My first slumber party

okay not actually mine (I never had one growing up) but my 9 year old granddaughters, and happy to report I held up much better than I anticipated I would.
Having raised all boys I had missed out on the tradition of the birthday party sleepover - boys "camp out" or "have a few friends over", a completely different event.
Kajah's birthday was actually last Saturday, but as it usually falls on Thanksgiving weekend her sleepover was moved to this past Saturday, Dec. 6th. My daughter (in-law to be technical) last year had 8 girls and declared this year that was two too many, so it was 5 plus Kajah. Since it is year end at work I have been crazy busy so I was not able to fly up (they live outside of Sacramento) until late Friday - did not get to the house until about midnight. We were up early Saturday morning as we had a ton of things to do to get ready, pick up last minute groceries, get balloons filled, etc. Kajah decided on a Luau themed party - nothing like a luau in December? - did I mention she is 9? The drop off time was 6 pm, and the girls had about an hour of junk food and playing on their own before we officially kicked off activities. For her Luau Kajah wanted a nacho bar ( it was her party and she will eat what she wants to), so Kisha at least made fruit kabobs to try to keep within the theme of the evening. Nachos and fruit were a huge success. After eating we moved onto the games - and this is where we totally scored (in our opinion anyway), we had hula hoop and limbo contests. I assure you nothing wears a bunch of girls out like a hula hoop contest, and we had two rounds of each one! I was the official "activities director" and of course our activity of the evening was a mini-scrapbook in a tin. I have to say I was a little nervous but the girls loved it and were all very proud of their projects - I think one of the highlights was they discovered double stick tape (tape runners) for the first time and were thrilled with them, and equally excited that they got to take them home with them. We printed out pictures of the girls I took during the earlier part of the evening and these were there keepsakes from the party. Between the games and the project the girls were worn out and so they ended up having birthday cupcakes in their sleeping bags before we started movies, they actually never got past the first one. After cupcakes they all laid down and we started the movie at 11:30. 4 of the 6 girls were sound asleep within the first 15 minutes, and the last two did not make it through the movie either! Of course they woke up a little after 6, but really not bad - we thought they would be up so much later than they were. Pick up time was 10:00 this morning and then I only had about another half hour before I had to leave for the airport myself. Everyone survived and as the last girls left Kisha asked if I was available same time next year :) I think I had as much fun as my granddaughter did!