Lizzie's 5th Birthday Party - PJ style

This year we did Lizzie's first ever friend birthday party. She's finally old enough to understand parties and all the fun that goes along with them. She debated over several different party themes and finally settled on one - a PAJAMA PARTY!

Now, when we decided it would be a "pajama party" we had to be very clear that it would NOT be a sleepover. Not yet. A sleepover with 20 kids under the age of 10 did not sound appealing to either of us. But we did compromise to do all kinds of activities that we'd normally do at a sleepover.

When I was maybe 12 years old my mom did a sleepover party with a time capsule bags full of goodies (scrunchies, make up, junk food, etc.) for us to open every hour. We thought it was great back then and I had completely forgotten about that until I read this post by Kristin. So, special thanks to Kristin for inspiring the time capsule idea. We made a time capsule bag to open each half hour with a different sleepover activity inside each one.


The first time capsule held all the makings for our first project. The entire theme for the party was inspired by this idea here. Pillows. Lizzie really wanted all the kids to MAKE their own pillow to take home as a party favor. Did you get that key word? "make" - as in sew - as in craft for 20 children. I have to admit that I was on board for this whole idea even though I knew it would be time intensive and would add more chaos to an already chaotic party. So I sewed up all the pillow forms the night before (thanks to my mom for helping me with that small detail) and all the kids had to do was choose a pillow and then stuff it! My mom and Amy came over as I was in the middle of sewing them all up - they came right in and took over. Thanks for your help guys - your timing was perfect!

The next time capsule held the most cutest girly pinata of all time. Check her out! Tinkerbell was definitely a hit. Now don't worry when I say that we did the pinata in the house. This pinata is one of those non-violent/no baseball bat involved types. There are a bunch of ribbons that hang out the bottom and the kids each took a turn pulling a ribbon. There was one ribbon that breaks the bottom of the pinata and then the madness began...

Here they are scooping candy as fast as they could. Poor Mackenzie got clunked in the back of the head by a falling gumball, but quickly recovered when she saw the rest of the candy waiting to be snatched up.


After all that pinata madness we opened a nice calming time capusle bag - Lizzie's favorite Spongebob DVD, popcorn and licorice. My favorite part of the entire party was when all the kids chimed in (cough, cough, YELLED) the Sponge Bob theme song. "SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS! SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS! SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS! SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS!" Yeah, I think all the neighbors down at the other end of the street could hear em.


After the DVD (and candy gorge fest) we tried a game of spin-the-bottle Truth or Dare style. Jeremy really hammed it up with his creative truths and dares. Here are some of my favorties:

1. DARE: smell the inside of Jaxckson's diaper pail.
2. DARE: put your face into the toilet bowl.
3. TRUTH: do you wear boxers?

Classy right? Well, the kids LOVED it!

Finally it was cake time, but wait! What kind of cake do you eat at a PJ party? Doughnut cake of course! Complete with scrambled eggs, sausage and chocolate milk to drink.

The last thing we did was the present opening. Notice the hoard of girls surrounding her. It was like that the whole time which accounts for this picture being taken from above - it was the best angle.


Thanks to all the friends and cousins that came and made Lizzie feel so special for her 5th birthday. We had so much fun and so did she. Happy Birthday Lizzie!