My big girl, Ellary, turned eight at the end of April! Ummm, WHAT? How do I have an 8-year-old?
COVID hit us hard last year and we celebrated the heck out of her with an epic car parade – back when those were a novelty and “clever.” So this year, we felt like going big yet respectful of COVID safety considerations, so a sleepover felt like the perfect party.
Yes, we were probably a little crazy thinking we could pull off our girl’s first sleepover still in a pandemic, but we killed it if I do say so myself. We had some help, though! Our sweet girl’s birthday was a little bit ‘Pinterest Mom’ and a whole lotta bit ‘Amazon Prime Mom’… so read on for all the deets!!
XO,
Venue
Our house, of course! After clearing out our family room, we invited Tiny Teepeezzz, a local mom-owned business, in to set up a set of sleepy teepees for our girl and her three sweet friends to enjoy. Ellary picked the “Enchanted Garden” theme and, hi, look at this incredible set up!
Each girl got her own teepee with twin size mattress, linens, décor, sleep mask, fairy wings and wand, and decorative pillows (the girls brought their own pillows to sleep on for sanitary reasons). The details were *chef’s kiss*.
The whole process with Tiny TeepeeZzz was amazing – set up took about an hour, take down the next day about 15 minutes. Everything was sanitized, re-sanitized, and sent off for laundering to get clean for the next party kiddos to enjoy. It felt safe from every angle and I was so glad Ellary got to experience something to special for her first sleepover.
Activities
What do eight-year-olds like to do? Apparently talk about boys until THREE IN THE MORNING. I wasn’t expecting that so I was equipped with a few fun-starters:
- Nail polish for mani/pedis (Ellary’s great aunt had JUST sent her adorable Easter colors so these were perfect; and may I recommend peel-off polish? WAAAAYYYYY less messy if it gets on the floor)
- Spa masks (5 Below)
- Make-your-own flower crowns (Amazon)
- All-in-one paint crafts (5 Below)
In March, we started the process of renovating our 20-year-old pool. It was drained but then sat… untouched… for weeks. We didn’t exactly meet our deadline of being party-ready, so online ordering to the rescue! I picked up a 10-foot inflatable pool from Amazon and a “water blob” from Target. We added dollar store water squirters and those weird water balls… you know the ones – they soak up water then you throw them and nail your victim with a wet spongy ball? Anyway, that all did the trick, producing hours of entertainment both Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday morning.
And finally, the crown jewel of the party (and the very extreme of my crafting ability), my mother-in-law and I crafted a photo backdrop for the girls to take pictures in front of with little fairy accessories from Amazon using Ellary’s polaroid camera. This was literally the hit of the party. The girls took something like 60 photos (I spent more on polaroid film than party food…) and they loved every second of playing photographer.
How’d we build the photo backdrop? Well… we used a dollar store table covering, some string, fake ivy vines I found on Amazon, a Happy Birthday banner from Target, painter’s tape and removable wall hooks. Took about 30 minutes and worth every second. Yes, folks, this is the extent of my craftiness.
Food
Since we were keeping it so small, I asked Ellary whether she wanted a big cake, cupcakes, or something else. Without hesitation, she chose Crumbl Cookies. I’m here for it. So were the girls. I added birthday candles and put one on a pedestal I found at the dollar spot at Target a hundred years ago and voila!
Breakfast was the birthday girl’s favorite: waffles, bacon, and strawberries! The party gave me an excuse to ditch my million-year-old crummy waffle iron and get a new, fancy, four-waffle, removable/dishwasherable waffle iron. Thanks, Amazon! No one had to wait for food and they could get back to playing (and talking about boys) after filling their tummies.
We kept dinner easy to pizza delivery—that’s a sleepover classic, right!
Favors
Since we only had three friends, I went a little fancier than I normally would have for favors. I picked up super cute glittery gift bags at 5 Below and added:
- Fairy necklaces (Amazon)
- A small coloring set (dollar store)
- Flower seeds (Amazon)
The flower crowns and paint sets also became part of the favors as did the sleep masks from Tiny Teepeezzz (they were the one consumable item that we got to keep).
These four friends had the time of their lives. Seeing their smiles, hearing their silly stories and sweet giggles, and watching them play without a care in the world was the icing on the birthday cake.
