Springtime Sleepover -8yr- Be The Butterfly

My daughter is turning 8 in March so I thought why not take advantage of the gorgeous weather and her love of flowers and plan a springtime party! This was an all girls birthday party and quite chic, girly one at that! We planned this party for March 12 and wrote that it was a sleepover thus it would be from 3pm March 12 to 12 pm March 13. For parties for girls this age, I recommend a lot of structure. When left to their own devices, they might play inappropriate games or leave one child out. I would also suggest keeping an emergency parent's phone number list in case a child gets homesick. My daughter sometimes has nightmares and likes to call me when she's scared so always show guests where the phone & list are in sleepover situations. A final suggestion is to have designated eating times. Sleepovers don't always have to be about pigging out. 

INVITATIONS- We made some pretty cute invitations. Our theme was chic girls in springtime so we used colors like yellow, pink, blue, and light green. We folded light pink construction paper in half the fat" way. Then we turned it the vertical way and glued on a plain white rectangle of paper. On top of that we carefully glued on flowers we had pressed one month before.

After they were glued on I painted another layer of glue over them to ensure they wouldn't fall apart in the mail. Then on the inside on one side I glued a picture of Milli with a sunflower that we took and photocopied for this purpose. Then I used this cute little rhyme "All the party hats balloons horns and frosted cake do not a party make. That's why we're inviting friends to come from far and near to celebrate Milli's birthday as she starts another year!" Then I wrote our address times what to bring and RSVP info. Then at the bottom I wrote "Hurry! Hurry! Don't be late We need you to celebrate!" in letter stickers. We sent these out 3 weeks before and put a check list of all the invitees so as they called we could check them off and write any important info.

GAMES- RELAY RACES- Give each child a paper flower with their name on it and put them in a big pile along with blank ones and they have to run over and find their flower then race back and tag the next person. 

BE THE BUTTERFLY- Teams stand in a line and first two go and put on a costume including wings antennas and a body shirt to look like a butterfly then race back and drop the clothes to the next person.

BUG SNATCHERS- Every girl gets a hula hoop and they sit in a huge circle inside their hoop 5- 10 ft away from eachother. IN the middle of the circle are balloons we drew "Bug Faces" on and each girl can run up and snatch the bugs and bring them back to their hoop. However when they leave their hoop another girl is free to snatch a bug from that girls hoop. After 5-10 min. count how many bugs each girl has.

CATERPILLAR TAG- One person is "it" and that person crawls on their knees to try to tackle those still standing. A small playing field is outlined. When tagged you join the "it" girl.

BUMBLEBEE CATCH- We decorated tennis balls with a sharpie to make them into bumblebees. Everyone found a partner and they pass the ball back and fourth. When they drop it a certain part of their body gets "stung" The order goes knee other knee elbow other elbow chin. Every time they drop the bee they have to touch the body part to the ground. Last person standing wins. EX: If you drop it twice you kneel on both knees.

CENTIPEDE DODGEBALL- One person is assigned as the thrower and the rest of the players make a centipede by holding on to each other's shoulders. When the thrower hits someone in the centipede that person has to leave the chain and join the thrower. Last person standing wins!  We played all these games right as the girls arrived around 315 and we played each game outside for about 20-25 minutes (5 games). Thus we were done by around 5. 

DINNER-I set up a beautiful dinner for the eight girls in the dining room with nice china wine glasses nice tablecloth candles and flowers scattered around. My husband dressed up in a suit and came to take their order for a three course meal. Their first choice was fresh fruit or sweet salad (raspberry dressing). The second choice was hamburgers and french fries peanut butter and jelly and lays potato chips or macoroni and cheese and edamame beans. For drinks they could chose water milk lemonade Sprite Coke or orange soda. Finally they could chose strawberry smoothies orange lime smoothie or rootbeer floats for dessert. We were done with this around 550. 

