Birthday Party Ideas.....need help

[r4blessings]

Hi dis'ers! I am trying to plan my dd's 6th birthday party and I'm looking for some creative help!

I've decided to do a "sorta-sleepover" party for her. Its kind of like all the fun of a slumber party, but since the girls are so young, they don't stay the night. I'm planning the party for 5-7pm on a Friday night. Her birthday is in two weeks, but I'm planning the party for three weeks from now b/c her birthday weekend will be a busy family weekend.

So, my plan is for all the little girls to come over at 5pm in their jammies. I'd like to have two craft stations set up. One to decorate plain white pillowcases with fabric markers. I"m hoping to find them at the dollar store tomorrow or the next day. I'd need like 20. Any ideas on where else I can look? The other station is to decorate a foam photo frame (I'd like to take a group shot of the girls in their jammies to send with the thank yous.)

Then eat pizza. After pizza play a version of hot potato where the girls pass a bottle of kiddie nail polish and when the music stops, they keep it. Keep playing until all the girls win. Pinata.....any ideas how to do one inside? Its very cold in the northeast! DD never gets a pinata b/c her party is always indoors, but I've promised her this year! Maybe play musical pillows or another version of that, with little soaps or lip glosses as prizes for each girl.

Then upstairs to have cupcakes and make your own sundae bars. The favors will be the pinata candy, pillowcases, nail polish and lip gloss and photo frame. Any other ideas? Any cute ways to word the invite?

I figured I could do it at home much more reasonably than having her party anywhere else, since its so many girls. DD is in kindergarten so b/w classmates, family friends and brownie girls we are looking at like 20 girls. What do you think?

 

[daleswife]

Hi dis'ers! I am trying to plan my dd's 6th birthday party and I'm looking for some creative help!

I've decided to do a "sorta-sleepover" party for her. Its kind of like all the fun of a slumber party, but since the girls are so young, they don't stay the night. I'm planning the party for 5-7pm on a Friday night. Her birthday is in two weeks, but I'm planning the party for three weeks from now b/c her birthday weekend will be a busy family weekend.

So, my plan is for all the little girls to come over at 5pm in their jammies. I'd like to have two craft stations set up. One to decorate plain white pillowcases with fabric markers. I"m hoping to find them at the dollar store tomorrow or the next day. I'd need like 20. Any ideas on where else I can look? The other station is to decorate a foam photo frame (I'd like to take a group shot of the girls in their jammies to send with the thank yous.)

Then eat pizza. After pizza play a version of hot potato where the girls pass a bottle of kiddie nail polish and when the music stops, they keep it. Keep playing until all the girls win. Pinata.....any ideas how to do one inside? Its very cold in the northeast! DD never gets a pinata b/c her party is always indoors, but I've promised her this year! Maybe play musical pillows or another version of that, with little soaps or lip glosses as prizes for each girl.

Then upstairs to have cupcakes and make your own sundae bars. The favors will be the pinata candy, pillowcases, nail polish and lip gloss and photo frame. Any other ideas? Any cute ways to word the invite?

I figured I could do it at home much more reasonably than having her party anywhere else, since its so many girls. DD is in kindergarten so b/w classmates, family friends and brownie girls we are looking at like 20 girls. What do you think?

I think it sounds wonderful!!!! Your DD will have a blast!!! On the Pinata thing, they make them now with the ribbons you pull on to open the trap door. no swinging bats or sticks or anything. Its really neat. Just let all the girls pull one string each until all strings are pulled or the candy comes out. I hope she has a wonderful bday party!!!!!

 

[r4blessings]

thank you! She is getting excited...and so am I! Just trying to figure out all the details!

 

[clh2]

While your party seems fun, it seems odd to me that this is a "jammies" party based on the time of 5-7 p.m. Also - we live in Wisconsin, and if it is a super-cold day, I wouldn't send my DD outside in jammies. Not even going from the house to the car, to the house and back to the car. Jammies just aren't as warm as real clothes.

 

[EcbLovesMickey]

I think that sounds like a fun idea. Maybe you could also have a movie station with a good slumber party movie playing, or a pedicure/manicure station. One of my favorite things as a kid was face masks. It would be s fun addition to the "slumber party" theme!

 

[clh2]

I would have added to my post, I was going to suggest a movie as well...but ECBlovesMickey beat me too it.

 

[skw444]

I think the party sounds like fun! They make pinatas now where you can pull the ribbon and it opens up so no hitting it.

 

[PixieDustandEeyore]

I think its great, to the person who said about the no jammies for their kids I dont know we've gotten - 35 farenheight temperatures and if Im in my flannel pajamas its warmer than clothes even when I was little! So I wouldn't worry about the jammies thing! I hope your DD has a great time!!!!!!!!! I love the idea of the pillow case decorated especially its just 2 hours seems so short

 

[kstgelais4]

My dd went to a party like this just this past May for sisters turning 6 and 8. It was perfect. They came in thier PJ's decorated, pillowcases, "did" each others hair, and played slumber party-ish games. The party she went to was 3 hours, so after all the festivities they settled down with a bowl of popcorn and watched a short movie (Barbie Mariposa or something like that). All the girls were dropped off, so this was all relayed back to me via dd, but she loved it and had a great time!!

 

[rantnnravin]

Are you getting help from the other parents? 20 kindergartners is A LOT - i would consider finding a way to narrow that down. For pre-K through upper elementary, ideal is one invitee per each year of the child's age (7 girls including your DD). Also, with that age group, the crafts will take a while. (And you will always have 1 or 2 who aren't into the decorating and will "slap" them together - what will they do while everyone else is still working on their crafts?)
Oh, don't forget about those kids who will inevitably arrive late. Will you be waiting for everyone to arrive or diving right into activities? Maybe a karaoke/dance party type activity (with hairbrushes as microphones of course!) for the first 10-15 minutes?

