Logan has been asking, off and on, for a really long time if he, Aiden and Brady can “sleep downstairs on the floor of the living room”. Not sure where he got this idea…maybe from one of his 2 sleepovers at his friend Sam’s house or from hearing about other sleepovers (the number of which is on the rise – everyone’s starting birthday party sleep overs these days). Anyway, most of his requests have been made on a school night so the obvious answer is “not tonight”. Last Monday night he asked again so I decided to let the three of them earn a “brother sleepover”. We have bunch of gold coins that we use for a variety of situations. I told them I would let them earn coins through the week and once they earned 50, they could have their sleep over. Our goal for the sleep over was this past Saturday night. Here is a partial list of the ways they earned their coins:

* Going to bed without getting up or talking in their room

* Earning either a smiley face (Aiden) or by “being on green” (Logan) at school. These are their respective, teacher-dictated, behavior-reward systems.

* Doing homework without complaint (Logan)

* Doing a good job at sports practices (soccer, lacrosse)

* Eating a good dinner and having manners (Brady mostly)

* Staying in bed all night

* Chores without complaint

So, these are things we typically expect, but don’t always get. For example, one night last week, the boys got quickly into bed…didn’t make even a peep and never came in during the night. These behaviors, I told them, were worth 3 coins for their “pot”. I was SO pleased with their determination, I ended up giving them 5. I don’t like needing bribes, but last week was kind of easy with the “brother sleepover” goal looming over their heads. They managed to get all the coins they needed by Friday night (still…sleepover was scheduled for Saturday). So…Saturday night around 6, we had them get into pajamas and list the activities they wanted to do. Logan decided first and foremost that there would be a dance party  before settling down. The rest of the evening involved pizza and a movie. We all hung out until about 9 when Brian and I settled them in and headed upstairs for TV in our room. Logan and Aiden slept on the couch (in sleeping bags) and Brady decided to stay on the floor. They fell quickly asleep and remained there for the entire night. A total success in my book.

They are now earning coins towards a trip (using gift cards we already have) to the roller skating rink this coming Sunday.

 

Here is a video of the dance party. I MUST remember to turn my ipad around the right way when I do these…next time! The thing that cracks me up the most is Aiden’s arm swinging. It’s hard to hear, but at the end of the video, he yells out “raise your hand if you can do this” and then starts swinging his arm around in mad circles.

 

I only took one picture – this is movie-watching time. We watched a movie on Netflix called Bands on the Run – I do NOT recommend it….seriously weird and bad, but the boys quietly watched the whole thing despite Brian checking with them a few times to make SURE they REALLY wanted to watch it. whatever.

One unrelated quick note: I took this picture on my phone a couple weekends ago when Brady and I went to pick Logan up from a birthday party. As we approached the door to the party venue, Brady pointed at this sign and said, “Look mommy! It’s like us! The big one is Logan yelling, Aiden is mixin’ stuff and I’m eating pizza!” It does kind of look like them too – hysterical!