Nieces Sleepover in pictures

It's 12:30, and our little nieces just left about an hour and a half ago from our third sleepover.  I've got a busy day today (and tomorrow with a bunch of Stake Primary things), so thought I'd better hurry and get this post written before I get so busy and don't get around to it.  But, warning--I think I'm going to get the award for the most pictures in one blog post.  With nine little girls staying over, there were so many cute things going on that I just had to take tons of pictures.  So, here is the nieces sleepover in pictures!  I'll put the description above each picture:

We have 10 nieces, and all but one of them was able to come (we really missed little Dannan, who got H1N1 at the last minute).  We had pizza when they first got there, and while I didn't get a picture of them eating pizza, here are their cups that we labeled for them.  It really shows how many of them we had there!

After pizza, I told them that I had a present for each of them.  We sat them down on the floor and I talked to them for a few minutes...

I showed them the presents I had wrapped for them in gold wrapping paper. We talked about how gold is beautiful, precious, and special, and that they are also beautiful, precious and special too.  I gave them each their present, and got a picture of them holding them:

 Just like the for the boys sleepover, we got them pajama bottoms.  They loved them! I especially loved Sabrina's reaction--she looked up with such an excited look in her big blue eyes and said, "Oh, pajamas! Thank you so much!"  We had them all put their pajamas on, and then got a few pictures:

Then we did a craft where they were each able to write a thank you note to their parents.  They sure had fun!

After the craft, we had to get the obligitory picture of each of them sitting by the tree.  So here I present nine of my ten nieces in order of birth:

Holly, age 11

Kate, age 7

Jenni, age 6

Brianna, age 5

Lizzie, age 5 (it was crazy hair day at school)

Annika, almost 5

Emma, age 4

Sabrina, age 4

Dannan, age 3, is the one who was sick, so since she coudln't come, I put in a picture of the card the girls made for her.  We missed you, Dannan!

Mieka, age 2 (sorry about the pizza sauce on her face Melissa!)

After the crafts and pictures, we lined the girls up on the counter, and they helped us make cookies.  They had so much fun, and were so darling! Here are some pictures.  The one of Emma standing in the sink is  because she spilled flour on her leg, and Jan didn't want it to spill all over.  :)

Aren't they cute!  Then they each got to decorate their cookies with whatever they wanted in them.  Here are pictures:

We got all ready for bed, and got them settled on the air mattresses to watch a movie as they fell asleep (or so we thought...)

After this picture, we had the curse of the girl's sleepover--which is that they are so cute and giggly they just can't fall asleep (or focus on a movie, for that matter).  The picture above was taken at around 8:30.  It wasn't until about 11:10 that they finally all looked like this (and actually Kate and Jenni are still awake):

 Thankfully they all did relatively well sleeping, although I had to take Lizzie to sleep in my bed in the middle of the night. 

This morning, they all came and piled on my bed and I read them stories from a book that Annika had her Mom buy to leave over at our house (thanks Melissa!).  The girls were so cute, listening intently--although please note that we had just woken up, so no hair is done, including mine! I'll put some of those pictures in (we really are almost done!)

Then we made heart shaped waffles for breakfast.  The girl's loved them!

Finally, we deflated the air matresses, cleaned up, and watched our 32nd birthday video, which the girls love as much as the boys.  Here are the last two pictures:

Well, you've finally made it to the end of this post.  Congratulations!  Let me just end by saying how incredibly grateful I am for my nieces and nephews, and that Jan and I have such a close relationship with them.  I've said this so many times before, but one of the heartbreaks of my life, to quote Sheri Dew, is that I've never had my own children.  I am so grateful for these sweet children who help fill the void in my life, and who give me so much love and happiness!