If you ever...

If you ever get a chance to lay in the dark with your 5 yr old while she tells you a ghost story--seriously--DO IT!!

Last night, my girls and I had a slumber party while the male-folk (I hesitate to say menfolk since my sons are 11, 10 and 10) were on a father-son camp out. After pizza, popcorn, soda, chocolate and movies, we settled into our mattresses and turned out the lights. Kylie thought we should tell ghost stories. She started. The details fade but I can say she's imaginative. Then Rianne, newly minted 5 yr old Rianne, took her turn. Up to this point, she's been the one to have stories told to her, or she reads from a book. This is the first one to come from her imagination. (It's an intimidating, spacious place) She started out in this soft, spooky voice and told her story with a lot of "and then"'s and "and the scary part was..."

It took all I had not to laugh out loud. Talk about incredibly adorable and totally hilarious all at once. It was great. Then the girls wanted to hear a story from me. So I fed them this one:

Once upon a time there was a huge house at the end of a long, dark street. The house rose 3 stories in the air and blocked the sunlight from the houses around it. In this dark, spooky house "lived" a family of ghosts. One dark, stormy night the family of ghosts gathered around the dining room table to eat their dinner. And then, they went to bed WITHOUT DESSERT!!

I opted for silly, rather than scary. It's the mom in me. I could have scared their socks off, but then I'd be the one sleeping with all the lights on. No thank you!