A Very Long Post about a Very Short Sleep-Over

My Idaho Niblets got to spend the night at my house Friday while their parents celebrated Becky's birthday in Twin (where Warren had been doing some training for his new job). 

I didn't get photos of all of our adventures, but here is a play-by-play, just in case their parents were wondering about Bubba's new fascination with potatoes. 

 5:15 p.m. - Mindy returns from purchasing kid-friendly cereal, chocolate milk, apple juice, fruit snacks, assorted Easter candy, glow bracelets, pizza, and mac and cheese.

5:25 p.m. - Mindy moves all vases, lamps, sharp objects, markers, and fragile Harry Potter/Doctor Who memorabilia to higher ground.

5:27 p.m. - Mindy considers moving her Willow Tree Angels out of reach, but changes her mind after remembering 1) how much Kylie likes to play with them and 2) how easy it is glue their little angel heads back on.

5:34 p.m. - The niblets arrive.

5:35 p.m. - Baby Kristie decapitates a Willow Tree Angel, whose apparent please for mercy went unheeded.

5:36 p.m. - The niblets exercise their car-weary limbs and vocal chords.

5:37 p.m. - Mindy is thankful that she is currently without an upstairs neighbor and makes a mental note to wait and mail the assorted Easter candies to the niblets, perhaps when they turn 18.

5:50 p.m. - Dinner is served.

6:25 p.m. - The Niblets create a birthday book to give their momma the next day. The book contains beautiful their artwork along with lists of reasons they love their mom, including Bubba's heartfelt, "Her helps me not be sick."

6:45 p.m. - Easter Egg Hunt!

7:00 p.m. - Baby Kristie is introduced to Mindy's rat puppets.

7:01 p.m. - Baby Kristie develops, what we can safely assume will become, a life-long fear of rats and puppets.

7:10 p.m. - Kylie invents a fun new game to play, wherein she and Kenna are princesses who, while in the course of having many exciting adventures, discover that they are long-lost sisters.

7:15 p.m. - After listening to the extremely detailed back-story behind the character's in Kylie's game, Mindy begins to look forward to the time when Kylie grows up to become a famous novelist, screen writer, or producer on the Jerry Springer show.

7:18 p.m. - Kenna enjoys the contents of the jewelry kaboodle.

7:22 p.m. Kristie tastes the contents of the jewelry kaboodle.

7:25 p.m. - Bubba introduces the Avengers to the giant potatoes and sugar beets Mindy couldn't bring herself to throw away from last year's fair booth.

7:33 p.m. - Becky's sweet parents arrive and wonder aloud why Bubba is playing with fake root vegetables instead of with his action figures.

7:38 p.m. - Kristie goes to stay at her grandparent's house for the night, saving Mindy from the potential trauma of having Kristie wake up at her aunt's house in the middle of the night with no parents in sight and having a complete and total stranger-danger-come-apart.

Visual approximation of what Kristie might look like had she waken up in the middle of the night to the sight of her Aunt instead of her parents. Also a visual approximation of what Mindy would have FELT like had Kristie woken up and had a come-apart in the middle of the night.

7:50 p.m. - The remaining three niblets (who were evaluated to have very low middle-of-the-night come-apart potential) change into their jim-jams and get ready for "popcorn and movie time"!

7:55 p.m.- The niblets taste the popcorn and, in a rare moment of agreement, decide that it doesn't have enough salt.

7:56 p.m. - More salt is added to the popcorn.

7:57 p.m. - The niblets, setting a new record by agreeing with each other twice in one day, declare that there is now too much salt on the popcorn.

7:58 p.m. - Mindy takes a deep breath, shakes the popcorn bowel a few times, and tells the trusting niblets that all of the extra salt has been removed.

8:04 p.m. - The niblet contentedly munch popcorn while watching The Gruffalo on Netflix.

8:15 p.m. - Mindy marvels at how many of the voice actors in The Gruffalo have guest starred on Doctor Who.

8:16 p.m. - Mindy briefly considers showing the niblets an episode of Doctor Who before they go to bed, then reconsiders after remembering how Kylie reacted the last time she watched an episode of Doctor Who at her house.

8:45 p.m. - Mindy, finally learning from past experience, has the children piddle before getting in bed.

8:50 p.m. - Kylie and Kenna watch an episode of Barbie's Dream House on the computer while they fall asleep.

8:52 p.m. - Bubba watches an episode of Jake and the Neverland Pirates while he falls asleep in his "nest".

8:53 p.m. - Mindy gives thanks for having multiple Netflix enabled devices.

9:00 p.m. - Mindy watches an episode of Doctor Who in the living room and briefly considers checking on the kids while wearing her gas mask and asking, "Are you my mommy?" ala "The Empty Child" episode.

9:01 p.m. - Mindy, unsure if Warren's new insurance covers long-term care by child psychologists,  decides against checking on the kids while wearing the gas mask.

9:02 p.m. - Mindy congratulates herself on being cool enough to own a gas mask.

6:45 a.m. - Kenna wakes up.

6:46 a.m. - Kenna does her own gas-mask-less recreation of the empty child, standing above Mindy until her Aunt awakes with a start.

6:46.30 a.m. - Mindy very nearly jumps out of bed in fright while silently thinking a cuss word or two.

6:47 a.m. -  Mindy, after checking to make sure she isn't having a heart attack, gets Kenna all comfy on the couch with blankets and books, then goes back to bed.

7:20 a.m. - Kylie wakes up. Mindy hears her talking to Kenna in the living room and is therefore prepared when Kylie comes into tell her aunt she is awake.

7:21 a.m. - Grateful for having avoided another cardiac event, Mindy gets up and makes blue berry muffins with the girls.

7:50 a.m. - Bubba wakes up and immediately goes in search of his new friends, the potatoes and the sugar beet.

8:00 a.m. - Breakfast is served.

9:00 a.m. - Becky returns to collect the kids before conference. Kylie gives her mom the birthday book made the night before. Kenna starts to pack. Bubba, unwilling to leave his new nylon tuber pals, scoops a few up in his arms and makes a break for it.

9:04 a.m. - Mindy corners the potatoes bandit in the guest room.

9:10 a.m. - Bubba reluctantly relinquishes his grasp on the fake potatoes, gathers up his Easter eggs, and dives to his grandparents house with his siblings.

9:55 a.m. - After having restored her home to it's pre-niblet condition, Mindy settles in to watch the Saturday morning session of General Conference with a bowl of left over Easter candy.

10:02 a.m. - Mindy may, or may not, have fallen asleep as the Tabernacle Choir sang "Glory to God on High".