Nice quiet morning around here. Anna's at a birthday party sleepover. Conor's still asleep.

So the sleepover thing was a little weird. First, she was supposed to show up at the birthday girl's house. Later, she informed me that they were all meeting at the rec center. When Darren took her over, he walked in with her so he could introduce himself to parents or guardians or whatever. There were no parents or guardians--just six twelve-year-olds running amok.

He called to inform me of the situation. We agreed that we felt fine with Anna being there by herself. After all, she's twelve. She can hang around with friends without adult supervision for an hour or two.

The plan was that the birthday girl's parents would pick them up at the rec center and take them to Pizza Hut. Anna called me to let me know they were heading over to Pizza Hut at about 6:30 or so. Silly me, I just assumed that meant the parents were present and driving them.

We were headed to the rec center ourselves. And who did we see on the way there? Anna, standing on the corner of Main Street with two friends, trying to cross to get to Pizza Hut. We pulled over to speak with her.

It turns out the parents never showed up at the rec center, so the girls just decided to head to Pizza Hut by themselves. Darren and I decided we were uneasy, but wanted Anna to have a nice time with her friends, especially because parents were joining the girls at Pizza Hut any minute. We instructed her to call before she left Pizza Hut and made sure she crossed Main safely and went on our way.

She didn't call and didn't call, so Darren finally called her before we left the rec center. The girls were done eating and still waiting for parents to show up. At that point, we were done. We swung by Pizza Hut and picked Anna up. And boy, was she pissed.

We explained that a)for six girls, three hours without parental supervision is PLENTY, and b)there was no way in hell she was spending the night with a family who couldn't be bothered to be organized enough to show up for their daughter's birthday party.

Finally we talked about it rationally. She decided to call one of the girls to find out if there was a new plan. There was--another set of parents stepped up and volunteered to have all the girls spend the night at their house. I wish I would have thought of that! At any rate, Anna got directions to the new house and Darren took her over. He was happy to report that these parents seemed quite rational and together and thrilled to have the girls over.

Phew! Crisis averted, and everything resolved.