We had a great time yesterday. We spent the whole day cleaning and then had guests for dinner and a playdate--Maddie, who is probably Allie's best friend, her parents (Chris and Betsy--I used to work with Betsy and they also used to live almost across the street from us) and her baby sister, Erin, who is 22 months old and wild.

We had Papa Murphy's pizza (we really like Papa Murphy's) and they brought cookies for dessert. Allie could hardly speak, she was so excited. All the drudgery of cleaning the entire house (which was desperately needed, by the way) was completely made worth it by the expression on Allie's face when they arrived.

There was an immense amount of running, hopping, and screaming. Two 4-year-olds, one almost 2-year-old, and one puzzled-at-all-the-excitement but smiling 9-month-old. The older three girls were endlessly running, screaming, from the kitchen to the living room and back. Our ears were ringing, but no one wanted to yell at them and spoil their excitement.

Needless to say, the girls didn't really eat any pizza. We adults ate a bunch of it, almost finished off the cookies, and talked our way through the entire evening. It's just a shame Betsy is allergic to cats. Within minutes of arriving, she was suffering with a runny nose. They had to leave when she started getting wheezy, but she was a wonderful sport and made it through over 3 hours.

Allie was completely exhausted and said she had the best night ever. We really, really need to do this kind of thing for her more often. She's at a daycare with only a 14-month-old and her sister and she's starved for playtime with older kids.

And this morning, she slept until almost 9:00 (almost unheard of). Yay for play!