sleepover sillies and sadness

Maci finally was able to invite a friend over for a sleepover on Sunday. Every time Mackenzi has Taylor over or she sleeps over at Taylor's I have screaming, squealing, fit throwing five year old on my hands. She doesn't habe many friends her age that are girls so our choices are minimal. I always forget about our friends the Arnolds have a daughter, Rachel, who is just eleven days older than Maci. What kind of mom am I? I never think about them playing together because they aren't in the sam e school or church and they live about twenty minutes away(without traffic).
Anyway back to the sleepover. After having dinner with the Arnolds on Saturday, the girls wanted to have asleepover, but it was a bit late. They would have just gone home, had a bath, and gone to bed, to wake up early, not to play, but to go to church. It took a lot of begging and pleading to convince them another night would be better. We opted for Sunday night. I didn't really have any set plans for Monday morning so they would be able to play as long as they wanted and not feel like they were cheated on time spent together.


Rachel came over they played games, giggled, we went for our usual Sunday evening stroll,giggled some more, took baths, giggled some more, and watched a movie and had popcorn. It was getting close to 10:30 and the giggles were still bellowing out of their room, in full force, so I made Greg be the bad guy and tell them it was time for lights out. I'm not sure if that is what triggered it but two minutes later Rachel had had enough of the sleepover and the Gordon Gang. She wanted to go home. I convinced her to just call her mom and dad to say goodnight and then she would feel better. Boy, was I wrong. As soon as she said goodnight to her daddy, there was no going back. She wanted to leave then. Not in the morning, not in an hour, but right then. Maci was bawling by this time kot wanting her to leave, having forgotten the time we has to pick her up from a sleepover, about bedtime. Chris said he would be on his way and to call him if she happened to fall asleep, no such luck. She fought going to sleep and was wide awake when he arrived. Poor thing, I felt bad for her. I hate to see children sad and scared, and that she was.
This morning I listened to the same screaming, sqeauling, whaling, from Maci when she realized Rachel had gone home after she had fallen asleep. I consoled her and reminded her that it is hard for little girls to be away from their mommies and daddies. We called to check on Rachel and she was feeling better and decided next time she would bring a picture of her mom and dad(we have some, but I wasn't smart enough to ask her if she wanted to look at them.) so when she got lonely she could see them.
Wish us better luck on our next attempt at a sleepoever for Maci.