Mission: Pretend Sleepover

Our daughter is now of the age, 5, where she is ready for playdates. Being one with my nerdiness, I knew I would handle them better with a plan (and my husband out of the house) instead of the friends just coming over and doing whatever they wanted. So, I decided to host themed play dates! The have gotten a lot more detailed as the months have past, but are actually easy and fun to do.

One of my daughter's friends really wanted to have a sleep over but, not wanting to have to figure out how to put a bunch of five year olds to bed or wanting to deal with one or more of them getting upset and wanting to go home after I was ready to go to bed, I decided to go with a pretend sleepover as our first play date.

To make it more authentic, I put blankets on all of the windows to make the den dark. The girls all arrived in their pajamas and with their sleeping bags. The cat knew something was up, but is too young to figure out that he should run for the basement as soon as he hears the first girlish squeal.

They ate pizza and s'mores while watching movies in the comfort of their sleeping bags. They all had a blast playing and chasing the poor kitty around the house. I have to admit that he took it very well and, once he woke from his very long and deserved nap,  was rewarded with lots of treat.

For the craft, we tried making stained glass lanterns with crayons and wax paper. We followed the directions given by Martha Stewart, where we used an iron to try to melt them. That didn't work so I put them in the oven between two cookie pans which did work for melting. Of course, it took a while for Dave to clean the iron and we smelled crayons for about a week every time Dave turned on the oven. I did learn after this to always try out the craft before doing it with the kids so that I can find any pit falls and can make any needed changes.