some of my best……. | jen mcken, photographer

Some of my best memories with my friends happened during sleepovers. Staying up into the wee hours of the night giggling, watching movies, playing dress up…….ahhh, those were the good’ol days.

This summer has been such a busy one for us, and anyone who is in the wedding industry knows that we don’t have “normal weekends”. When most people are saying TGIF, we’re just starting our week, soooo, needless to say, it’s difficult sometimes for Mallory to have friends over during the weekends. We’ve been promising her all summer that when I finally had a few days off in a row that she could invite some friends over. She has been looking desperately for a Superwoman onesie for her sleepover and we couldn’t find one anywhere for a long time, but Kigurumi save the day on this one. So after doing some finagling, we made it happen this week. And boy oh boy was she in heaven. I wish we could have had ALLLL of her friends over, but this mama can only handle so many gals in one night. I told her we can have “sleep over: part 2” another week. But they were in sleepover heaven after not being able to see each other every day over summer.

Of course, I snagged a few photos with my handy dandy big girl camera and honestly, I could have taken so many more, but I didn’t want to be “that mom”! haha! I just can’t wait to pull some of these pictures out to show them when they get to high school. It’s one of the things I wish I had more of….photos with my friends growing up! <3

I give you………a glimpse into an 8 year old sleepover-real life, documented! <3

Getting prepared for their “fashion show”

They turned one of our sidewalks into their runway. Hilarious I tell ya!

Of course we hit the pool…..I remember spending HOURRRRRS in the pool at their age. It lasted an hour or so and then they were off to play in the tree house.

Oh yeah, they created a forte.

You can’t have a sleep over without a little makeup/makeover! By this time a thunderstorm was coming thru so they passed the time in Mallory’s room.

After the storm went thru, they put their swimsuits back on and went out to play in the rain!

I guess you could call this the “rain dance”. haha!

Movie + popcorn time!!! Mallory was too hot for her onesie haha. I think by the time they went to bed, it was around 1am…not too bad. I was really expecting to be awake until 2 or 3……lightweights! haahah! They watched a scary shark movie…….i mean, it is shark week after all!

The next morning, I was their next victim…..Let me tell you, when all was said and done, I was a hot mess! haha! But the girls had a blast and I let them pick all the colors. I sure was a beaut! haha!

Here’s an instagram photo of the finished product! A face only a mother can love! haha!

And lastly, Greg pulled out all the old dress up costumes/dresses out of the attic and they had fun picking out their outfits for their “photoshoot”. Hair, makeup and outfits were 100% their idea. It just cracks me up……they even picked their poses!

Mallory obviously, was a wrinkled doctor…who just happens to have 2 black eyes! hahaha!

One final group shot……. Ahhhh, to be young again! <3