How to Throw a Faux Sleepover Party.

I have to admit: sometimes I feel that a camera gets in the way of living. Especially my monstrosity of a camera. It's a lot to lug around when you are admiring your children or hosting 15 6-year-old girls at a pajama party. On Saturday, I threw my blogging, must-cature-every-moment-with-my-lens tendencies to the wind and just enjoyed the girls. And today, when I wanted to tell you all about it, I'm regretting it just a tad.

The party was a huge success. An easy, quick theme you can throw together in one day. With my hectic life as of late, it was just what I needed. The girls didn't seem to mind that it was a little more low-key than my usual events, and I actually had 4 or 5 moms ask me if they could copy the party in the future. (Which I, of course, agreed to. Especially since I borrowed the idea from one of my besties, Christina.)

How to Throw a Faux Sleepover Party:
01. Make and deliver the invitations. (I designed my easy pj pants in Adobe Illustrator, printed and cut them out, glued them to a pink card base, and attached to buttons to the pants. Glued the information onto the inside of the card. They were super simple and took about 20 minutes to make all 15.)

02. The night before the party, prepare the cupcakes. (I made homemade strawberry cupcakes with lemonade frosting. Daughter's request. Her favorite colors are yellow and pink and favorite food is lemonade-flavored anything. I am not eating sugar, but my husband said the combo was rather tasty. Unfortunately, the only picture I took of them was in the blurry picture below. *Recipe can be found at the bottom of this post.)

03. Fill four glass cookie jars with different candies and snacks. Pop popcorn and fill popcorn bags. (Mine came from HeyYoYo. Darling vintage and the perfect size for 6-year-olds.) Set up a cute little Snack Shop on a table and recruit your husband to man the station.

04. Make a giant bed on the living room floor with pads, sleeping bags, blankets and pillows.

05. Prepare waffles for the guests just before the arrive and place them on a cookie sheet in the oven to keep warm.

Faux Sleepover Party Itinerary:
9:30-10:00: Waffle Breakfast
10:00-10:30: Party Craft/Activity (We made princess door hangers.)
10:30-10:30: Sing Happy Birthday/Eat Cupcakes
10:30-10:45: Open Presents
10:45-11:00: Send girls to the "Sweet Shop" to pick out candy and a bag of popcorn.
11:00-11:30 (or whenever moms arrive): Watch birthday girl's favorite flick. (E's choice was TinkerBell) Let them gather on the "bed" you made on the living room floor.

This party was a big hit. The girlies loved it. Other fun activities you could do: paint fingernails, play freeze dance, or decorate pillowcases.

These are the only pictures I took, one of which is extremely blurry. C'est la vie!

STRAWBERRY CUPCAKES
8 large fresh strawberries
2 eggs
1 c. white sugar
1/3 c. oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
1 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. instant vanilla pudding mix
1-3 drops red food coloring

Preheat oven to 325° F. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
Place 8 strawberries into a blender, and blend until smooth. Pour the puree through a strainer to remove seeds. Puree should equal about 3/4 cup. Set the puree aside.
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, white sugar, vegetable oil, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, lemon zest, and strawberry puree until well combined. Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla pudding mix, and red food coloring to reach a desired shade of pink. Spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake cups, filling each about 2/3 full.
Bake in the preheated oven until the cupcakes have risen and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 23-25 minutes.
Let the cupcakes cool before frosting.

LEMONADE FROSTING
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. butter, softened
3 c. powdered sugar
3 tbsp. frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1 tsp. grated lemon zest (optional)

Place cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl, and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy.
Add sugar, lemonade concentrate and optional zest.
Beat on low speed until sugar is incorporated, about 1 minute, then beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
Frost the cupcakes.