Last night I had a sleepover. It’s been a long time since I packed an overnight bag for a sleepover at a girlfriend’s house. And girls’ weekend doesn’t count because it’s not at someone’s house where they live day in and day out.

Yesterday, Zach and his hockey team had a big team -building outting planned at our friends’ lake houses on Lake Gaston. Stan and a number of the hockey dads were going to “chaperone” the boys as they partook in all the activties a lake has to offer…fishing, swimming, kayaking, wave running, camping, camp fires, smores…you name it, they did it. It was an outting designed for 15 and 16 year old boys and the men who still love to behave like they are 15 and 16!

Yesterday Lucas, Claire and I packed our bags to have a sleepover with one of my favorite hockey mamas ~ Lisa Horton. Lisa’s husband, Tim, and their oldest, Trey, were going to Lake Gaston for the hockey-team-building-festivities with Stan and Zach. Lisa and I were going to be all alone and bored with only our younger two kids so she invited us to have a sleepover. Lisa’s other two boys match Lucas and Claire age for age so the fit is good, except for the lack of a girl for Claire…enter the Farley’s, my partner in our blog “Perfect Mamas Confess.” Julie Farley and her four kids were part of the fun planned for yesterday. And fun we had! Claire hung out with Julie’s twins and their older sister. Lucas hung out with his own twin, from whom he was separated at birth ~ Lisa’s middle child, Joseph. And I hung out with not only Lisa and Julie but a whole host of “widowed” hockey mamas whose sons and husbands went to Lake Gaston. Julie’s husband, Justin, was our chef extrordinaire. (Julie and Justin are too smart to get involved in this crazy world of hockey ~ so Justin hung out with the hockey mamas while the other dads were away.) We ate, drank and were downright merry hockey widows at our hockey mama sleepover.

In planning for our sleepover, Lisa and I encountered some of the strangest reactions from our boys. “Why the heck are you all having a sleepover ~ isn’t that just a little weird?” asked Zach. Lisa’s oldest said “I don’t want you sleeping in my bed!” So why the heck did a sleepover sound like such a strange idea to the kids when it sounded like a grand idea to Lisa and me? Maybe because our kids don’t ever think of us being kids, back in our day, having sleepovers and planning weekend fun for ourselves. The fun the kids are used to seeing us plan is whole family fun. They never see the girls’ weekend fun so for them this was just a bit too far outside of their ordinary.

Lisa and I knew cocktails would be consumed. We knew our houses are not close enough together to even consider walking home. Driving home after a couple of cocktails would have been irresponsible and dangerous. We knew that wasn’t the kind of time we wanted to have, much less the example we wanted to set for our oldest kids as they come into the age of their driver’s licenses. We were trying to be the mature, responsible adults and take out any hint of irresponsibility but our kids just saw ~ EWWWWWW ~ something weird! Oh well…I don’t mind being thought of as weird when I am trying to maintain an aura of responsibility!

Oh, for the love of my children….