Slumber Party Ideas

It’s no secret to anyone that knows me, I ADORE my nieces and nephews, but especially my nieces. I’m okay with being biased. 🙂

In 2008 I invited all of my nieces over for the first annual Roskelley Girls Sleepover! (Roskelley is my maiden name) Any of them who are 5 years old or older are invited (no diapers, no crying, no tattle telling at this party). They have to come in what they are going to sleep in and can only bring a sleeping bag and pillow (that way I don’t have to return all the left items). Over the years I became wise to the fact that having my sisters there to help would be good so now any of them are invited too. There are 21 nieces in my family and not all of them can come each year, we just plan it and hope that as many that can come will come. We always have a lot of fun and I hope it is a tradition we continue for decades to come!

2008 & 2009

2012

The party planner in me wants to decorate it and theme it and go to all this work to make it look a certain way, and then the Roskelley in me knows that my family is way to casual for all of that. So, it is actually kind of nice to keep things simple. For the food I provide pizza and soda and each girl brings a treat to share.  Then I get a bunch of dollar store prizes for the winners of the games and always get the glow stick necklaces – they love that during the movie). The following morning we always have a pillow fight and pancakes/waffles with bacon and they are off to their own homes by 9 or 10 am.

Here are the activities we do:

Food Relay: we split the girls into teams of 3 or 4 based on their age and they have to race against each other, then the winners from each round go to the championship round and we crown the grand champion from that.

Relay Races: Split into a few teams each one runs to the basket of clothes to put on, then through a series of other obstacles and then back to undress to tag the next person on their team.

Make-up– Each girl’s name is put into the hat and they have to draw a name out and that is the person who is going to do their make up for them. It is always funny to see how excited the little 5 year old girls get when they get to do the make up for one of the teenage girls. Last year it got a little bit crazy so this year I am going to have to do something a little different.

Hair Braiding: Luckily we’ve all got pretty talented fingers and so we all go to work braiding each others hair.

Truth or Dare: It’s a sleepover must, isn’t it?! Last year I got smart and had a bag full of cut up ideas for anyone who couldn’t think of a dare. They could just draw one out of the bag and they were all set! Here is a link to the ideas I came up with: Truth or Dare

Night Games: We play tag (in all its various forms), sharks and minows, red rover, do you love your neighbor, fruit basket, etc.

S’mores: If we are lucky enough to get a fire going (one year it took over an hour), we roast mallows and make s’mores!

Pillow Fight: Can it really be a sleepover without one?

Dance: This is my personal favorite part of the whole night. We split the girls into teams and they have to draw dance moves out of a bag. Then we give them 20 – 30 minutes to choreograph a little dance using all of the moves they picked. It is HILARIOUS!! Here is a link to one of the dances from last year. Since they are so young, we also assign one adult to each group who can demonstrate to them what it means to “Walk like an Egyptian” or how to “Roger Rabbit”. Here is the document containing the dance moves: Dance Moves

Movie: Around 9:00 we make our beds and settle in for a good movie (last year we watched RV with Robin Williams – hilarious!) and it is lights out by 11:00 pm.

Here are some additional activities we’ve done in the past and that you could include:

Pictionary/Taboo

Jewelry making

Pajama fashion show

Karaoke

Dance Dance Revolution/Rock Band

Painting nails

Board/card games

Mad Libs

Decorate pillowcases or make sleep masks for each girl

To see the fun we had in 2013- go here!