GRAND Magazine - January 2009 - (Page 18)

grand gestures Can we sleep over? By Judyann Grant all settled down for a long winter’s nap? Hardly. O ne winter afternoon, cousins Kaylee, 6, and Bailey, 7, simultaneously experienced cabin fever. While the snow fell outside, the girls, via their mothers’ cell phones, planned a great escape: a sleepover for the weekend at Granny’s house. All afternoon they burned through their mothers’ cell phone minutes, adding activities to the adventure. By the end of the day, the list was 38 entries and growing, with plans ranging from playing Barbies, Bingo and beauty parlor, to a picnic lunch, a pillow fight and Play-Doh, to being spies, going on a treasure hunt and watching movies until midnight. My husband unearthed the flying saucers and sleds our daughters had outgrown. I stuffed an old suitcase with dress-up clothes, retrieved board games from the attic and prepared our guest room, the “Pineapple Suite,” a room overflowing with welcoming décor—right down to the comfy bed that sports pineapple finials. When my granddaughters arrived, however, they wanted nothing to do with the guest room or its fancy bed. They wanted to camp out on the living room floor. They lugged in their belongings, and the room morphed into a makeshift campsite. Two pink suitcases held enough clothes for two weeks. After spreading out their sleeping bags, they arranged fashion dolls on the loveseat and stacked craft projects by the television. They put their toothbrushes and bubble-gum-flavored toothpaste in the bathroom and attacked their list of activities. The first event was dress-up— damsels-in-distress. Both girls wanted to be heroines, not villains, so I was drafted to stomp around as the ferocious Beast terrifying the twin Belles. I barked orders as the wicked stepmother to two Cinderellas. When they portrayed dual Jasmines, I filled a dual role: the evil Jafar kidnapping them and the good-hearted Aladdin rescuing them. The picnic lunch took place inside, on a blanket that was soon reeking with pickle juice and covered with crumbs. After lunch they played beauty parlor. I relaxed momentarily with a cup of tea until the beauty parlor patrons requested a foot spa. After 15 minutes of rummaging around the kitchen, we found the perfect “spa.” I sipped my reheated tea while the girls soaked their feet in a lasagna pan filled with dish detergent and water. One activity that wasn’t on the list involved their grandfather. While he slumbered in his recliner, the girls pulled his thick black hair up to a ponytail on top of his head, securing it with a pink hair tie. He looked like an underweight Sumo wrestler. While the girls watched two feature-length movies, I popped popcorn, scooped ice cream and replenished the pretzel dish. As the clock edged close to midnight, the girls crawled into their sleeping bags. I plugged in a night-light and encircled the campsite with pillows to fend off wintry drafts. Just before dawn I heard dainty footsteps and muffled giggles by our bedroom door. Pretending to be asleep, I shifted toward the middle of the bed as the girls lifted the bedcovers and crawled in beside me. Grandpa grumbled about sleep deprivation. The girls squirmed around, trying to peek at his topknot. The free-for-all ended when Grandpa bulldozed the three of us out of bed. The only skirmish was quickly resolved. Kaylee said she was glad Clover, Bailey’s cat, hadn’t come for the sleepover. “Clover wrecks things,” Kaylee said. Bailey took offense. For a few tense minutes, neither girl spoke. Then, Kaylee apologized. As Bailey later wrote in her journal, “Then everting wus all rite.” Indeed, it was. G 18 GRAND JANUARY 2009

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - January 2009

GRAND�Magazine - January 2009 Grand View Contents Isn't it Grand? Grand Central Tips on Teens Grand Gestures Toddler Town Help! My Grandson's Being Raised Vegan! Cover Story: Casualties Leader of the Pack Reunions Together Time Resources Grand Finale

GRAND Magazine - January 2009

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