After countless hostings and attendance at parties for my grade-school aged daughter, we wanted a fresh new idea. The inspiration came in the form of our only drive-in theatre. Drive In Theatres are rapidly vanishing, and many of my little girl's friends have never even heard of one. We are fortunate to have one that charges a minimal price for admission local to our home.  While sitting out under the stars one night enjoying the summer season family fun activity, we thought this would be a great idea for a party followed by a sleepover. We plan to have a mother-daughter day where my rising eight year old will be getting her ears pierced. One PLEAAAAZZZZZEEE MOOOOOOOOMMMMMM too many and I finally agreed. Then we'll have a few of her buddies join us on a Friday evening for a cookout at our house followed by a trip to the drive-in. We haven't seen anything that resembles a Bratz cake, so we'll just get a colorful one and put one of the Lil' Bratz dolls on it with some appropriate comments written around her.  We'll set the girls up in the back of our truck right behind the concession stand with pillows and a soft comforter, let her open her gifts while we're waiting for the drive-in movie to begin, and then get a few tubs of pop corn and sodas. We're looking for lips-shaped pillows to throw around the bed of the truck during the moving and the room during the sleepover. We chose an evening where the first feature is a child's movie.  When the movie ends, we'll bring them home (hopefully sleepy!) for a sleep over.  Our party theme will be Bratz, and each girl will get a Lil' Bratz doll set as a party favor, purchased for $5.99 at our local toy store.  The Bratz theme keeps the little girls and dolls appropriate for their age group, but also celebrates the "rite of passage" for my little girl of getting her ears pierced.  She is so grown up, but still wants to play with dolls!  We'll dance, tell stories, paint our nails, and then send them off after breakfast to their homes the next morning.  Surprisingly, the party isn't that expensive and we expect the girls to have a great time doing something many of them have never done.   If it rains, well, we'll just have a really good movie on our own home DVD and dance to silly songs until everyone is tired.