L. is 7!

To celebrate, we had a pajama party in the morning, with good old fashioned waffles and games.  We had strawberries galore and put them on waffles and angel food cake.  It was all a wonderful success and L. promises it was everything she had hoped it would be. 

trick candles:

To get some ideas for games and activities, I googled "pajama party" but, besides this one, mostly landed on sites about slumber parties.  So for anyone out there who wants to do a pajama birthday party for girls, here is what I came up with.

Invitations: we made them ourselves and put pictures of girls in pjs and nighties and instructed everyone to show up in their pjs.  (I didn't mention that it wasn't a sleepover party and that caused a little confusion, oops.  So it might be a good idea to include the start and end times.)

Breakfast art plate:  While the guests drifted in one by one, I invited everyone to sit at the kitchen table and create a picture using a selection of breakfast food items: cheerios, sliced fruit, raisins, waffle squares... It kept everyone busy and they could snack on it, too. 

We followed with waffles and strawberries (since everyone was already seated) and then segued into another table game...

Bedtime Bingo: I found some clipart of bedtime related items, printed them out then glued them on cardstock then used cheerios as play pieces.   Easy peasy.

Nightmare Mummy Monster: to pair off the kids and have them wrap each other up in crepe paper is one of my all-time favorite party games for younger kids; they just love it.  This time, I just told them to make their partner into a "scary nightmare monster" and thought it was awesome. 

Sleep Fairy: this is like heads-up seven-up.  I found some pink wands as party favors and made up a game where everyone "falls asleep" on the floor, I gently "wake" up a fairy who tiptoes around and taps another girl gently with her wand, then sneaks back to her spot on the floor.  The second girl wakes up very slowly and then tries to guess who the secret fairy was.

Pillow toss: divide the girls into two teams and have each time line up in a row.  The girl at the front will toss the pillow over her shoulder and it will be passed back until it reaches the girl at the back.  She carries it to the front of the line and tosses it back.  Play continues until the original girl at the front is back to the front again.

We used balloons for this game, but stuffed animals would work really well, too, and fit the theme a little better: divide the girls into pairs again and put a big teddy bear between their tummies.  They have to carry it across the room without using their hands, and then dump it into a basket (or pillowcase) and then go back for more.  See how many they can get into the basket in 60 seconds.

Finally, we read a "bedtime story," a poem that Granny composed about L's life, the places she has lived and the people she met along the way. According to L., it was "the best poem EVER."

 

Happy Birthday to L., our best 7 yr-old EVER!