What’s your take on sleepovers? Growing up I wasn’t allowed to stay over at friends homes. Partly because my parents weren’t having it and partly because I wasn’t really into not sleeping at home. I remember one time my parents okayed me sleeping at a friend’s house. It must have been the girl’s birthday or something and she lived in the building next door so my parents said yes.
Her and her big brother shared a room. I had taken a Cabbage Patch Kid doll with me and for some reason, her brother decided to make my doll fight with one of her dolls. Somehow he broke my doll. Yes, over thirty years later I still remember this. It became a thing. I remember her brother wanting me to lie and say I broke my doll but I was way too heartbroken to cover for him. Plus, I have never been a good liar. Fast forward to me being a parent.
The least of my worries about sleepovers come from the idea of broken toys. My answer for JustaBXgirl when it comes to sleepovers is NO. That doesn’t mean though that we don’t want to have pajama party fun. Pajama Parties can be lots of fun and, let’s be real, nobody really wants to sleep at them anyway. Since sleepovers are off the table we planned a really fun #JustAPajamaParty for our November JustAPlayDate network event.
Pajama parties whether sleepovers are not are a pretty hot party theme right now. We have put together a blueprint on how to throw a successful one. You can see behind the scenes fun by checking out some of the Instagram posts here.
The first thing you need is a space. We chose to partner with Homewood Suites. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a million times, we have no space at home. With me, JustaBXgirl and JustaBXgrandpa there isn’t really room for a dozen or so other friends to invade. The plusses to hosting your Pajama Party at a hotel is that there are many. First, hotels are always just more fun than home. Depending on the hotel you partner with the amenities can be many. Our girls were able to visit the lobby for hot chocolate, the mamas had coffee and tea on hand. We were even privy to a private dining room for our pizza dinner. We made sure to inform the hotel of the number of guests we were expecting and they were excited to have our girls on-site.
Once you have the space selected you need to know who your guests will be. It was hard to choose but we decided to have a total of ten girls for our party. One thing that you cannot have a pajama party without is PAJAMAS. And yes, I know everyone can get their own but for #JustAPajamaParty we supplied the pajamas thanks to our partnership with Kid City. You already know that Kid City is our go-to store for JustaBXgirl’s fashion must-haves but did you know that they have the best pajamas there too? Yup, they offer a huge variety at the affordable prices you have come to expect from Kid City. Don’t forget they have slippers too! Our little influencers were very excited to walk in and have PJs and slippers waiting courtesy of Kid City Stores.
Space, guest, pajamas (and slippers)…hmm, what’s next? How about a very special guest star? Our little princesses were joined by a Unicorn Princess from A Princess Like Me NYC. It was the second time I had the pleasure to see the company in action and I can’t wait for the next opportunity. The Unicorn Princess was such a treat for the girls. She arrived early and ready to party with our princesses. The Unicorn Princess read stories with the girls, danced with them, helped them bling out with some face jewels, had pizza and entertained the girls with lively conversation and gave each girl personal time. I’m really thinking of hiring one of their princesses for JustaBXgirl’s luau birthday party. It would take some of the hosting stress off of this mama.
If you don’t have A Princess Like Me NYC at your pajama party you are going to need plenty of things to entertain your little ladies. We suggest board games. Thanks to Pressman Toy we were prepared for when the Unicorn Princess wasn’t there. The girls loved playing Pikmi Pops Lollipop Chase and Pikmi Pops Pop N Race. They even tried playing some Blindfolded Twister! Blindfolded Twister was a lot of fun for us parents. No, we didn’t play but watching the girls try to figure it out was so very fun. Now, I would like to point out that it is a game for those eight and over but since we were supervising we let them try. They ended up resorting back to regular Twister after a few fumbles but we still kept watch.
If your littles are anything like the ones around here then you just can’t have a Pajama Party without a craft. Our girls each got the chance to design and make a bracelet using the Cool Maker Kumi Kreator. Some of our parents helped the girls get the hang of the Kreator and they were all happy with the product. JustaBXgirl gave her first one to the Unicorn Princess. It was a really sweet moment, especially since she thought since she gave her’s away she wouldn’t be able to make another. Of course, she got to make another. Crafting is more fun when everyone can be involved.
I’m betting you’re already thinking of how much work a pajama party takes. Don’t worry though. You’re almost at the end. Well, unless you let your Pajama Party be a true sleepover. In that case, you have a lot more work to do but if you’re hosting a Pajama Party like our #JustAPajamaParty you’re close to the end. The party was all about celebrating friendship. Yes, JustAPlayDate is a professional network. Our kid influencers are learning networking skills at young ages but also developing what I hope will be lifelong friendships.
One way we decided to celebrate friendship was with Party Popteenies. I’ve talked about these things before and trust me they are a great way for girls to celebrate friendship. They all got to pop Party Popteenies at the party complete with confetti everywhere and then they had a birthday party for their Party Popteenies and went home with a double popper!!! JustaBXgirl decided she’s keeping her double popper to pop on New Year’s Eve!
Since the girls weren’t spending the night with us we wanted to send each of them home with another friend to keep the fun going. Jakks Pacific send each of our kid influencers a Fancy Nancy doll because, ooh, la la, they know our kid influencers can be kind of fancy themselves. We are huge fans of the Fancy Nancy books and are excited about the show so the Fancy Nancy doll is a welcomed addition around our home. And I’m excited because since she’s the queen of tea parties now she can take my place in some of the ones that happen around our home.
And the final component to a perfect Pajama Party would be a fun bedtime story. Again, since we didn’t have the sleeping part happening at #JustAPajamaParty we sent each little home with one of our favorite stories, Twindollicious Summer Camp Here We Come! Not only that but the books were hand delivered by the author herself, Natasha D’anna.
And that was how we hosted our Pajama Party. Here’s the biggest mistake we made at the #justapajamaparty…we thought we could do all of that in three hours!!! Okay, you can stop laughing now. Seriously, stop laughing. Our party actually lasted around five hours and by that time almost all of our influencers were ready for bed. If you plan to do your party as a Pajama Party rather than a fullfledged sleepover definitely give yourself time!