The Vote is in!

Rarely does a family with five children get to have a guest room. Instead we happily bunk kids on the floor of the other kids' rooms to have their beds available. We transport piles of stuffed friends to other parts of the house to make our guests feel a little less like they have been transported back in time, and change the NFL sheets to a lovely striped sateen. It is not possible to move all the video games, the posters of swimmers, and the zillions of participation trophies that a kid gets for just showing up on pizza party day. It is what we have to offer, although less than ideal. (for the record, most people are too polite to complain)

Before we had little Hadley, her room was for guests. There was a brief period when the triplets were little where Kevin worked from there as well, but there was a designated room for company to sleep that meant they did not have to move their bags so the kids could play wii. As any family does, when the fifth kid arrived, we rolled with it. We gave her a space. We moved her dad's workspace to the main floor, and gave Ian the big bed. He would now be the first one displaced for overnighters.

It is time to put Hadley in a big girl bed. (pray for me) We began discussing what size to get. Should she have a queen like Ian? Will a double work? Maybe we can get by with a twin and a trundle? Then, as if to say Mom and Dad, don't be silly, she made the decision for us. Each night she and her sisters forge an argument to let her sleep in their room. They take turns hiding her in their beds, so when we get ready for the final step in the bedtime routine, she is comfortably snuggled in, and the pleading for her to stay begins. She is blessed to have three sisters who adore her, and really don't mind her presence.
Hadley will be moving in the giant triplet compound shortly. It will be renamed the girl's dormitory, and we will start to live like true Duggars. All of our kids of each sex will share a room. Hadley's room will be lightly converted back into a room for company. I say lightly because I feel like we are always in transition. What works today, and for the next 6 months, may not for the next 6 years. But for the moment, we actually will have an "extra" room, even with all these kids....