Turning Eight and the HALF-sleepover.

It was PARTY time in our house last week.
We've told the kids that they are allowed to have a party for their birthday every second year and then a very small group of friends in alternate years. By small, I mean 3 max.

2013 was supposed to be the 'off' year for Johanna. But this year she has (again) changed to a new school. That's 3 schools in 3.5 years, which is a lot of effort for one little person. It's hard work getting to know new people over and over again and then making friends and having to move on. So, I decided that we would have another party this year to give her the chance to have some of her (again) new friends over and for me to (again) meet the parents.



Now to figure out what to do for the party. I looked up some craft parties, rock climbing parties and cooking parties in Christchurch (all at offsite locations - bonus!) but the per-head charge was just not an option for us. Johanna really wanted a sleepover party, but we simply couldn't possibly narrow the guest list down to less than 14. And there was NO way I was up for that! So, I asked my trusty friend Google. And this is when I discovered the 'Half - sleepover' party. Brilliant. I've had so many comments from parents about this idea, I thought it would  be good to share the love. This is where I originally found it. I've tweaked it a little for our situation, but the basic concept was the same.

The Half-Sleepover

The idea is that you have the party in the early evening and the girls come in their pjs. You have dinner and do fun sleepover type things...but then they go home at the end! Genius right? Why didn't I think of that myself?

The party ran from 5.30-8.30pm on Sunday night, Monday was the Queen's birthday public holiday so that worked well too.

5.30pm 

We started off with some games. We did some X-box dancing and then played 'the chocolate game' (Fairtrade Whittakers of course).

6pm 

Dinner. I decided to give the blog suggestion a go. Instead of ordering in pizza (which is certainly easier, but not cheaper and definitely not healthier) I decided to try pasta and salad. It seemed to work pretty well. We basically offered two types of pasta and either bolognese or a basic tomato sauce. Then they could choose salad/lettuce with options of grated cheese, grated carrot, tomato or bacon. The lesson I learnt was...lettuce is wasted on 8 year olds. But they ate a lot of the rest and polished off a few loaves of garlic bread too.

     

6.30pm
Time for cake and presents. The cake was also SUPER easy. If it's not easy, I won't do it. I have no real love for baking, I know that's very un-Kiwi. Baking over here is a noun as well as a verb (as in "did you bring the baking?"). Up until now I've been packet queen, but I'm trying to turn over a new leaf, so I'm making a much bigger effort to make everything I can from scratch. Anyway, how's this for a good idea, an Ice-cream cone cake?! I can't take any credit for it, got it from Pinterest.

I had plenty of cupcakes so they all got one each. I decided to try a slightly healthier option (slightly) and used wholemeal cake/pastry flour and this recipe. I did the icing the regular way though. I also had to make gluten free cakes for one of the girls (resorted to a packet on that one!).

7pm
Movie Time. We had vanilla ice cream with sprinkles (in waffle cones), pop-corn and the birthday cupcakes while they watched the movie. The lounge room floor certainly looked like a Hoyts cinema complex by the end of it.

We decided to watch Brave because I loved it! If you haven't seen it, do it. It's not a typical princess story, it's much more about a girl's relationship with her mum...sob. And, those gorgeous Scottish accents...

Anyway, I don't know if it was too long, or just that some of the girls had seen it before, but it didn't hold their interest the whole way through. On reflection, I think with 8-going-on-14 year olds it may have been better to put on a movie with 'real' actors instead of an animated movie. I overheard at least one conversation about it being a 'kids' movie - LOL ;)

8.30pm
Pickup time. We had a few moments of chaos at the end but we have table soccer and an X-box so all was not lost. And then they were picked up and went home to sleep. (*insert contented sigh here*)

The next party I'm due to organise is not until Tom turns 5 - which is November 2014. Now for a glorious rest.

And finally, here is Miss 8. All she wanted for her birthday was a cabbage patch doll. I remember desperately wanting one too when I was about her age. I found these retro dolls (twins, born in 1984 ;)  They're old, but still unused and in perfect condition. I felt a bit sorry for them having spent almost 30 years tied to the box and they've now been very enthusiastically adopted. I'm really glad that deep down she's still just 8. Thankfully, 14 is still a way off yet!