Today's Hearts are......

Just a select few from the previous 27 days entries.

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Last night, well, where do I begin..... Actually it went quite well, as far as sleep overs do.  We collected the boys up on Saturday afternoon and immediately wished that we had earplugs in for the journey home, we somehow managed to survive the journey. 

Once home,  the sleepover gang played themselves tired with a good outside game and then played themselves silly with a good indoor game.

At the chosen hour, we bundled them up into the land rover and set off for our evening picnic.

The grand plan was to go to one of our favourite villages in the Dales, buy a banquet's worth of fish and chips and head for the hills. The volume of excited voices was almost to the point of excruciating, but as it was so good humoured and happy we gritted out teeth and grinned at each other in moral support.

We successfully confused the spotty teenager who served us in the chippy with our order. Eventually we left triumphantly clutching three steaming hot bags of food. Back in the landie, the boys drooled and complained at the emptiness of their bellies as the tantalising scent of piping hot chips with salt and vinegar and the appetising aroma of fish and sausages tormented them. 

We bumped and lurched up the green lane into the hills where at the top we spilled out a hungry horde ready for the feast.  For a few blissful minutes it was quiet - barring the slurping and smacking of lips and licking of fingers.

Suddenly as if on cue, the sleepover gang grabbed torches and scattered into the night. 

Up on the hills. 

In late winter. 

With snow still on the ground. 

In the dark. 

Miles from anywhere.

Gone. 

Vanished. 

Himself smiled benignly at their disappearing act whilst I felt incredibly responsible for losing all the children we were in charge of! Visions of lost, broken or at the very least partly dented boys kept whizzing through my head.

For nearly an hour a game of hide and seek with torches ensured. Shrieks of laughter and snorts of excitement came from all over the hills.  Then, with a wolf whistle I gathered them in. 

The sleepover gang were still buoyed up and galloped off in a frenzied pack along the green lane. Ahead of us, as we followed gingerly in the land rover, was the occasional bobbing of torches and the now increasingly primitive calls from the sleepover horde as they pretended to evade capture. 

We did eventually round up the savages and herd them into the land rover where they gnashed and snarled like the wild beasts they had become as they free ranged over the moors and dales.  One offer of juice and chocolate tamed the beasties and they calmed down and started to sing.

At home, they were dispatched upstairs to change - most of them had come back plastered in snowy mud and slushy water. Soon the kitchen was churning out hot dogs and tea.(One only ate the sausages and left the bread half chewed whilst another requested seconds and then thirds - despite all the sausage and chips and bread consumed on the picnic) The DVD chosen was a killin' fightin' alien vs human boy-friendly film. 

Finally we managed to usher the tired but resisting-sleep gang upstairs where, once in their PJs (one had forgotten both his pyjamas and his toothbrush) and shoe horned into various sleeping bags , we left them to sleep (err - nope, not a chance - a impromptu midnight feast occurred). (Only - one of the sleepover gang didn't like the flavour of crisps hidden away and another kept asking for more food)

Not counting the various loo breaks at 1.30am and again at 2.35am, or the furtive whispers of Youngest as he came to report that one of the sleepover gang had got up and dressed and was ready to come downstairs at 3.15am. Nor counting the various loo visits at 6am them again at 6.30am - it was a peaceful night. 

By 7.15am they were all up and playing on the computer, taking in turns to be troopers or aliens whilst one of the sleepover gang, still swaddled firmly in his sleeping bag, was fast asleep across the floor.

Once again the kitchen began to churn out food - bacon sandwiches, tea or coffee or juice (except one boy who didn't like bacon.....or bread..... could he have something else) so more sausages were grilled.

More games, more nibbling. Then, finally, thankfully, mercifully the clock said it was time to bundle the sleepover gang back into the land rover and return them to their rightful owners...............

We were all shell shocked...................... but apparently it was a successful sleepover. 

I might take some time to recover...........