Mr R is having his first ever slumber party, to celebrate is 12th birthday. There should be 8 boys, including our own.
I needs your help, Internetz. I have no clue.
Oh, I know about slumber parties – I’ve been to quite a few myself. We’d giggle, do each other’s hair, paint nails, and read old YMs out loud, then watch a movie and eat pizza. Later, after midnight, we’d try to scare each other with ghost stories that have since been disproven by Snopes.
Somehow, I don’t think that’s how boy sleepovers go.
Plans so far:
Make your own pizza, make your own ice cream sundae. Maybe a movie? Which one? Help!
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Ghost stories still work.
Perhaps the hair and nails could be replaced by flashlight tag, water balloons, and/or nerf guns?
Or you could look up boffer weapons… not sure how easy it would be to buy/find the stuff for those, but I would bet if you had boffer sword making and fighting at your party you would be the coolest mom on the block.
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Boffer/Boffer-Generic.html
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What does Mr R want to do?
You are entering a zone of the kids having some idea of what they want to do, you just have to veto anything innappropriate.
If HE doesn’t have a clue (“Um, you know, hang out?”) there is a version of tag that is played in the dark that is popular around here – they probably know all about it.
Movies and video games are always popular. Again, have Mr R make some suggestions, with you having veto power.
Have fun! Welcome to the world of teenaged boys!
He wants to watch a movie, and mostly I think I’m going to let them just hang out. They are old enough they don’t need a bunch of party games, KWIM? But should I plan anything “just in case”?
The sword thing looks awesome! We are big Nerf fans here.
flashlight tag, capture the flag, ghost stories, making pizza, making sundaes, nerf all sound good and have all worked here!
In my experience boys dont like organized party games. I remember our brothers having epic sumo pillow fights in the basement and playing with fireworks. Just dont plan on getting much sleep. And make sure they dont try to leave the house in the middle of the night to make mischief in the neighborhood. Good Luck!
We just did this a few weeks ago. My oldest had his 10th birthday and wanted a slumber party. It’s our first. They had cake and ice cream, pizza and chips and soft drinks. They played video games, computer games and just ran around making lots of noise. Nothing was organized, and they had a great time.
Now that my four sisters and I have grown out of sleepovers, it has been fascinating to watch my younger three brothers have their own “sleepovers”. The terminology is crucial: Girls have “slumber parties”. I supervised the 12th-birthday sleepover while my mom was out of town….WISE MOVE on her part! It was actually great fun: You basically cannot have too much food; I thought we’d over-prepared and it was just enough. Also, although the guys will want to “hang” it will be helpful to have some options handy even if they’re just the suggestions you’re going to make that cause them to say “Uh, actually, we want to XYZ”. Finally, be prepared to get creative when it comes to shower time. Girls overpack for slumber parties, boys tend to forget their toothbrushes. For instance, after several hours of horseback riding that afternoon, I was told “nobody can take showers, because we didn’t bring any clothes.” Apparently they thought I looked dumb! When I told them, that was fine, we had lots of boy pajamas they could borrow, suddenly everyone’s pajamas materialized. And only two boys went through the shower before I realized I needed to specify, “Showering with the army helmets does not count.” It’ll be SO fun.
“Make your own pizza, make your own ice cream sundae. Maybe a movie? Which one? Help!”
ALL of the above are the best ideas for this sort of thing. Let them play video games (if you have em) or just watch movies all night. I’m sure they will form an epic, impromptu squirt gun battle in the yard (or something similar, keyword is ‘impromptu’), and will probably horse around in the yard, or ride bikes, or something along those lines, until dark. Good clean fun, take advantage of the beautiful twilight weather in the Houston area to tucker ‘em out. Trust me, left mostly to their own devices (esp with the pizza-making, that was always the best part at the slumber parties I went to with my Girl Scout troop!), they will all have a GREAT time!
Tell Mr R Happy Birthday from me! I can call him if you want, your Husband Dear has my phone and can text me whatever he decides.