Surviving Sam's Slumber Party

Sam only wanted a slumber party to celebrate her 6th birthday.  No matter how many other suggestions I threw her way, she would only consider having a sleepover with her closest girlfriends.  Personally, I thought at age 5 turning 6, she was too young to have this kind of party.  And, let's not forget I am still traumatized from Ian's birthday slumber party last year.  In fact, I am pretty sure I vowed there would be no more slumber parties ever.  How quickly I cave when it comes to my kids and wanting to make them happy.
 
We invited four girls to spend the night.  Two were from her preschool days and two were from her kindergarten class.  The slumber party started after school on the Friday of her actual birthday (May 23rd).  It was not that bad!!  One of the biggest reasons this party was a success is because of my mother-in-law.  She was invaluable and a huge help.  Looking back, I don't think it would've gone as well as it did without her.  Marcia jumped in and assisted the girls with every aspect of the party; the craft (decorating picture frames), making their own pizzas, cleaning up, etc.

All the girls were very well behaved.  We only had one small glitch when one of the girls started melting down around 7:30pm. She burst into tears and said she missed her mom greatly.  This girl had never spent the night at anyone's house before.  Her mom told me this might happen and to give her a call.  To wind down the evening, I put on the movie "Frozen".  There is nothing cuter than listening to 4 girls sing the soundtrack to "Frozen". 

By 10:10pm, everyone was asleep and didn't wake-up until nearly 7:00am the next morning.  Yay!! 

The next morning I made chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs, watermelon and orange juice for breakfast.  The girls didn't do such a good job eating breakfast and I quickly turned into a restaurant trying to offer breakfast foods they would eat.  I have to say, this was the only part that became a pain in my rear.  But I didn't want the girls to not eat. 

With it being a 3 day weekend, it was nice having the party on a Friday night and still having the majority of Saturday, all of Sunday and all of Monday to recover.  I am not saying I would quickly offer to do a slumber party again, but I would consider it.  Sam loved it and I think all her friends had a great time too.

Sam and her BFFs

The girls making their own pizzas



The girls decorating their picture frames. I took a picture of each
girl with Samantha and printed it out to put in their frame. 
For Samantha's frame, I took a group photo of all the girls.

The girls watching the movie and singing along.