For my daughter's 10th birthday I threw her a slumber party with a cooking theme.
We began at 7pm with all 4 girls watching a movie that one had planned on bringing that the others hadn't seen before. Around 9pm they got hungry and and gathered in the breakfast room to cook. I had child size aprons and chef hats for each of them that I had found at a craft store. They loved it!! They each got pizza dough mix and with water mixed and patted a personal size pizza onto a cookie sheet. They spooned sauce from the restaurant "Brick Oven" on top. I got this jar at the grocery store and thought it tasted yummy and not too spicy for the girls. We used the grated "pizza" cheese that comes in the deli area and then some put pepperoni on theirs, others chose plan cheese. This personal size was just right for a little snack since they had all eaten at home before the party. The girls were so pleased they had made the pizza themselves. 6 pizzas fit on the cookie sheet. One was for little brother and the other, mom!! I had bottled sodas and water in a cooler in the breakfast room. It was handy and they always helped themselves. They ate cake and opened presents, then watched more movies, played, painted nails, you know what girls do. Then at 11:30 I had them decorate their aprons on the breakfast table with paint. I cut oranges, apples and bell peppers in halves and poured paint into paper plates. They stenciled them on any way they wanted and then decided to add wording with paint brushes. We had "Kiss the Cook or ELSE!!" and my favorite for a 9 year old, "DANGER - I'm Cooking!" They really spent alot of time painting and truly loved it. Then I cleared the table and put the aprons on the washing machine and ironing board on tops of plastic storage lids to dry all night and keep the dog from walking on them. Later, I brought out mid-night activities for them to "COOK" and snack on. We had a fondue pot with chocolate sauce for dipping strawberries and bananas and we had one of those new smores'making pots my daughter got as a birthday gift from a friend earlier that week. I did have trouble finding someone that sells the smore's 2.6 oz precanned chafing fuel. After calling 6-7 places we found some at Bed Bath and BeYond. Both the fondue and the smore's makers were big hits. (The fondue pots fuel size is larger and carried at most party places). The girls crashed around 4am after wrapping toliet paper around anyone that looked like they were falling asleep. At around 9am I dragged my daughter (the last one) out of bed. The girls had t-peed her whole room that morning while she slept. The t-paper is still hanging from her canopy and fan from 2 days ago. After getting her up, they were ready to cook again, this time with painted aprons! They made cini-buns for breakfast. We cut canned biscuits into 4 pieces each and dipped them into butter and rolled them into cinnamon/sugar mixture. (this was messy - so it was nice that they hadn't gotten dressed yet.) We made 2 huge canned biscuits and put them in 2 greased and floured cake pans. Between them, little brother and a couple of moms it was almost all eaten. They were delicious. I had the party cups out with milk, water, juice, whatever they wanted. Wow, did they have fun at this party. They had plenty of food to last them all night and food didn't get taken into other areas of the house (probably a big concern for slumber parties). I'd do it again. I advise anyone to take a nap the day of the party. It sustained me until about noon the next day. It wasn't too much work and not even too much advance preparation. Boys would enjoy this kind of party too, my 7 1/2 year old had a blast, but then again he thinks all his sister's friends are pretty hip. At 3pm, my daughter's best friend phoned and said to her, "Wow, I just took the longest nap known in the world!"
