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.

17 comments

  1. You are so cute! Love this entire idea. I will definitely be browsing your blog and picking your brain one day when I have my own children :)

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  2. Love the idea/theme! Those invites are super cute and impressed that you whipped them up so quickly.
    xx

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  3. What a great idea - looks like so much fun. Love the cute invites. I need to put my baking hat on, I love cupcakes and these sound awesome.

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  4. This was too cute! Wish I'd had that up my sleeve when my girls were young. After every 'sleep-over' (who made up that name anyway?!) it took me a month to recover. Cute idea and fun activities - thanks!

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  5. This party is adorable! I love the invitations! The cupcake looks yummy!!

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  6. omg what a lovely idea! especially for birthdays in the colder months, like my daughter's. Hope it was a blast and what fun memories.

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  7. yummy yummy cupcakes! i never need a good excuse to like a good cupcake.

    i can totally relate to the blogging world/real world balance... just the other day, my husband and i were having a lovely conversation and i was thinking about how i could fit it into a post. it's hard for us all to recognize that blogging, while wonderful in countless ways, is not our real life. our real life is with our kids (future for me) and husbands. will be praying for balance in your life dear friend!

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  8. I love the invites, Hannah! I had a party like this when I was little, and I loved it! so fun!

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  9. What a great idea Hannah!! I can tell everyone is having a lot of fun.

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  10. I love this idea because I hate sleep overs - we don't have a basement and I think one is required to keep the noise far enough away!

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  11. What a fabulously CLEVER idea. I love this. Definitely something I might be thinking of doing for my son's next birthday. I'll just figure out a way to "man it up" some! I LOVE THIS!

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  12. We love having "late night" rather than slumber parties and this is a really, really fun idea! Love it!

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  13. The invites are adorable! Addie had a great time. It really is the perfect theme for this age group. I'll have to try that cupcake recipe some time- looks yummy!

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  14. I have done something similar but in the evening...very fun!

    sandy toe

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  15. Awesome idea!!! LOVE the invite!

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  16. That invite is the cutest thing ever! Genius! The party looks like so much fun!

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  17. How Cute is this party! The details are amazing! I need to look for some great Sleepover Party Supplies for added excitement and fun.

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Thank you for reading! I love hearing what you have to say and appreciate your comments.