I am taking a break from blogging adorable kids that I photograph at my Ridgewood photography studio to bring you something completely different but equally adorable – if I may say so myself:)  My girls just turned 8 (pictures from their 8 year old photoshoot are still being edited!) and all they wanted for their birthday was a slumber party.  Now I personally think that 8 is a bit too young for a slumber party but they begged and begged and begged and I finally gave in.  To make it manageable (and to make sure that I maintain my sanity) we decided to keep it small and invited only 5 girls.

My sister is an AMAZING party planner (you can check out her party planning website here) but unfortunately (on so many levels) she lives in Atlanta.  The girls and I were visiting her a few weeks ago and when I confessed that I was so stressed about the whole party planning side of it she took matters into her own hands and after half a day of brainstorming we had a clear plan of what to do. So with almost everything planned out and purchased (thank goodness for amazon.com) I was ready for the party.  And I have to say it was pretty AWESOME!

It started with these beautiful hand-made (by my sister) spa-themed party invitations – they were so cool I almost did not want to give them out!  And things only got better from there:

There were matching PJs and robes for all the girls and color coordinated turban towels:

and a ‘spa station’ with cucumber and lemon sparking water, non-toxic nail polish and foot shaped toe separators:

There was yummy food by Catchy caterer (think deep fried mac-and-cheese bites and cheddar sliders) and there was plenty of dessert including a giant chocolate cupcake cake made from scratch and decorated by yours truly.  The cake actually tasted better than it looked but my kids were very impressed with my cake decorating abilities nonetheless:)

and of course there was popcorn because no slumber party is complete without it!:

After the initial screams of excitement died down and everybody had their dinner, Mia and Alexa made their wishes and blew out their birthday candles:

and that’s when things really got interesting!  There were plenty of games:

and lots of giggles:

There were adorable girls in matching PJs:

and organic yogurt and banana facials (which did not stay on for too long):

There was nail-painting:

and scary stories reading:

lots of chatting:

and present-opening:

There was movie watching:

and an impromptu ‘photoshoot’ by a budding photographer:

and all-around craziness of having 7 eight-year-olds together in one room:

And there were a breakfast of donuts, waffles and milk served in old-fashioned diary bottles and happy girls giving me ‘thumbs-up’ for a great party!

This spa slumber party loud and messy and chaotic and EXHAUSTING and so much fun!  My girls already told me that they want the exact same party next year:)

Lessons Learnt:

And now to the serious stuff – coming from a Business and IT consulting I did an internal ‘debrief’ of the party and collected some lessons learned that I am happy to share with you. So if you are a brave soul who wants to attempt to throw a spa slumber party for your daughter (or any other type of a slumber party for that matter) – I hope these will help you to maintain your sanity and learn more my mistakes:)

• The most important thing you can do is to hire a babysitter to help you and entertain the kids.  I had a sitter help me out for 3 hours and that made a huge difference.  Don’t get me wrong – I was still EXHAUSTED at the end of the evening but I cannot even imagine how tired I would’ve been without her help.  If I ever throw a slumber party again I will definitely consider asking her what her nightly rates are:)
• 8 is probably a bit too early for a slumber party because 3 out of 5 girls who to the party ended up crying at some point at night missing their Mommies
• If you think having an at-home party is less expensive than having it at a party place  – think again:)
• If you are foolish enough to have an agenda as to what to do and when (like I did!)  – just tear it up and throw it out – the party will NOT go according to it
• Be prepared not to get much sleep.  This party brought me back to the days of having newborn twins – when you are tired and finally calm everyone down and go to sleep only to be up many many times tending to crying children, soothing and calming them down.
• Watching your kids and their friends have fun and hearing them say that it was the BEST PARTY EVER will make you forget all the hours of work you put into it and all the hours of sleep you did not get and you will be glad that you did something for your children that they (hopefully) will remember for a long long time!