Sleep (?) over

So it's Friday morning, 9:18 am... what was i doing yesterday morning at exactly this time??  Well, not so sure...it was a bit of a blur, but a blur that was enhanced by two little boys who had their first sleepover at their Aunt Dell's house.  It was all a bit last minute.  I had talked to Rachel in the morning and Lauren had gone there to bail her out, watch the kids and run the show whilst she was sadly out of commission after having lost to a nasty flu bug.  I had asked if i should take the boys to allow her to get some rest but both Peter and Aaron were flatly against the idea, or would only approve if mommy, daddy and Nate came too.. slightly less like a break for Mom, little ones! 

So, i didn't think the idea would be turning into a reality, when whilst i was stirring up some yummy soup, i received a phone call from Aaron saying "we sleep at your house, Aunt Dell".  Well, this was a switch - apparently some big discussions had been occuring throughout the afternoon and now they were okay with this idea.... all until Peter stepped in the door and his face fell about 10 stories and he was very adament that he was going to go home again, with a very dark look on his face!  Hmmm...how were we going to solve this one?  Well, thankfully Aunt Lauren stayed, read some books, some cookies were offered as bribes, as was a visit to Oma and Opa's house in the morning, and peace was restored...until Aaron decided that now he was sad, and when he gets sad, he really can put it on, little stinker!  Well, we got over that hurdle as well, mostly with a lot of talking and avoidance techniques - whoever said raising children doesn't involve lots of psychology was probably totally out of touch with reality! 

Eventually, by 8pm, two little boys were ensconced in their huge air mattress bed in the library and with very little fuss or bother, were asleep fairly quickly after a few songs and hugs.  Aaron woke up around 11 for a pee, and i will say that the little arms of a sleepy nephew wrapped around your neck is a pretty nice feeling.  But yeah, sleep was rather elusive, or when it did come, rather not so deep as i'm used to....you tend to hear every little sound and when at the unearthly hour of 5:45, they were making noise, i gave up the idea of further sleep.  I opened the door, and two little faces looked at me "let's have fun, Aunt Dell".  Hmmm.... i'm not so sure my brain cells are capable of putting two words together at this point to even talk coherantly and you want to play.... hmmm.... going to be an interesting day! 
We snuggled for an hour in my bed... talking, singing and sharing stories... I asked Peter what he was going to be when he grew up and he told me that he was going to be a worker man, making buildings and bridges and towers and such.  He was also going to get married.  When i queried him as to the possible identity or location of his future spouse, he pointed to his rib cage and said "from here".  I had to smile about that one all day, apparently someone has been listening to his Bible stories. 
After a hearty breakfast of Alphabets and fruit in jello (i know, i know), it was playing with garbage trucks time.  That lasted for about an hour and then it was downstairs for us...only if Aunt Dell was there too...cause there are scary things in the basement!  We played fireman, grocery store and cranes.  They really enjoy the interaction with new toys and were quite happy down there. 

Then it was upstairs to watch some Planet Earth whilst Aunt Dell had a shower and then off to Oma and Opa's for lunch and a driveby from the very nice and accomodating garbage men, much to the boy's delight!  Aaron took a long nap after lunch and Peter went with Opa to the Warplane Museum.  Apparently he didn't want to go at first, he only wanted to see "new" airplanes, not old ones, but he was convinced at length that it would be okay to see old ones and they were gone for part of the afternoon, allowing Oma and Aunt Dell to watch an hour long episode of Emma online... yes, girl time! 
Then it was back to good old St Catharines for dinner - a very, very happy time (not!).  Three very tired little boys made for a supper that was interrupted frequently by major crisis (i don't want pizza, i want toast) and other such earth shattering events.  However, after a nice bath and some cool down time, it was off to bed for the boys... the end of our first sleep over adventure and hopefully the start of new traditions....i'd like it to be that it's not so unusual that they come here for a night and enjoy some one on one time with myself! 
Sorry about the quality of the pictures, my camera's flash does not work and the boys are in constant motion so they are quite blurry!