The Influence of Aunt Kendra

Madie, Abby, and Taeya were complaining of boredom and begging me to do something with them, so the creative and evil aunt that I am, I came up with an all-over great plan. I told them that they needed to plan a secret tent party that night, a tribute to all-night parties with Becky from the past. They were instructed to sneak out all the junk food, flashlights, and games that they could during the day hours and stash it in their tent, which I helped them to conceal under their cots and blankets. Then, around eight that night, they were to start making comments to the effect of, "I'm really tired tonight." "Yeah, me too. Maybe we should go to bed early." Around 8:30, they whipped out the, "Hey Mom, Aunt Kendra challenged us to get ourselves to bed tonight WITHOUT YOUR HELP" comments, in hopes that their mothers would not wander out and find all the hidden supplies and break up the party.

Now, keep in mind that Jana, Jared, Steph and I had already made plans to get all the kids to bed right on time that night so that we could go out near Bryce Canyon to get some famous local pie before the Pine's Cafe closed. He, he, he.... Easy as pie (pun intended). The girls thought that they were clever, and they even paid off Uncle Jared with a quarter to not spill the beans to their moms (who got a kick out of the whole plan when we divulged info to them on the drive that night).

What can I say? Both parties won. The girls told me that they had one exciting night of playing board games by flashlight, porking out on all the junk food they could sneak out to the tent. They were a bit on the tired side though .... I think it just might become a 24th of July tradition from now on. Aaahhhh, I love my nieces. This one goes out to you, babes! What would I do without you.