Monday, January 19, 2009

Birthday Plans

OKAY, for those that have gone before me I need your advice.

This Friday Jocie is having her birthday party. She's having a slumber party. I've never been in charge of a slumber party. I don't know what to expect or what to plan. She's invited the girls from her class to spend the night. That will be six girls. I want to plan but not over plan. They will be coming home with me after school and I will have them until 10:00 the next morning.


Her cake is going to look like a picture frame with stick figures in the picture that will look like the girls coming over. That should be really cute.

I need some help with the details and I don't want to spend a ton of money. Also, any ideas on what to do if someone feels left out or if someone wants to go home? This will be the first sleep over for almost everyone of them.

I want this to be special for them all, especially Jocie and I don't want to be miserable in the process. Is that too much to ask?

5 comments:

Amanda said...

OK, so I have given this a lot of thought since reading your blog yesterday. I think with the age group that you're going to have you should let them have "free time" when you first get home. Like playing outside in the backyard or whatever. Or even at a park. I googled "slumber party ideas for girls" before Anoe had hers. On the website it suggested setting a concession stand type line in your kitchen. I really think that's just a huge mistake! Not only would that be crazy expensive (buying a whole bunch of crap nobody really needs) but it would be way messy too. The same website suggested having pretzels as snacks. I liked that suggestion. Maybe let the girls play independently for awhile until you can tell that they're starting to get restless or whatever then start with some games. During our Girl Scout meetings there always seems to be one little girl left out (not always the same one) so I try to bring her into something that one of the other groups is already doing. I hope this helped a little. Alexis and her friends always just go to her room and entertain themselves. Anoe's the only one I really tried to think of things for them to do. Are the rest of your kids going to be home too?

Brandi Wilson said...

Thanks Amanda! That was helpful.
Yes, my other kids will be here. I think it will make it better.

Amanda said...

I really think so too. The other kids can help with some of the games and stuff. I always try to keep Anoe away from the "big girls" but they usually end up wanting Anoe to join them for awhile.

Unknown said...

I agree with Amanda on the park thing. The girls usually love going to the park, and its free.
And like Amanda said let them hang out by themselves for a little while.
Then after dinner(pizza from HEB is cheap and yummy)and is a great idea for dinner at a slumber party.
Then perhaps after dark a special movie for the girls, something girly that they all want to watch, and the library has them for free. And of course after all that popcorn will be had and thats a cheap snack as well. And i have found at my daughters past parties they always love doing a nail thing.
like bringing out all of the nail polishes and just doing their toes and fingers. They always loved that one,guess its a girl thing. And I loved it too, i always sat in on that part and did my nails and toes along with the girls.And supervised them so they didn't make a huge mess in my living room.
Of course these are only suggestions and it will all be fun no matter what they do....
Happy B-day Jocie.

Lydianna Bradford said...

You probably have it all planned out, but I've let Lydie do a few sleepover parties and I've always ended up with more to do then time...which is probably a good thing....

The first thing I've found is that it works better when you do have organized activities..it seems to keep them from getting to cliquish... I usually do a few crafts...especially since thats what Lydianna loves anyways...we've made bracelets, those perler beads, bookmarks, really anything would be fine. Then if she is having cake and opening presents that will kill some time too. Finally, I usually get them to all simmer down by painting nails and then watching a movie and eating popcorn. The craft stuff has always been my biggest expense but usually I have some stuff around. A cute idea would be to make some kind of pictures frames and then print pictures of the girls from the party to put in them. You could always get the pictures and hand them back out later. I hope this helps.