My girls know how to party and love to have friends over.  When my kids turn eight, they get to have their first late night party, which usually spans from 6-10 PM.  It really makes them feel grown up to stay out later than usual and no one misses the slumber party.  I may be a bit of a helicopter parent, but slumber parties make me nervous.  I don’t think it’s safe to stay overnight at other people’s houses in this day and age.  Plus, the thing kids like most about slumber parties is playing with their friends later than usual.  No one really likes sleeping on the floor and being super cranky the next day.  So, this is how we do things.

My oldest daughter was in love with the American Girl movies.  She has an 18 inch doll too, that she loves.  I wish it was a real American Girl doll, but we have a tight budget.  All the fun and imagination can be accomplished with any doll.  So it works for us.  She decided that this would be the perfect thing to do at her first late night party.

Invitations

We made picture invitations using a great website called smilebox.com.  If you pay a $40/year membership fee you get all of your creations in jpg format.  I love it because we can drag and drop photos into super cute formats for invites and print.  It looks like I spent a lot of time on an invite that literally takes five minutes.  I usually print a 4×6 photo of the invite at Costco for a few cents a piece and it really is a cheap but classic way to get some nice invitations.

You can follow the format below for your own party or make yours unique depending on your favorite American Girl Doll.  I know your daughter will love it.

Theme:

American Girl Doll Saige and her movie Saige Paints the Sky.  Saige loves to paint in the movie, so use painting decorations and activities.

Decorations:

I used the paint theme to decorate.  We had very colorful paint splattered tablecloths and paper utensils.  We also used a broom stick as a giant paintbrush on the wall with a big poster sized paint pallet.  We added a few multi-colored streamers and balloons to fill the empty space.

Cake:

It is fun to decorate or “paint” cupcakes as the cake and an activity.  Get a rainbow cake mix to make the cupcakes with.  Use white frosting, separate it into a few different bowls, and use food coloring to dye each bowl of frosting a different color.  Get some sprinkles and skittles to decorate the top with.  Each party goer needs a plastic knife to decorate.  Take pictures and eat.

Activity 1:

We bought little square canvases at Walmart in the craft section.  You can get a four pack for around $5.  I also bought some acrylic paint in a variety pack with several paint brushes. Each kid gets to paint their own creation.  They will spend a lot of time on this.  The canvas makes painting seem cooler than just using paper.

Activity 2:

Watch the movie.

Food:

If you don’t want to serve dinner, then go ahead and start the party around seven.  If you do want to serve dinner start it at 6 or 6:30.  Hot dogs, pizza, and chicken nuggets make easy party food.  Let your birthday kid pick.  Mine picked hot dogs, cheetos, and grapes.  It was a hit!

Leave extra time for the kids to just play with each other.

My kids ended up playing Just Dance on the X-box Kinect.  You might want to have everyone bring their dolls and play together.  The sky is the limit.

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