Throwing a Girls Night-In Slumber Party

My friends and I like to celebrate each one of our birthdays by letting the birthday girl pick our next outing.  Whatever the birthday girl wants to do, the group must do...ice skating, a new restaurant, a tea party.  Last month for Erin's birthday she chose to do a girls night-in complete with gossip, games and chick flicks.  I offered to host and since I have plenty of space (and live far out in the 'burbs) decided we should do a slumber party. 

I ran with the theme of classic girly slumber party which in my head equates to pink, pajamas and ice cream sundaes!

The Menu

Since I was sold on doing a late night ice cream sundae bar I kept the dinner on the lighter side.  We were also having birthday cupcakes from Crave, a group tradition of ours. 

Being that this was on a Friday after a work week, I didn't even consider cooking, although this menu can easily be made at home if you have the time.  For snacking I had hummus, veggies and pita chips, and fruit.  Dinner was a grilled chicken spinach salad (complete with strawberries and pecans) tomato basil pesto pasta salad and tomato basil soup - all from La Madeleine. 

La Madeleine fail: they gave Jason the wrong soup and forgot the bread and jam, but we all survived.  Double check your items when picking up!

Drinks were simple with just tea, lemonade, and wine...lots of wine. 

For breakfast the next day I also kept it simple and just had bagels and assorted cream cheese flavors, fruit and some banana bread.  Juice and coffee...lots of coffee. 

Ice Cream Sundae Bar

I was giddy for an excuse to eat ice cream sundaes!  My local HEB has an end cap in the freezer section with all things ice cream sundaes so I just raided that and called it a day - chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, strawberry sauce, cherries, whipped cream, sprinkles, nuts, M&MS and gummy bears!  I also couldn't resist and had some brownie bites and Oreos on hand. 

I was afraid that people would be stuffed after the cupcakes or not the mood for ice cream after drinking wine all evening, but let me tell you that it was a hit around midnight!  It was the perfect late night treat and made me feel like I was back in grade school. 

The Decor

I wanted to house to look festive without spending a lot of money.  I kept it simple and did pink tableware from Party City - super cheap.  I also found this cute paper garland from Party City (I purchased the bright pink and light pink for $6.99 each) for the mantle.  Jason decorated our chalkboard (he was super proud of himself - check out all of the little details) in our entry way and I purchased some fresh flowers for the occasion which I'm still enjoying weeks later. 

The Goodie Bag

I got it in my head that I wanted us to all wear matching PJ's.  In a perfect world, you know with a money tree in my backyard, I would have everyone in matching Ralph Lauren PJ sets with their monogram on the pocket, but I settled for some comfy pink plaid PJ Bottoms from Old Navy (I found them majorly discounted at a local Old Navy Outlet).  I put the PJ pants along with a packet of popcorn and movie candy from CVS in a little pink popcorn box from Party City and voila!

 

All in all, I think it was a slumber party success!  I'm kicking myself for not taking more pictures, but that is a sign we were all way too busy having fun.  It was so nice to spend an extended amount of time with everyone and just be relaxed and casual.  It was the next best thing to a girls getaway weekend which is super hard to do these days with babies and pregnancies.

Special thanks to my husband who we banished to the backyard with wine and cigars (I even accidentally locked him out at one point), made him go out on a wine run and was on Jack watch.  He definitely walked in on some very interesting conversations throughout the evening!