Five on Friday:Shopping Party

Happy Friday Friends!  

Today has been rainy and gray, but I'm still looking forward to the long Memorial weekend as the forecast shows beautiful days ahead. We even got the pontoon boat out of storage...so maybe a BBQ and a pontoon ride will be in my future! ;)  Do you have some fun weekend plans? 

I know I'm late, but I'm still wanting to post my 5 for Five on Friday today. We recently had Annie's 10th birthday party and she had a lot of fun with her friends!! She decided she'd like to have a shopping themed party up at our local mall. I looked up a few different ideas on pinterest and this is how her party went:

ONE

After the research I decided I liked the idea for a fun shopping game the girls could play at the mall. There was also a plan to keep the group small and there could be a sleepover too. So Annie invited 5 friends and 3 were able to come. I found this cute poem online and used it to create the invitations above. The rest of the info on the invite (not shown here) share what time the party would start & where. It also explained it was a sleepover and for the guests to bring sleeping bags and pillows. And that we were going to play a shopping game that I would provide, so the girls didn't need to bring any money with them.

I found this adorable banner that was perfect with her theme. It had shopping elements and sleepover elements! 

TWO

The threw their coins in, and made wishes in, the mall fountain.

For the mall game I took Annie and her friends up to the mall and we stopped at the food court and had a snack and talked our game plan. I explained to the girls we would go to 4 different stores of their choosing and at each one I would give them a different monetary amount of money each to spend. They could decide which stores would get the higher amounts each ($12 each) and which would get the lower ($5 each). Once that was decided -  I had a bonus question of how many total stores were in the mall and the gal that guessed the closest number won $5 more to use at whichever store she wanted. I then explained that they could buy individual items or pool money together with others and buy bigger items. But, I explained, they wouldn't necessarily be keeping what they bought.  I told them we were going to take all of the items back home - pool them together - then number them - and then take turns drawing numbers for the prizes. They had such fun (even using calculators!) figuring out tax and deciding what they wanted to buy at each place. They loved it!! Then at home we did the fun game for the prizes and Annie opened her birthday presents. 

THREE

After all of the shopping and prize fun was done - we went back to our house and the Gals enjoyed pizza from one of Annie's favorite places and just goofed around outside a while just being....well  - GIRLS! Lol!

FOUR

Then it was, of course, time for birthday cake and making wishes!  Strawberry is Annie's favorite and I made both her cake and frosting and both had fresh strawberry in them. I put some handbags and shoes decorations on top (good shopping references - wink wink).  After all of the action it was time to snuggle in and get ready for the sleepover party! I'm not sure if they got enough actual sleep - but I think it was one of their favorite parts!

FIVE

The next morning I made mini pancakes, bacon and fresh fruit for breakfast for the birthday Crew.  And even though the Girls had their prizes from the mall - I love goodie bags - so I sent each Gal home with their own cardboard "handbag" with high heel name tag that contained chapstick, stickers, treats and play money. Annie said it was one of her best birthdays yet! 

**TIP: take pancake batter and pour 1/3 amount in each well of a muffin tin sprayed with cooking spray (I made 2 pans - so 24 pancakes) I then let the girls put toppings on each...we did blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and chocolate chips. Or you can leave them plain.(Chocolate chip and strawberries mixed was the best!!)  ;)  Bake at  350* for 10-12 minutes and voila! Mini pancakes.  They LOVED them (thanks again pinterest!!).  

I'm linking with Amy of Love Made My Home for Five on Friday.