with a 'Wing-Man'...

7. Wear ear plugs, and take two Advil. Just do it. You will still hear them-I promise. But the ear plugs may mute all the loud noises. The headache should not turn into a migraine IF you medicate yourself. Boys

(-In case you forgot: 14+2 little ones=16 boys in my house at one time-)

are very loud. How they eat, talk, burp, play-you name it. There was only one volume: LOUD.

my soon-to-be eight year old would never, ever (!) be doing this next month for his birthday.

 No way. Never. NOPE.

But after a day to recuperate-and have Tin Man play Bey Blades (the birthday gift that captures 10 year old boys attention, for a long while, apparently-)with our boys while I closed the door to my bedroom-in beautiful, sweet silence-for a couple hours of needed alone time, I decided maybe I can do this again.

It really was a lot of fun!

CrAzY, and LoUd-but fun~

(...who learned an important lesson: JUNK food is the way to a boy's heart. If nothing else-remember that!)