slumber party questions

My girls decided they want a slumber party for their birthday this year. Has any body thrown a slumber party? What did you have the kids do? I need lots of ideas, i do have time since their birthday is in may. Their birthday is Mother's day weekend, so I'm thinking of having the party on Friday night with a drop off around 7 and a pick up at 10am. Does that sound good?

 

We have done sleepover parties (here they aren't called slumber parties like they were when I was a kid :lol: ) for my oldest DD, but didn't start until she was in 4th grade and it was her 10th bday. We have always had drop off about 5-5:30 and have pizza for dinner and then basically the kids have entertained themselves. :good: But, like I said, we started them a little later, so the girls were always older and could entertain themselves and that's what they wanted to do..they want to be left alone. We always get 2 recent movies from Red Box (and of course we have others here as well) and snacks (chips, Doritos, popcorn, etc to have while watching the movies) and have cake. I have pick up at 10am and get donuts for breakfast. And this is pretty much what happens at all the ones my oldest DD goes to as well, it's a pretty standard protocol. Now that the girls are older after drop off they might go bowling or laser tag or instead of pizza this year we took her friends out to dinner, she has done this at several of them this year. :good:

One thing to realize is there is not a lot of sleeping at these parties. We have the girls sleep downstairs and set the timer on the TV..we learned the hard way the first time and woke up at 3am and the girls were all sleeping and the TV was still on. I don't stay awake until they fall asleep. ardon: But again, we started them when my DD was a little older and we felt comfortable doing that.


Honestly, I have found that sleepovers (besides the lack of sleep the girls get) are the easiest parties to have because they are so much cheaper and the entertain themselves.

 

I would check with some of their friends moms and before the girls got all excited, see if their friends would be able to attend.

I know that my kiddos are 7 (2nd grade) and DH and I would not have our girls attend a slumber party at this point. We told them when they are 4th or 5th grade (age 9ish and friends would be turning 10 since they are young for grade) that it could be an option. (I forgot what age your kids are!) We would allow a PJ party--- like 5- 8 pm or something, but not overnights- esp if we dont know the family.

A few ideas would be:

craft party
pizza making or sundae buffet or cupcake decorating
decorate pillow cases or tshirts
watch a silly movie (again, I would check with parents since in our area there is a wide variety of what parents allow their kids to do) in pjs
simple party games
flashlight tag
kareoke songs

I would also keep the numbers fairly low to keep the chaos a bit less crazy!

Have fun!

 

They will probably just do their own thing honestly... I would get a couple movies for them but when the girls have sleepovers they want nothing to do with anything I have planned. I get a couple bead bracelet crafts for them and their friends to do while watching a movie and let them do their own thing. I do make them lay down at around 11pm though and quiet down because I do realize it will be a couple hours before they actually go to sleep. I also make sure I check in to make sure nobody is being excluded.

 

I had sleepover when I was a kid and the parents never did anything with us. I wouldn't sweat it. Have some movies and popcorn just in case, maybe a few crafts they can do on their own, and let them play.

 

We had the boys 1st sleepover party the year they turned 9. They were into Harry Potter, so we had a Harry Potter themed party complete with a Horcrux Hunt, Quiddich, and sorting them into "houses". The boys decorated their room as one House, and the basement as the other. Yes, I had 20 boys sleep over, with 10 upstairs, and 10 down! This year they are allowed to invite 3 friends each, and we will go to a movie and pizza for dinner, then sleep over. I usually have them from 5 to 10 as well.

 

My DDs were invited to a sleepover party in kindergarten! And you bet your bippy we let them go. :banana: I think ~6 kids were invited, and the parents who were hosting were very flexible about parents deciding whether their child would spend the night or just come for dinner/cake/etc. But at least 4 kids (including my 2) wound up spending the night.

I thought the parents were nuts, but it all went well! (They did have two older kids who were eager to help out.)

I've told my kids they can have a slumber party for their next b'day if they want, but they can only invite ~3 friends each.

But that's not really your question... I think your plan sounds fine. My kids have had two sleepovers (not a party, just one friend at a time) and I didn't really have to do much to entertain them.

The only thing you should clarify is, if you're having the guests come at 7, does that include dinner or not. My kids are pretty young and most people have already had dinner by 7pm. But maybe it's just assumed that a slumber party includes dinner...?

I think the 10am pickup sounds good. Since they won't fall asleep till the wee hours, they'll probably take some time to get up & at 'em the next morning, and you don't want to be rushing them out the door.