Sleepovers, Storms and Spit in my Eye

Every year at this time south central WI forgets that it is part of the United States and celebrates Norwegian Independence Day with the "Syttende Mai" festival. Translated as "The Seventeenth of May" and pronounced to rhyme with "spit in my eye" it is a celebration of the Norwegian heritage shared by many in the area. As I am a transplant to the area from Ohio, I go to the festival not for the heritage but for the food and beer.

This year we took the unprecedented step of allowing our youngest to have a friend spend the night before attending the festival on Sunday. This was a tactical error I shall not repeat. You see, it turns out that 9 year old girls do not get much "sleep" at a "sleepover". In fact I would guess no sleeping occurred at all. When you combine the lack of rest with the walking and crowds that are Syttende Mai the result is 2 very grumpy children and I was becoming less than pleasant myself.

In an effort to make the day as enjoyable as possible, we got to the festival earlier than usual and procured a downtown parking spot and a prime location to view the parade that would start shortly after the lunch hour.

The day started out well enough with laughter and good food. This all went downhill when I let the 2 young ones go to the "bounce house". All little girls love to jump and bounce and will never turn down a chance to partake, no matter how tired they are.  That is when the trouble began. As they bounced the little reserves of energy they had left were quickly drained, leaving 2 shells of anger spite that looked like cute little girls.

As the parade started and all roads that would allow us out of the town were closed, the 2 began demanding to be taken home. They were distracted briefly by the fire engines and bands, but their desire to be away from there only grew. It was at this point that my phone began to vibrate with alerts of possible storms, and the sky began to grow dark. Any sense of reason left to the girls vanished at that time. Still unable to leave due to the closed roads, we could do little but watch the parade with one eye and the sky with the other.

Eventually the parade ended and we headed to the vehicle. The storms must have hit someplace else as we never did see a drop of rain, and the 2 girls were sound asleep by the time we had finished the 15 minute drive home.

Moral of the story: Do not plan big things for the day after a sleep over.