MARK MY WORD: FAMILY FINDS NO SLEEP IN DAUGHTER'S SLEEP-OVER PARTY

Sleep-over party. It sounds innocent enough when viewed on a Mary-Kate and Ashley video.

So when our oldest daughter, Becca, asked to have a sleep-over party to celebrate her 7th birthday, we said "yes."

How tough could it be for two adults with college degrees to police a party of Becca's friends?

We soon discovered that the task is tougher than it looks.

On Friday night, eight of Becca's closest friends descended on our home with extra clothes, shoes and sleeping bags to spend the night and celebrate our daughter's birthday in style.

With a crowd of 6- and 7-year-olds, and one 8-year-old, it's tough to keep track of everyone's clothes.

The first thing they want to do is play dress-up and wear each other's outfits.

Allie, Annette, Macy, Julie, Diane, Kristin, Laura and Hannah partied by singing, dancing and generally making a lot of noise.

The girls painted their toes and fingernails with sheer delight. One of the girls constantly painted and repainted her toes and fingernails during the sleepover.

They played games too. Bingo was popular because everyone won a prize.

All of the girls ate pizza, except for the birthday girl. Becca may be the only person in this galaxy who doesn't like pizza. She won't even try a piece.

Her famous lack of appetite was a popular topic of conversation among her party pals. They took turns telling their best "Becca-won't-eat" stories.

Our finished basement proved to be grand central station, the carpet covered with sleeping bags, suitcases and assorted attire.

Our youngest daughter, 3-year-old Bailey, was excited too. She wanted to join the other girls and camp out in the basement with her Blue's Clues sleeping bag.

But in the end, she settled for a good-night kiss, a bedtime story and her own bed.

At least, until the middle of the night when she appropriated space in our bed. Becca found her way into our bed too, leaving me to cling to the edge of the mattress.

I had been in solitary sleep because Joni was camped out in the basement with the party gals, who showed more energy than the Spice Girls.

None of the girls wanted to go to sleep. They proclaimed they were all going to pull an all-nighter.

At that age, it's a point of pride to talk of staying up all night.

At 12:30 a.m., they were still going strong, having stayed awake through computer games, videos and enough popcorn to fill a movie theater.

They started whispering ghost stories, all the while insisting to Joni that they weren't doing any such thing.

Eventually, Joni turned out all the lights. Even then, the party wasn't over. Two tireless girls stayed up until 2 a.m.

I heard all about it early Saturday morning after Joni quizzed me as to why I went to bed at midnight.

"I thought they were all going to sleep," I replied.

"So did I," said Joni. But, of course, that hadn't happened.

Next time, I'll make a point to ride shotgun on sleepovers or at least hang out on the stairs until everyone goes to sleep.

Joni and I spent much of Saturday morning tracking down everyone's belongings, including clothes, shoes, pillows, sleeping bags and jewelry.

We even managed to send one girl home with the wrong tennis shoes. But fortunately an alert mom noticed the problem and we made a quick switch.

Despite our best efforts, we still ended up with party leftovers: a shoe, a house shoe, one sock and an unfamiliar Barbie. For now, they're camping out with us.

After all the girls had gone home, Joni was ready for the one thing that a sleepover has little of -- sleep.

~Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.