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Sleepover For Five -9yr- Kiss the Poster

January 2006

Sandy in Grand Island Nebraska USA

Special Mention

My daughter just turned 9 and had her first sleepover. She didn't want a theme party. She just wanted to have free play time with her friends.   We hand delivered the 4 invitations. This also gave me a chance to explain the plans to the parents who were a little apprehensive because this group hasn't had much experience staying overnight with friends yet.   We put a plastic door banner up that said "The Party is Here". We then decorated with lots of helium balloons. Very simple but still fun and festive.  

We started at 6:00. We had different stations set up throughout the house. We had the Barbie doll house and lots of Barbies and accessories available. (Make sure when the parents drop off the girls that you have an emergency number available in the event that someone gets homesick or just plain sick).  We had a baby doll station. This included wicker baskets with doll accessories, another one for doll clothes, and finally one for the blankets. We had strollers available nearby. I did go through all the stuff in advance and either washed the clothes or cleaned them with 409 so they all looked nice to play with.  

We brought out the doctor's carts. I work in a hospital so I got some extra gloves and face masks. These were a big hit. They played doctor, dentist, nurse, etc.   We had one final station set up with dress up clothes. I am a garage sale junky so we had lots to choose from.   They played for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours. I was always close by and could run interference if there was a disagreement about a Barbie or who's turn it was, etc. In fact, a couple of times I had to join in the play. I grabbed a baby doll too. The girls got a big kick from me joining in.  

We then had a break with dinner. Make sure that you check with parents to make sure there aren't any food prefrences or allergies in advance. I had one party where one of the girls was a vegitarian. We had lil smokies in a crock pot, hot dogs, and finger sandwiches (tuna sandwichs cut in half with no crust), chips, snack mix, trail mix, and fruit (strawberries, grapes and oranges)and olives available. We made a punch.   We had ice cream cake. (Saves buying both cake and ice cream). We had a lot of fun with the candles. They were the kind that won't extinguish unless placed in water. The girls tried for about 5 minutes to blow them out. They even tried as a group. It was halarious. My daughter opened her presents.  

We then had a craft time. I purchased some pictures frames for decorating and some heart shaped boxes (each with a bag of sequins inside) from Oriental Trading. I provided each of the girls with their own glue bottle (Walmart 25 cents) and glitter glue pens (Sam's Club). They had a great time! Make sure that you save your newspapers for about a week in advance to protect the surface. I also wrote each child's name on the back of the project before we started so there was no question when we were done as to who it belonged to. We then did some beaded bracelets.   They were now ready to play again at the stations.  

About 10:00 I had them get their PJs on and watch a movie. Note: Make sure you check the rating on them. We watched Quiggly which is a good movie with a nice morale.   At the conclusion of the movie, they were BORED so I had them play a game with straws and mini marshmallows. They have to suck the marshmellow and place in a cup with their hands behind their backs. The first one to put all their marshmellows in the cup, wins. This was so much fun that they repeated it again. Then they got to each the marshmellows.   We then played Kiss the Poster. Put bright red lipstick on and a blind fold and the one closet to the lips on the poster, wins the poster. We played this about 6 times, it was so much fun.  

Because of our small group, our next game of Piggly Wiggly had to be adapted but it was still fun for them.   We also played a couple of games of BINGO. I had some small tokens for prizes in my stash.   I finally pursuaded them that it was time for bed. The key here is to always have some games for a back up plan. Children this age lose interest quickly so be prepared!  In the morning we had frozen waffles and bacon and OJ/Milk. We then worked on removing the remaining red lipstick. I had the girls get dressed and gather all of their belongings, fold sleeping bags back up, etc.   While I was cleaning up breakfast dishes, the girls were drawing and coloring. I had such a pleasant surprise when they each presented me with a thank you note for the wonderful time that they had. How touching for a mom to have others acknowledge your efforts!  

I prefer to do sleepovers on Friday nights but this one fell on a Saturday. Make sure that you check with the other parents about church times or other obligations the following morning. In our case, I delivered each girl to their respective churchs in time to be with their parents.   Each of the girls received a goody bag when they left. We had purchased some colored gift sacks at Walmart for 50 cents each. We wrote a thank you on the sack "Thank you (girl's name) for being a part of my birthday. We provided a bracelet to put in the heart shaped box we did as a craft, bath gel, light up balls with streamers, glitter body paint, perfume, and nail decals. All of these were purcased at either Oriental Trading or the Dollar Tree.   Although we didn't anything extra ordinary at this party, we sure had fun. It wasn't expensive because we had all of the items already in our home!

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