Millie had a sleep over last night. It was the first time ever she hosted a sleep over that was just for her. And it was with her beloved “cousin” Esme.

It got me feeling a little nostalgic.

I’ll tell you why.

Once upon a time there were two young, sweet, virginal girls – who did EVERYTHING together.

(No photos of me in my pink sponge curlers, I’m afraid!)

Through thick and thin, through ups and downs, through fun times and lean times and hurt times and happy times they remained friends.

Grew up.

Got married.

And had kids.

Between them, five in total.

ALL GIRLS!

Millie loves Neylan’s girls – but she has a particular affection for her oldest, Esme. About a year ago Mills started referring to Esme as “my cousin” – she came up with this all on her own. And I have tried several times to explain to her what a cousin is, but she wont have it. In her mind she and Es are cousins.

When I found out that Neylan and her little brood were really and truly moving west I thought – a sleep over! We must let these two cousin friends have a sleep over.

And what a sleep over was had!

The party began with the littler sisters getting in the mix. A sleep over has to be earned, and that means putting in some face time with the little sisters, right?!

After some fun with these cuties and a nice dinner together – the little sisters dispersed and two big girls were left to themselves. And BOY were they excited!

They had been begging to put their jammies on since 3:00. Finally their request was granted.  After watching a movie and munching on candy bars their sleeping bags were calling, “ladies, time for bed!”.

After bed-time stories, prayers, scriptures and an impromptu telling of the Wizard of Oz they finally drifted off to dream land…at 10:00 pm!

They woke up BRIGHT and BUSHY TAILED at 5:30 am (you do the math, people – they didn’t get much sleep) and READY FOR FUN!!

What is the point of a garden hose if you’re not playing with it!? Right!

We consider bubble baths a serious business in this house. We have found that if you mix Mistral (for the scent) with dish-soap (for a hearty bubble) you get the PERFECT bubble bath.

After “swimming” in the tub and pretending to be mermaids, we felt these little amphibians needed something a bit larger where they could really spread their fins.

So we headed to the pool.

Driving dad’s zippy car with the sunroof open and listening to Coldplay, at Millie’s request.

After the pool we headed for home and a little down time.

We rolled out some butcher paper and the girls did “cave drawings”.

Then we walked into town, at Esme’s request, for some ice cream.

We walked around our town center for a while going in and out of shops- the post office, the grocery store and Millie asked if we could go into the consignment shop. I usually avoid this place because it is so hard to maneuver with a stroller, but I was feeling generous and I wondered if we might just find some treasures. I was hoping to find something along the lines of a dress-up.

Treasures were indeed found. And these treasures lead to the most magical part of the day.

White for Millie and pink for Es.

They danced to Swan Lake for a while and then said they needed a real stage. Now those who know me well know that I cannot resist a request such as this. And so I did my best to rig a stage up for them.

Jan provided the spot light.

And then the performance began in earnest.

And what a performance it was! Imagine, two prima ballerinas in one tiny living room…

G L O R I O U S ! Is the only word to describe this performance.

Es has clearly been to the ballet because she requested that we throw flowers at them, and she kept running back and forth from behind the stage only to reemerge to our enthusiastic “BRAVAS”.  Although Millie hasn’t been to the ballet, she was a quick learner.

“Thank you! thank you! You’re too kind!”

It was hard to break the news to them that the time had come for this party to end.

Both girls cried.

I felt sad too. I didn’t want Es to go either. We’d had more than a blast. We’d had MAGIC!

These girls KNOW how to do a proper good-bye, I tell ya.

Just one last squeeze!

There was nothing very sweet about this parting, there was only sorrow.

But as we hadn’t gotten to doing two of the things we’d planned to do – namely making s-mores and having a tea party – the wheels are already in motion to get these two cousin friends together again, before Esme moves to SLC.

I have been very stoic and supportive about this move, but now all I can say is…

DON’T GO!