Jammie jamboree
Slumber parties remain a popular option for birthday celebrations

Shortly after 6 p.m. on a January Saturday, there was a knock on the door. The first guest at Brittany’s birthday spa and resort had arrived. Cindy Sherbert, Brittany’s mom, was making the final preparations for the evening — checking the foot massagers and paraffin wax machines while water filled the private jacuzzi.

Slumber parties have long been a popular way for children to celebrate birthdays. Although boys have opted for the overnight format, the idea of a pajama party most often invokes an image of giggling little girls doing each other’s hair and makeup while swapping secrets.

Wanting to do something special for her daughter’s seventh birthday, Sherbert decided a slumber party with friends would be a perfect way to celebrate — but a slumber party with a twist.

“I rented a jacuzzi suite at a hotel, and I set part of the room up with chairs like a spa,” the Spartanburg mother said. “I had a foot massager, and I got two more from friends. I got a paraffin wax machine and did their hands. We did feet and hands and nails and makeup and hair. Then, we let them get in the jacuzzi.”

Sherbert said she initially decided to rent a hotel room for the occasion to avoid all the post-party clean up, but then decided to turn the jacuzzi suite into a spa for her daughter and her friends.

“I figured it would just be neat for the kids to get out,” she said. “Plus, her birthday is in January, so there’s always a chance of something being snowed or sleeted out. We just decided to go ahead and do it at the hotel, but you have to check with hotels before you do it to make sure it’s OK. There was an indoor pool for January swimming. The kids loved it.”

Although the spa party was Sherbert’s first, Cresada Beane of Easley has had plenty of experience planning slumber parties for her two daughters — Peyton, 10, and Keegan, 7.

In March, she hosted her party for Keegan’s seventh birthday. Beane invited nine girls to her house for the evening — 11 including her daughters. Although no catastrophes have ever resulted from one of the sleepovers, she said she has picked up a couple of tips along the way.

Most importantly, Beane said she always asks parents for contact numbers when they drop their children off for the evening — something she learned when Peyton, who was 6 at the time, had her first slumber party.

“At that age, a lot of them have not been to slumber parties,” she said. “A lot of times parents will go out to eat, and their child will decide she wants to go home. We always ask if it matters what time we call because sometimes it’s late when they start deciding they want to go home.”

Although it may sound obvious, Beane said she makes sure she lists a pickup time on the invitation so that parents will know when their children will be ready to go the next morning.

“A lot of times people will put when the party starts but forget to tell you when you’re supposed to come and get your child,” she said. “It’s not a bad idea to have them come early — like 9 a.m. If you wait until after that, they’ll start getting grumpy a lot of times.”

Beane said it’s also a good idea to include a list of items children should bring with them — particularly sleeping bags and pillows. When hosting slumber parties, however, she said it’s important to keep in mind that at least one guest will usually forget, so keeping extras on hand is always a good idea.

Sherbert said a small number of guests helped things run more smoothly; 15 girls in one hotel room for the night would have been impossible, she admitted.

Beane agreed. Although she wasn’t sure if it applied to slumber parties, she’d been told the rule of thumb is the number of guests should be equal to the child’s age plus one.

“It’s hard to leave anybody out, but it just gets to be so big that there’s nowhere to put them,” she said. “There’d be nowhere to sleep. We usually have about eight girls — nine with mine. People look at me and think I’m crazy, but I know some people who have done more.”

When it comes to deciding on what food to serve, Beane said simple is always best.

“With everything that’s going on, you don’t really have time to make anything,” she said. “We usually do something easy like order pizza. Some people do hot dogs — anything that’s not a big clean up.”

Planning the evening’s activities, Sherbert made sure she allowed enough time after checking into the hotel to decorate the room before her daughter’s guests arrived and considered the number of guests.

“Since I only had three foot massagers, we only invited six kids,” she said. “I could do three of the girls’ feet at a time, and the other three could get in the jacuzzi. Then, when they got out of the jacuzzi, we did their feet. We could do all their hands at once since we were dipping them and wrapping them in bags.”

Beane said providing plenty of activities for the guests is always a good idea, and for her daughters’ slumber parties, there is usually a theme for each occasion.

For Peyton’s birthday in March, Beane said the girls wanted to camp out, so she let them make tents in the back yard stringing ropes between trees and using sheets and tarps.

“They kind of built their own little tent place, and they gave out friendship bracelets and just kind of sat under there and talked,” she said.

Crafting, painting fingernails and doing makeup also are popular slumber-party activities for girls. Beane said the girls always seem to enjoy making things — and it also gives them something to take home.

“For my youngest one, we painted cans for flower pots, and they made little garden visors,” she said. “I also found this little foam cozies for drinks, and I painted their names on them. That way when they got here, they all got a water bottle or a Sprite, and when they were playing, they were able to know whose bottle was whose.”

In addition to keeping the guests entertained, a variety of activities can prove helpful in other ways.

“We did the spa, put them in the jacuzzi, let them go swimming in the indoor pool for a while, and they’d played games,” she said. “It’s a great way to wear them out and get a good night’s sleep at the same time.”

Beane, who serves only caffeine-free drinks for her daughters’ slumber parties, makes sure the party schedules include wind-down time. After brushing their teeth and changing into their pajamas, she lets the girls watch movies as they snack on popcorn.

“The little ones aren’t really that hard to get to bed, but sometimes it can be more difficult with the older ones,” she said. “They’ve been to some where they stay up really late, and I don’t really want them staying up that late.”

Since the hotel suite had a separate living room and bedroom, Sherbert said she just moved the coffee table and let the girls spread out on the floor in the sleeping bags at the end of the night. While they had snacks and watched a movie, she was able to sleep in the bed.

The next morning after a breakfast of milk, cereal and pastries, the parents arrived to pick up Brittany’s guests — who received goodie bags of fingernail polish, lip gloss and similar items to commemorate their spa experiences.

After checking out and getting in the car to drive home, Sherbert was wondering if Brittany had as much fun as she’d hoped she would. Fortunately, she didn’t have to wonder very long.

“As soon as it was over, she was already wanting to have another one,” she said.