"Sleep" over

Last weekend Lauren and Georgia had their very first sleepover at our house!  Lauren was packed the night before and Georgia and I debated who was more excited to have her stay at our house.  There was lots of playing in the backyard, pizza making, s'more roasting, several outfit changes, giggling, but not a whole lot of sleep.  When it was time for bed we snuggled into Georgia's bed and I read the girls a story, I then got them tucked in and turned on the sound machine.  Lauren looked at me, "what's that noise auntie?"  I told her it was a sound machine, that she could relax to the sound of a running stream... she asked, "how do we turn it off?"  Our house is loud so I was afraid that if the sound machine wasn't' running the girls wouldn't stay asleep.  I suggested changing the sound, everyone agreed.  "Ah, the sound of the ocean, that's relaxing" I said.  The girls got snuggled in, I turned off the light then Lauren said, "there are sharks in the ocean..."  Georgia chimed in, "no Lauren, just think about starfish..." "there are whales in the ocean too" she responded.  We finally settled on the ocean being a nice place and I told the girls it was time to go to sleep.  I then heard Georgia say, Lauren, my mom scratches my back and snuggles me when I go to sleep, do you want me to scratch your back?"  After a short back scratch I moved between the girls, I was then told by both of them that they didn't need me in there and I could go out... I stayed.  Finally the girls were asleep, it only took about an hour.
At 3:15am I heard two little voices in the hallway, they were giggling, up and ready to start the day... I told them that it was the middle of the night and they needed to go back to bed.
Despite having little sleep it was so fun to have Lauren here, she and Georgia are like sisters, bickering and loving each other just the same.  We look forward to many more sleep overs, hopefully the next one will involve a little more sleep!