Straw poll - sleepover for a 9 year olds birthday?

[Plonker]

Yes or no?

yes but I'd only have two friends, 3 max. Partly due to space but mainly due to the fact I cope badly with sleepovers and their aftermath.

oh, you've decided aLREADY.

goodo

Other things which satisfactorily wear out a la swimming ...

• trampolining
• ice-skating
• skiing [bright but unhelpful suggestion emoticon]

PS are you sure you can't send them swimming? Around here 8s-and-overs don't need anyone to go in the water with them.

No definitely can't take them swimming Bink. We would have to go in with them as two of them are non swimmers. I refuse to put my fat arse (or any other part of my fat body ) in a swimming costume and I fear it's asking a little too much of dh to take all 4 of them on his own, lol.

We did look at the 'Chill Factor' but unless you're only playing in the snow, its bloody expensive!! Any cheaper ideas?

How about a park? Ball games? Can they bring scooters?

I'd do it, and probably have lots of options of craft or art activities, perhaps cooking too, or sweet making, or perhaps a treasure hunt (DP likes doing those).

TBH our guests were happiest with some blank paper & colouring pens & a video on in the background. The bedroom was littered with half finished masterpieces in the morning. Also they played Twister, Singstar on the Wii (oh how many times did I have to endure 'Fabulous' from High School Musical), and Sound of Music DVD with subtitles up for singing along.

Or sometimes we put up the play tents in the living room (if you still have toddler tents, I have younger ones as well as a nearly 9yo) and they do a pretend camping sleepover. If you have a real fire you can even cook dinner on it and toast marshmallows.

All the six year olds are now asleep. What time they wake up at is, of course, another story...

Wow! ...and before 10pm too!!

I need tips LGP

Great ideas - thanks

drinkmoretea - I did think of the park but it depends what time we pick them up. Was thinking of around 4pm which would be pushing it a little for the park as it starts to get dark not long after ...
Am I being a bit mean picking them up so late?

Great ideas fennel - yes, I have younger dd's and do have tents etc, I think they'd enjoy that. Like the treasure hunt idea too, although i'm not sure I fancy getting into sweet making

stinkymonkey - yes, plain paper and pens is a winner with my dd anyway, and I'm pretty sure it will be with her friends
I wish I had singstar - we have got a couple of good Wii games that dd2 got for Xmas that may amuse them for a short while ...

no, 4pm is fine, thats when ours came round ish, they went home after school got changed and came over.

just a suggestion, but we bought dts a dvd for their birthday that had only just been released so that closer to bedtime we could sit them all doown to unwind. hopefully they wouldn't have seen the film!

4pm is ideal. I second the DVD suggestion, I ususally get them in their pyjamas and then settle them down to watch a DVD before bedtime to calm them down. They watched Polar Express tonight.
WRT activities, very often they just play their own made up games or I put out some craft stuff. Today the focus has been our two brand new kittens, but I guess a kitten is for life, not just for sleepovers.

Gawd, I didn't let ours turn up until 5pm. The plan had been to watch a DVD but they never sat still for long enough. If you think you will use Singstar, might be worth getting it anyway. We had tea around 6.30pm (typical party buffet so even the fussy ones were happy).