Slumber Party

I can't believe it's done!
Four years ago we started working on our front porch. It needed to be completely re-done. Like the rest of the house when we moved in, the porch was old and yucky. (I'm guessing it looked nice in the 60's/70's when it was new...) We'd gotten most of the other rooms in the house finished and made a trip to Home Depot to get everything we needed for the porch.
Just then we had an opportunity to buy another house which we were going to have as a rental property. This new house needed quite a bit of TLC, and the porch project was put on hold.
Soon after we were finished with that house we bought another which required our time, and the porch project remained on the back burner.
Before we knew it, winter had arrived, and who wants to work on the porch in the dead of winter? So it kept sitting there, old and ugly.
For four years something has always been taking precedence over completing the front porch. The carpet and other materials we'd brought home from Home Depot sat there, just waiting to find their place, but we had lost our motivation.

A month or so ago, my sister-in-law did something which would ultimately give us the push we needed. (Thanks, N!!!) She gave us a swing. One of those nice, big, three-seater swings you associate with care-free summer nights. We thought, This swing will be great on our porch - whenever we get it finished. And it lay in pieces on the porch along with the carpet and paneling and various other "fix-it" items.
Then last Sunday, something came over my husband. He came up to me and said, "Let's get the porch done. I want to put together the swing, but it would be stupid to put it together now because I'd just have to take it apart when I lay the carpeting. I want to get the porch done now." And we went to work.
After a few days of pretty hard work, it's all done. And it looks so good!

In celebration of our nice new porch, we're having a slumber party out there tonight. All of us. My husband, my kids, and me. Elizabeth has already "called" the swing. The kids have assigned a corner for Brian and I, and have decided where both of the boys will sleep. I'm going to pop lots of popcorn for us to munch on, Matthew has a really cool SpiderMan light we'll use to flash spiders on the ceiling, and we'll probably stay up too late laughing and telling stories. It's going to be so much fun!

I remember one summer night when I was a kid. My mom ordered pizza and we all lay outside on top of our camper eating pizza and watching a meteor shower. That's one of my favorite childhood memories.
I wonder if, when my kids are thirty-five, they'll remember the night we had a slumber party on our front porch. I sure hope so!