Red Carpet Slumber Party

Princess asked to have a slumber party because she was feeling jealous of my birthday.  We agreed.  I told her she could invite three girls.  I had just lectured the college class I teach about the importance of having structured activities planned for preschoolers because relaying too much on free play is a recipe for chaos. I decided to put this same theory to practice for Princess's slumber party and made some plans.

I suggested a red carpet theme and she was on board.  Two friends showed up (BFF and the really shy new friend that slept over last month.)

The pizza delivery lady arrived at the same time as the girls.  (And I only had to pay the delivery fee and tip because I won a free large pizza from Papa John's for guessing the Super Bowl winners!)  They ate right away.

Then I set them up with a YouTube video of a red carpet awards show and some "Red Carpet Bingo" sheets I made up.  They were on the watch for things like "beaded dress," "Dior," and "lots of bling."

Then they looked through US Weekly magazines and raided Princess's closet to put together their own red carpet looks.

I taped a plastic tablecloth to the floor from the Dollar Tree for the red carpet.

Hubster and I came out play paparazzi and interviewer as the girls walked the red carpet.  Hubster videoed me asking them questions about what they were wearing and what's new with their careers.

Then they changed into their pajamas for some cupcake decorating.

After that, our living room became a night club.  Hubster played DJ and Princess, BFF and I shook our booties hard to 80s and 90s dance music while Shy Girl watched in confused horror.  We danced for about an hour.  Then they played a little Wii karaoke while Hubster and I caught up on "Project Runway" and retired to Pricness's room to quietly look at puppies on her laptop.

They were quiet by 11 and asleep by midnight.

I made the mistake of letting the girls stay longer than I should have the next day.  They both got picked up around 1 and I had nothing planned for them.  (The original plan was for Shy Girl to leave at 9, but when she found out BFF was staying later, asked if she could too.)  Princess was exhausted from two nights in a row of poor sleep and started getting jealous of BFF and Shy Girl getting along well.

I called BFF aside to tell her how Princess was feeling and she went and laid on top of Princess, literally covering her with attention.  Then BFF got trapped in between the bed and the wall when Princess tried to escape.  BFF pretended to be dead, so we had a big funeral for her.  Then she came back to life as a brain eating zombie and Princess said she would keep her chained in the back yard, walk her and feed her to show how responsible she's trying to be.

Those crazy girls.  They bring out the best and worst in each other all within the same hour.

All in all, it was by far the best slumber party she's had with more than one girl (and even calmer and less drama than many she's had with only one girl!)

Hubster and I got a full night of sleep, weren't annoyed and there were no tears from anyone.  Success!