Maybe a "Give the Girl a Makeover" game a la Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Create a plain face on poster paper and give each girl a different "make-up" cut-out (one girl has lips, another has one side of blush, another has a hairbow) and each has to try and place it in its proper place)
A couple years ago, I was able to pick up sleep masks at the $ store.

How about letting the girls give each other pedicures while playing a short video (like one of the episodes of Cinderella 2) ? (be sure to get quick drying polish)

Ditto on the string pinata - party city has slumber party/makeover/girlie ones.

A non- sleepover slumber party sounds like a fun idea.

 

[Jill in Chicago]

What an adorable idea!!!

Skip prizes for the games. Announce you are playing for fun. Kids get this. Kids like games period, winner or losers. Just keep playing until they tire,and then play a different game.

Children love charades. Pick a theme like "sports" and have them take turns acting out a sport. The youngsters don't get the "It's a move, three words..." Instead they want to act out the whole concept all at once. Sometimes they can do t.v. shows. They will be rolling on the floor laughing, and again, you do not have to have winners, just shout out the answers.

LOVE the craft ideas and so will they.

Great thought on a "gathering activity." Good to have something for those who arrive on time.

Any kind of bead stringing is always fun. The beads can be cheap. Think about something sturdy for stringing.

Have fun!!

 

[Pumbaa_]

that is a lot for 2 hours!

Plan out how long each activity will take. How long for each girl to do the pillowcase? Then switch to the foam picture frame? I am thinking for some girls they will spend 20-30 minutes on each activity!

Pizza is what, at least 20-30 minutes? The pinata is at least 15 minutes and cupcakes. The musical nail polish came will take at least 20-30 minutes, based on 20 girls, explaining the rules, then about a minute for each

I love the idea, but I wuld scale back on the activities. A lot going on in just 120 minutes

Last thought, will parents be home and able to have their kids changed and at your door at 5? Where I am there are mostly working mothers and that time frame would not work.

Have a great time!

 

[EcbLovesMickey]

I found this cute wording you could kind of alter to fit your party. You could print it and attach it to a small thing of polish or maybe a small bag of bath salts (you can make them cheap by buying Epsom salts at the store and adding some essential oil)

We'll order pizza and watch movies too
and all the fun things that girls like to do
Like paint our nails and toes
and stay up all night, as everyone knows

 

[JeMarie6]

We just did this for my daughter's 5th birthday in August, complete with Pizza and make your own Sunday bar. Our theme was a Princess Pajama Party. We did ours from 6:00pm - 8:00pm. Each girl signed Keli's pillow case so she has a really nice momento. We had sleeping bag races as well (aka sack races). And a scavenger hunt where each girl found a light up tooth brush and other princess treasures. Then all the girls brushed teeth with their new toothbrushes and we ended the party with a bed time story rather than a movie.

 

[sherreis]

We did this for my son's 5th birthday and it was great. Instead of the pass around the nail polish - we passed around a teddy bear.

We had a tossing game - I made something that looked like a bed and we tossed a little stuffed monkey onto it. "No more monkeys jumping on the bed"

We did the pillowcase decorating as well. I had made iron on transfers first that said "Daniel's 5th Birthday - Pretend Sleepover"

On the invitation, we said to wear p.j.'s and bring your favorite stuffed animal.

I ended the party with reading a book about sleepovers. You can look at amazon or barnes & noble for ideas and get it at the library.

Our activities were the pillowcase, no more monkeys jumping on the bed, hot potato with the teddy bear, and eating pizza and birthday cake. Ours was 2 1/2 hrs long. And, I had help from some parents.

 

[mjkacmom]

While your party seems fun, it seems odd to me that this is a "jammies" party based on the time of 5-7 p.m. Also - we live in Wisconsin, and if it is a super-cold day, I wouldn't send my DD outside in jammies. Not even going from the house to the car, to the house and back to the car. Jammies just aren't as warm as real clothes.

Jammies are fine here - heck, dd6, ds6, and dd8 had jammie day at school 3 weeks ago! Since slumber parties mean staying up late, I'd make the party 6 - 8. My dd6 just went to a similar party, but from 9:30 - 12 in the morning, and they had pancakes. I think you have a good amount of activities - better more than less. Pizza takes about 4 minutes. Girls this age LOVE to dance, so if you need a filler, just put on some music.

 

[r4blessings]

Thanks for all the input! I love the idea of reading a story to them, I will look for one of those on amazon today and I think that is the way I will end the party! I will keep the nail polish, lip gloss party games as extras in case we are running out of things to do. If we don't get to those activiites, I can always throw them in their goody bags.

When all the girls are first arriving, I plan on having them decorate plain white paper bags (like lunch bags) with their name, markers, stickers to put all their candy, nail polish, lip gloss stuff in. This should keep the girls busy while they are arriving, and I can always make one for any late arrivals.

I know most of these girls, as I am their daisy leader. I was a teacher for a few years before I had my second ds, and my four friends who are staying are also teachers, and my mother (a 2nd grade teacher) will also be over to help, so I think I have plenty of adults!

Katie is getting the new pink pottery barn kitchen for her birthday, so I think that will keep some of the girls occupied as well.

Here in the Northeast, its definitly cold, but like another pp mentioned, they had pajama day at school right before Christmas, so I don't think anyone will mind wearing their cozy jammies.

Thanks for all the tips, input and replies! Keep em coming!

 

[LauralF22]

I think this is such a great idea... I'm going to tuck away all of your ideas and save them for our next birthday party.. I especially like the idea of everyone signing their name on one pillowcase for the birthday child to keep. That'll be a nice treasure for the future.