Slumber party

On July 21, Molly had three friends over to spend the night (shown here are Hélèna, Sofie, and Emma, with Molly hidden in the back). Apparently the idea for this sleepover was hatched one day during the winter when it was warm enough to be outside, and Hélèna and Molly were building a cabane – French for “fort” – on Molly’s balcony. Wouldn’t it be great if we could sleep out here one night, they thought, but it was too cold at the time. Eventually the plan evolved to include all three friends, and the plan was to sleep outside in the cabane.

Constructing the cabane, as Molly is doing here post-bedclothes-time – remember, it gets dark really late in the summer -- involves nearly all of the blankets and pillows in the apartment, along with brooms, mops, the laundry drying rack, and just about anything else the girls were allowed to use (Cricket vetoed the vacuum cleaner).

The girls gathered for a pre-bedtime tizaine, a.k.a. herbal tea, before brushing teeth and hair … and then hair some more (see the related post on living with pre-teens) before heading off to bed (photo below). The grand disappointment of the evening was that due to a recent sore throat and an unfortunately timed one-night cold snap, one of the girls was not allowed to sleep outside, which meant that nobody could. Despite this setback, a good time was had by all.