A lengthy account follows!

Ever since she was 4 or 5 my daughter has wanted a sleep-over party- the moment finally arrived on Friday when she had 13 girls over for the night!
It was a total BLAST
LUCKILY my mum was in town; telling me “You just do the creative stuff and games and I’ll follow behind you cleaning up! COOL!!!!!!!!!
I packed my 2 year olds bags and sent him off to my friend’s house(Thanks Anya!) for the night-a GREAT decision and put BP in charge of the other two boys so they could be kinda part of the partying but restrained (!!) if they went hypo

Here’s what we got up to...

5pm start

Princess zone; girly-girly …make-up, nail-polishes, mirrors, jewelry and perfume were set out for the girls to make themselves up as they arrived and there-after…of great excitement was when I hushed them with a plot to get BP on the chair …and a raucous time later as they all dolled him up!

Pass the pillow; pass the parcel style with lots of small gifts labeled “To the girl with the longest nails…42 around the circle from you… has known the birthday girl for the longest etc

Jeweled frames; designing and gluing jewels to frames. (Jewels are untold cheaper at an emporium type shop, frames from Ikea)

As they later played outside I snapped shots of them and printed these for the girls to select one and put in their frame to take home

The flour game: They wanted to play this one again and again…
Pack flour into a bowl, pat it down and turn out like a sandcastle then position a lolly on the top.
Each girl takes a turn to cut a slice into the flour mould until ‘plop’; the lolly falls off…
‘She” who caused the damage must then with her hands behind her back put her face in the flour and retrieve the lolly!

Lot’s of play, pizza and hot chips on picnic rugs in the back yard

Musical dance: Scatter on the dance floor three coloured rugs/fabric…then put on the music to boogie down.
When the music stops everyone chooses a rug to stand on, in the middle a bottle is spun and those on the rug it stops and points at must exit the dance floor

After dark:

Sparklers: a spectacular sight as the girls all ran around the yard with their sparklers

Treasure hunt: 3 Teams: blue, yellow and red torch on the hunt for gold (Gold chocolate coins/crunchies)… the loot was then tallied and the wealth shared

Candlelit dessert…”WOW” gasped the girls in wide-eyed wonder as they walked in and saw the table my mother had set magnificently with candles, jewels, napkins in wine glasses and an array of sprinkles and delicious toppings to make their own sundaes.

Once in pj’s:

Pajama parade… Employing our hallway, the girls confidently strutted their stuff down the catwalk in pairs as my mother videoed them at the other end. When they woke the next morning they watched this and other party footage snuggled in their beds

Pampering session: feet soak and scrub plus face packs. They felt so grown-up

Movie: The parent trap (And others at the ready)

Sleep: Mum told me to prepare for the worst that they could still be awake at 3am! They settled for the movie, at its conclusion had a pillow fight and were all asleep by 1am.

Snuggle cushions: planned doing this on pillowcases but whole cushions were only: $1:95 at Ikea
I got the girls to write their names beautifully in the middle of their cushion (you can purchase proper fabric pens but I opted for a cheaper selection of coloured permanent markers.) Once names were inscribed, the cushions went from girl to girl so they could put their sweet message/little picture on each. A lovely activity

Breakfast: pancakes

Sticker tag: 10 stickers each to get rid of by sticking on each other. The one with the least stickers on them wins

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