How to Host a Sleepover Party without Electricity

Abby had a sleepover with a few friends this past Saturday to celebrate her 10th birthday.  Just as the parents were dropping off their kids, we lost power.  Now, our neighborhood is notorious for losing power about once a month at all hours of the day and night.  Sometimes the outage lasts a few minutes, sometimes it's a few hours, and on three occasions it's been out for several days.

Since we had no way of knowing which of these scenarios we were facing, we decided to wing it.  We have plenty of camping lanterns and it was a warm evening, so we figured that even if the outage lasted all night, we'd be fine without heat.

It was still daylight when the girls arrived at 7pm. As soon as they saw the park behind our house, they went out to play and it wasn't long before they were pushing their imaginary babies (reportedly named Bob and Joe) in the swings.  It sounds sweet, but if an imaginary Children's Services had seen how Bob and Joe were being flung around, charges would have been filed.  As it got dark, Bob and Joe went to sleep, I started a campfire and Chris ran to the store for S'mores supplies.  Later, we pulled out the flashlights for a rather raucous game of "Ghost in the Graveyard."  At 9pm we finally told the girls to stop screaming so the neighbors wouldn't call the police.

Zach kept up with the girls for a bit, but as he'd had soccer practice and a swim party earlier in the day, he was exhausted; however, insisted he didn't want to go to bed.  When I asked him to lay down in the hammock with me, he quickly agreed. We lay in the dark for 20 minutes talking and looking at the stars.

For two hours, these 7 kids, ages 7-12, laughed, sang songs, told jokes, shared stories, ran around and had a great time.  No TV, movies, iPods, music, computers, apps, DSs or cell phones.  It was so dark, most of the time we could barely see each other.

Shortly after 9pm, a repair crew from the electric company arrived in the park to work on the buried lines, and by 9:30 the lights were back on.  Within 30 seconds the girls were inside.  I fully expected them to want to watch a movie or play the Wii, but what happened next really surprised me.

After having cake and ice cream, (yes, they had cake, ice cream and soda after eating S'mores), the girls wanted to put on a play. We dug out the dress-up bin, which I'd moved to the basement in anticipation of its retirement, and the girls-turned-thespians entertained themselves for yet another hour.  When the theater closed for the evening, they had a dance party.

It's good to know that, given the right tools and opportunities, some kids still make creative choices. Abby's very lucky to be friends with some of those kids.

Daddy shows off his robot moves at a late night dance party.

Morning after breakfast.