Not quite what we had in mind.

It wasn't quite the weekend she had planned.

She had two basketball games on Saturday afternoon and then a sleepover with her brother at Jennifer's house on Saturday evening. (Jennifer's four kids and my two kids would be celebrating Colton's 7th birthday.)

They were to be her last basketball games of the season and she was excited to play in them.  And as for the sleepover.  Well let's just say she started packing her pink backpack with supplies - two stuffed animals, one pink rhinestone covered purse, one toy baseball bat, two rubber balls and a spiral notebook - on Friday afternoon, a good 24 hours prior to the actual event.

On Saturday, after a breakfast of two bites of a muffin, Sarah announced that she didn't feel well.  But minutes after saying this she was playing and excitedly jumping on the sofa.  She mentioned a couple of more times that she didn't feel well and I chalked it up to pregame jitters.  I even took her temperature and it was 98.7 so all systems go for the Saturday we had all been looking forward to. 

Before the 3rd quarter of the basketball game started, Sarah came up to me and said, "I don't feel good." 

"Get back out there honey.  You're doing great!"  was my nervous response.  And I gave her a little bit of a shove toward the direction of her team's bench.

After she got back on the court and started running up and down it, Jennifer turned to me and said, "Sarah's color isn't very good."

I looked at her and I agreed.  Even after all that running, her entire face wasn't a flushed red as it normally was.  It was more of a pallid gray.

Uh-oh, I thought.  I began to think of all the things that probably weren't going to happen now  based on the look of her ashen skin - basketball game number two, the long-awaited sleepover, my relaxing dinner out with my husband who had been gone all week on a business trip. 

I could almost hear the "slurrrrrpppping" noise that last little bit of water makes as it courses down the bathtub drain - our weekend plans down the drain with it.

When we got home after the game, I took her temperature.  102.9!  And to think, I sent her back out on the basketball court.  But I have to give my girl props - she did it and with no complaining.  (That should have been a giveaway right there of how bad she truly was feeling.)

After reading the thermometer, I told her that we wouldn't be going to the 4:00 game and then I broke the news that she wasn't going to be going to the sleepover either.

She and Peter both started crying.  When I told Peter he could still go his tears dried up.  But through tears and her now bright red cheeks, Sarah demanded that Peter be made to stay home too. 

She kept saying over and over again, "I'm not going to keep staying at home.  I'm not going to keep staying at home."  

She cried for almost an hour and then she thankfully finally fell into a fever-induced sleep.  I was hoping to be able to get Peter to the sleepover before she woke up; but unfortunately she woke up about 15 minutes before I took him to Colton's. 

At this point, she had accepted her fate and  was o.k. with it.  I chalk this up to the fact that she felt so bad it didn't matter any more and the fact that I told her Colton's sisters, Caity and Cheyenne, could have a sleepover with just her in a couple of weeks when the boys are at an overnight Scout event.

And then Peter started to cry - real tears this time.  He kept hugging her saying that he was sorry she couldn't come to the sleepover.  It was all so very cute and loving but I just kept wondering where was this love when they were fighting over which game to play on the Wii, which TV show to watch or who was going to get a bath in the big tub.

We got Peter to the sleepover, Sarah got to spend a couple of hours with Grandma and Grandpa and Dan and I got to enjoy 2 peaceful hours with no tears, food that I did not have to prepare, and uninterrupted conversation that revolved around - you guessed it - those crazy kids of ours!