Pajama Party

Zack left on a business trip on Saturday morning. This is always troubling, since the kids so look forward to hanging with "Dad" on Sat/Sun, that they are in a funk as soon as they wake up. Lucky me. Because of the cold weather and general lack of things to do during the winter doldrums, I kept hope alive by having at least two activities planned: Saturday cartoon hour at the movie theater and Sunday church.

One of the local theaters runs a free looney tune cartoon hour (bugs, pepe le pew, road runner, etc) on Saturday mornings. This was great. The kids loved it and enjoyed the candy canes I brought for snack. But then it ended and it was only 11am on Saturday. Only day 1 of Zack being gone. ACK!

Desperate for ideas, I asked the kids what they wanted to do. A few feeble requests for McDonald's later, they hit jackpot: Pajama Party.

Huh. I like pajamas. Okay, so I need more details.

"Well, what do you do at a pajama party," I ask.

"You get in your pajamas at 4 o'clock," replied Alexander.

"You have a dance party IN your pajamas," exclaimed CJ.

"You get to EAT DINNER, DINNER, IN YOUR PAJAMAS," shouted Alexander. And while still on a roll, "you definitely get to eat dessert... like cake or ice cream or cookies, and as much as you like!"

Since there wasn't a item on their list that didn't appeal to me as well, I said, "okay, let's have a pajama party."

This was Saturday at about 1pm. I was happy to have a plan and the kids were so excited they were "packing" for the party most of the afternoon. Then my wonderful State College friends started to call and potentially derail the pajama party plan.

Normally when Zack goes out of town, the kids and I get sick of each other by Day 2. At this point, they start acting out and I start yelling. It's not healthy for anyone. So, when I discovered that another friend was going to be without her husband's presence that afternoon I called and asked for some company. I thought this was great having 3 other kids coming over to play and have dinner. Alexander and CJ were initially disappointed. "WHAT about Pajama Party?"
I had to promise that we would do it the next night. Sure, fine.

Off to Church in the morning and then when some other friends heard that I was flying solo, they invited us back to their house after church. Great! We hung out until about 1pm. Got home and another friend called and asked us over for the afternoon and possibly dinner. I was ELATED to have such wonderful people in my life who were helping me pass the hours without Zack stress free and with adult conversation. Life is good.

But what was the fate of Pajama Party? Alexander was keen to figure out that it was past 4pm and dinner was approaching and we were still at the friend's house. Another promise had to be made for the next night. I was surprised that he didn't make me pinky swear or cross my heart too.

So, alas here we are on Monday night in our Pajamas. When it comes to parties, and especially Pajama Parties, we rock out. A day of school behind them and at exactly 4pm, Alexander ran upstairs and hopped into his PJs. CJ and I soon followed. We had popcorn and watched a movie, ate pancakes, sausage and eggs for breakfast-dinner, and then had the prescribed dance-party. They have been awesome and loving it. Zack returns tomorrow and now that the kids are tucked into bed, I am happy to report that Day 3 is complete and I haven't had to yell once. Perhaps I need to ride the "pajama party" train every time he goes out of town? Hmmm. I'll need more pajamas.