ACTIVITIES- Decorate and Painting Flower Pots- We bought 8 little ceramic pots and set them up on a table with paints and let the girls go to town! Then we put on quick dry spray and put them near a fan. While they dried the girls picked out what types of flower seeds they wanted to plant. We packed the pots with soil and a seed and gave them a bit of water. At this point it was about 620.  Next we took a trip to a nearby lake to go swimming. We just told them to get their suits on and hop in the car. The drive was around 30 minutes.

CAR RIDE GAMES- RADIO BINGO- Each girl is given a pen and a bingo board. They have to fill in each square with words they may hear on the radio. Then we turn on an appropriate station and as they hear words being said. They cross it out. When they make a row they call BINGO and get to choose a prize (duck goggles rubber ducks bubbles etc…)

LICENSE PLATE GAME- Work as a team to find as many state license plates as you can in 5 minutes. For every state found each girl gets a piece of candy.

COOTIE CATCHERS- We gave them a folder of pretty paper and pens and instructions on how to make cootie catchers and then they shared and used each others.  When we arrived at the lake it was about 7pm. We stayed there and let the girls swim and play for approximately 1 hour 15 minutes. Then we piled them in the car and drove home playing some of the car games mentioned above. Got home around 845pm. 

ARTS & CRAFTS- Tissue Paper Flowers- This was a quick 15 minute craft that requires green pipe cleaners and different colored pieces of tissue paper which you fold like a fan. Then you take that strip over the pipe cleaner and pull out the layers to make a rose-like formation. They came out cute! We gave the girls bags to put their crafts in. They were white and we wrote their names in color sharpie. At this point it was 9pm.  For the next activity we opened presents and had cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday! Milli suggested a creative way of opening presents. I sat at the radio and we played Musical Presents. Each girl starts with a present and when the music starts she passes the present around and when it stops whichever present Milli has in her lap is what she opens. I wrote down what each girl gave her so thank you's would be easy.

For the cupcakes we bought really nice creamy frosting and put it in bags. I made vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. I used cupcakes tins to divide toppings too. I had rainbow sprinkles jimmies chocolate chips crushed reese's cups crushed oreo's and cool whip. The girls really liked making their own cupcakes. Milli got a candle in hers! We were done with this around 945pm. 

The final activity for the day was watching a movie to calm them down. The only "spring-y" movie I could think of was "A Bug's Life". It was a great funny movie that the girls loved! Before the movie I had them pick the air mattress they would sleep on. I put 4 mattresses that I placed in a circle 2 girls on each mattress. They were told to bring sleeping bags and with warm blankets mattresses and tons of pillows they said it was the most comfortable sleepover ever!  In the morning I put an alarm clock in their room set for 9am and I put a note on top saying "Wake up girls! It's time for your faces nails toes and hair to get a little "spring cleaning"!" Then I wrote that 4 pairs should report to different areas of the house: first floor bathroom (for facials) porch (for pedicures) kitchen (for manicures) and den (for massages).

My three friends and I ran each station and I gave each person a schedule indicating what station they should go to when.

For the massage station we had one girl sit in the massage chair while the other was given a massage on the couch then they switched.

For manicures we had girls sit at the counter. We brought all sorts of colors top coat an Emory board a bowl of warm soapy water with marbles in it cuticle remover and "plier-y" tool. After their nails were filed cuticle remover was applied then the hands were soaked. The same was done to person #2. Then person 1's cuticles were done and the girls alternated until their nails were all done!

For pedicures we set up two lawn chairs and two bowls of soapy water with rose petals in it with colors top coat flip flops toe dividers and foot lotion.

For facials I put pillows against the tub that they could lean on and we had a face mask that we applied then covered the eyes with cucumber slices.

Each station lasted for 25 minutes with 5 minutes of passing time. So we were done at 11 and it was time for a waffle bar! We made fresh squeezed orange juice and kept delicious homemade waffles in the oven to keep them warm. We put bowls of chocolate chips fresh strawberries & blueberries butter syrup whipped cream and chocolate sauce to top their waffles with. They LOVED this. The final activity was breaking open a flower shaped pinata. The candy inside this acted as a goodies to add to their craft bag. GREAT PARTY. "