Tips For Hosting A Sleepover Party

If you're looking for an exciting party to throw for your child, you may want to consider the possibility of a sleepover. Younger kids usually love spending the night away from home once in a while because it's new and exciting. Before you invite everyone over, there are some things you should keep in mind and a few preparations to take care of.

1. Transform your living room into a fun sleeping space. You may have to rearrange your furniture in order to clear enough space on the floor. Throw down plenty of blankets, then encourage your child's guests to bring sleeping bags and pillows in the invitations. Consider setting some mood lighting by throwing a scarf or a cloth over the lamps to make a colorful glow.

2. Choose a couple of activities. You could put on a few movies that your child and her friends love or set up an area where they can work on arts and crafts. Boys might love to play a game or two outside before bed, like manhunt or a game of wiffleball. The goal should be to tire them out, as you don't want them staying up all night!

3. Don't worry about making a cake. While cake and ice cream are staples at birthday parties, they're often a lot of work, and serving everything can be a hassle. Instead, why not have birthday cupcakes delivered? They're easy to pass out, and you can still serve them with ice cream. One way you can make the process easier is by scooping ice cream into cupcake liners beforehand and placing them in a muffin pan in the freezer. All you'll have to do is hand out the scoops.

4. Once cake and ice cream are taken care of, you may want to leave out a few snacks for your guests to munch on while they're sitting around chatting or watching movies. Cookies are always a big hit, as are pretzels, chips and veggies with dip.

5. Your young guests may not want to go to bed, but you should check on them every now and then and encourage them to sleep. Turn all of the lights off and make sure everyone is comfortable. If there are younger children, they may not feel totally okay with sleeping over someone else's house, so be prepared to deal with this. You could let her call her mother for reassurance if that would make her feel better.

As long as you make sure there are plenty of snacks, activities and comfortable sleeping spaces, your child's sleepover should be a fun party that's relatively easy and cheap.