4974

Breakfast in Bed -5yr- Don't Be Cranky, Bring Blankie

Sept 2002

Ciaran in Ladera Ranch California USA

Honorable Mention

When my daughter's fifth birthday rolled around, I was in-between houses and had no room to throw a party in our temporary apartment. A relative was able to rent their community clubhouse but the only time slot available was early on a Saturday morning. We decided to use this to our advantage and came up with the theme of "Breakfast in Bed". 

Invitations were notes tied to little doll sized pillows. We hand delivered them but also considered making paper pillows and pillowcase. On the invite we wrote:   "Wacky wacky sleepyhead, it's time for Marly's 5th birthday 'breakfast in bed'. So bring your pillow and your blankey, wear your jammies, don't be cranky"  

At the clubhouse (basically a large room) we set up piles of pillows and blankets. We put cartoons on the big screen TV. My husband and I both wore funny pajamas and our daughter had on special pajamas as well. We set out large bowls of junky kid cereals as well as healthy cereals and decorated with the boxes. For the adults we had a separate table with bagels and cream cheese, hot coffee and krispy kreme donuts. 

When each kid arrived they were immediately shown to a table with little bowls of froot loops and handed a licorice lace to make cereal necklaces with. This simple activity broke the ice and parents got to meet each other and the kids eased right into the theme. 

We played games like musical pillows, pass the stuffed animal (hot potato) and some other games that involved children pretending to sleep. For a craft I made some simple eyemasks out of felt and elastic and the children decorated these with puff paint and glitter. You could also do pillowcases with the puff paint and glitter - just purchase inexpensive pillowcases and personalize with computer generated iron-ons.   The highlight was when we served breakfast. We had scrambled eggs and cereal and fruit salad.

Afterwards we all ate cake. The cake was made to look like children sleeping in a bed. We used cookies for heads and frosted little faces. There were marshmallows for pillows and some doll plates with frosting food on the bed.   Most of the parents ended up staying and helping out, even though they did not intend to (I make good coffee!) and we had almost as much fun as the kids.

The whole party was over before noon and most of the families left in good spirits, happy that they had so much fun, the kids were fed and they all still had a full Saturday ahead of them to have more fun!

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