to be starting to panic slightly

[princessclaradoll]

dd is turning 7 next month.

Perviously any parties she had were soft play or had a host or an entertainer ie i could just potter about and not have to entertain the kids.

However this year she asked for a sleepover. I agreed to this back in the spring when i clearly wasnt thinking straight!! Now the time has come i have insisted she can only have 2 friends to sleep over (mainly due to the size of her bedroom!) so have agreed she can also have a pizza party at the local pizza place the night before.

Now im starting to worry about how

a) im going to entertain 8 kids while they wait for their pizza / eat their pizza / end up having a food fight because im so dull!

b) what im going to do with 3 girls high with excitement about having their first sleepover!

Im thinking at the sleepover they can watch a DVD, paint nails, do hair and maybe i can even come up witha treasure hunt or quiz or something along these lines, does that sounds okay?

No idea about the pizza place though! Thinking they arent going to be impressed with pass the parcel or I Spy!

Oh bring back the days of parites where someone else does the work!!!

Nooooooo! you are supposed to say YABU, it will all be fine, the kids will sit happily in the pizza place without needing entertaining, the sleepover girls will decide to have an early night and be in bed asleep by 7 and sleep for 14 hours and there will be no stress at all!

Dd's first sleepover was great. We had 8 giggly girlies as well as my own 3 dc. I bought Tesco value pillowcases and a pack of sharpie, and got them all to design and decorate their pillowcase which they then took home with them.

I thought it was a fab idea as it was cheaper than buying crap for party bags, and kept them busy for an hour.

For me, the trick is to relax. Leave them to their own devices with your ear out on sticks ready to intervene if necessary. Have old towel ready for painting nails, there WILL be a spillage. And healthy snacks as well as treats.

Have fun. It will be a wonderful memory for your dd

They will yap to each other while waiting for the food - you won't get a word in edgewise.

They will talk ALL night and fall asleep at God only knows what hour.

They (hopefully!) will sleep a bit late and wake up a bit dopey. Might be nice to do pancakes for them for breakfast - you can cook them while they are asleep and put them in the microwave to warm them up when they wake up?
Have lemon and sugar, and Nutella to spread on them - they will think you are the best mum EVER.

If you have them for a long time the next day, make some plan to get out of the house otherwise they will trash it. I used to bung them in the car and bring them to the beach - it worked particularly well in autumn and winter as the beach was deserted and we flew kites.

It sounds like fun. They will entertain themselves chatting and gossiping at the pizza place. My only concern would be having three, ime one always gets left out, four would be better if you can manage it. Other than that, it sounds great.
Expect them to be up early next morning, and then your own dd to be ratty and overtired the following day!

do the quiz whilst waiting for pizza? Hangman?

Some more ideas...
While waiting at pizza place why not bring a pad of post its and play that game where you ask questions to figure out who/what animal you are. Probably new to them at that age and cheap/easy to prepare.

At the sleepover it's always good to wind down with a DVD. It your dd has a player in her room all the better as they can drift off to sleep watching it. Or if it has to be downstairs,(as in does in my house, no tv in bedrooms) I put a blanket on the floor with their snacks/"midnight feast" and it saves your carpet, couch and usually prevents squabbles about not having enough room on the couch.

I'll keep posting if I have any more ideas.

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Maybe buy a couple of disposable cameras to use at the pazza place, the kids will enjoy taking the pics and your dd will have fun pics to keep for ever :)

I loved pass the parcel well into my teans, just needs to be age specific toys in the parcel :)

If they are all into something in particular - a tv show, or moshi wotsits or something, maybe you could do a quiz on that thing and have a little prize or two. Do that while waiting for the pizza.
We'll help you write the quiz (or show you where to copy from )

Love the disposable camera idea also!

Would love some help with the quiz, not sure of one particular topic though as some friends are from school, some from dancing, some from gymnastics etc so a few different groups

Maybe a general quiz though so moshi monsters and those monster high dolls and maybe some awful tv program like ICarly or Victorious? ooh yes, some help with a general quiz for 7 year old girls!!

A few rounds of Chinese whispers at the pizzeria, or ask if they will provide some colouring/wordsearch type activities to keep the children occupied.