A Sweet Summertime Sleepover
Sweet, sweet summer time! It's hard to believe it's already July! Have you made a summer bucket list? How's it going? I love hearing about people's fun summer traditions. It might be a week up at cabin, a trip to the state fair or a local festival, or just some fun with family and friends.
My friend and fellow party planner, Melissa, loves summer and never passes up a chance to host fun gatherings. You might remember the adorable pajamas and pancakes birthday party she threw for her daughter last year. One of her favorite summer traditions is hosting a sleepover for her nieces and her friends. When one of Melissa's nieces was 6-years-old she asked to sleepover and Melissa embraced the chance to host her and some of her neighborhood friends. What a fun auntie, right?! Fast forward years later and the tradition continues!
As Melissa welcomed more nieces into the family, she used to do separate sleepovers, but this past year she threw one giant sleepover for the girls and their friends as a big college send-off for her oldest niece. Check out her adorable sleepover ideas that won't break the bank!
First up, consider a fun venue! Although you might end up back at your house for the sleepover part, consider hosting the activities elsewhere. Melissa took the clan of ladies on a boat out to the Prior Lake Yacht Club. It is an adorable A-frame cabin on an island that has been around since the 1960s. It used to be a sailing club, but is now open to membership. Don't have access to the PLYC?! Similar venues are often available at state and local parks for reasonable fees.
To create a fun and festive table, Melissa grabbed a tablecloth, plates, and napkins from Walmart. Walmart has an array of fun solid and patterned plates and napkins for under $2. She also dressed up water bottles with fun duct tape and tied paper straws to them. Her nieces pitched in and helped create fun fabric banners to use for photos and to hang across the cabin ceiling. The banners were made with fabric and old sheets from thrift stores. To create the Sleepover 2016 sign, Melissa recycled some of the Bannerize letters she had from the birthday party and ordered a few additional letters.
Because there were a mix of ages, Melissa planned a variety of activities to help the older girls share the tradition of the sleepover with the younger girls. The older girls decorated monogram wood letters for the younger girls and vice versa. They also had an Oreo taste test challenge where the girls were blindfolded and had to guess the flavor of Oreo. The party finished up with some sack races. Melissa ordered these adorable sacks from Oriental Trading Company. How fun are those?
A fun time was had by all! What are you summer traditions? I'd love to hear in the comments below!