I am determined to get this posted before Ella's birthday month is over!
For her birthday party this year, Ella requested a sleepover! No way Jose was I having a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds spend the night at my house, so we turned it into a "pretend sleepover." Ella invited 5 of her best friends, and they came over at 5:30 PM in their pajamas. We made custom mini pizzas, decorated pillowcases, watched movies (or 20 minutes of one!), opened presents, had cupcakes...and then when 7:30 rolled around, they all went home to sleep!
It was honestly one of the easiest parties I've done and didn't even start decorating until the night before (whoops!).
Ella really, really, REALLY wanted to have tents for her friends to "sleep" in! Luckily, I found a local mom on Facebook who rents them out! They barely fit in my car, but whatever. I added some fun battery-powered lights to make the tents even more festive.
In our kitchen, we set up a "make your own pizza" station. The girls loved it! I took a picture of each girl making their pizza so I could remember whose was whose once we cooked them.
This is the ultimate sign that I really put no effort into this party: random plates and napkins from Target (that Ella chose, ha)!
Anyway, once we were waiting for our pizzas to cook, the girls headed into the dining room to decorate pillowcases! Because what other craft would you do at a pretend sleepover?!
Also in the dining room...the big 5! Fun fact: I've made her age in pictures every single year! Can't stop now!!! This year's pictures were all ones of her wearing pajamas! :)
I found a bunch of white pillowcases on Amazon for super cheap, and then just picked up a big pack of fabric markers at our local craft store!
After the girls ate about 3 bites each of their pizzas...
(Lucas won Best Eater for sure!!)
...it was time for cupcakes!!!
I found these on (where else?!) Pinterest and they were surprisingly super easy to recreate!!!
The girls all wanted to watch a movie, and chose "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." I mean, totally appropriate for a February birthday party! They couldn't see the movie from inside their tents, so they joined Lucas and Bennett in front of the TV. Everyone made it a solid 20 minutes into the movie before they wanted to open Ella's presents!
So open the presents it was!
What's not pictured is all of the screaming happening in my house! Amazing how loud 6 girls can be! Holy moly. I was very grateful when each sweet girl's mom came to pick her up! ;)
Ella is STILL obsessed with her sleep mask and wears it every night!!
It was such a fun time celebrating our 5 year old girl! Highly recommend a "pretend sleepover" for kids this age! (Although parents might want to buy some earplugs beforehand!)