Pajama Party Breakfast

When enough time goes by without throwing a party, I start to get a little antsy. Opening my home for entertaining is one of life’s greatest pleasures for me, but this past school year when I was working quite a few hours outside the home, my usual flair for party planning necessarily fell by the wayside. Now that I’m home freelance writing, however, and my kids are home for the summer, hosting events is finally a possibility again. So I was super excited this past week to have friends join us for a Pajama Party Breakfast.

I’m enormously blessed to be a part of a circle of friends who are all moms of kids at the same school. For three years now we’ve made time to hang out monthly (including the In-Home Yoga Ladies’ Night on the blog). During the summer we also regularly get together with our kids. It’s been wonderful to have a built-in group to go swimming with, exchange babysitting with–and invite over for parties!

This Pajama Party Breakfast was the perfect casual get-together for summer vacation. Everyone was instructed to come in their PJ’s bright and early for a big meal and some fun and games. About a dozen kids ended up coming, and judging by the fact that everyone stayed until lunchtime, I’d say it went over well!

Even though our version was a kids’ party, you could easily adapt this party idea for just about any group. Here are the details of our morning!

The Food

I wanted the food at our PJ party to accommodate all our guests, some of whom have food allergies, so I was careful to create a menu with gluten and dairy-free options…as well as both healthy and just-for-fun choices. Our menu included:

Red, White, and Blueberry Overnight French Toast

This bursting-with-berries, deceptively easy overnight French toast made for smooth sailing the morning of the party. Recipe here.

Apple Cinnamon Overnight Steel Cut Oats

When guests are arriving at 8:30 in the morning, overnight prep is where it’s at. In addition to making French toast ahead of time, I put these apple steel cut oats in the crock pot the night before the party and woke up to their amazing cinnamon-y smell the next day. This recipe is one I’ve used for ages from The Yummy Life–gluten-free, dairy-free (made with almond milk), and a delightfully nourishing bowl of comfort.

Fruit Trifle

Because it’s healthy, and because I make one of these at basically every party I ever throw.

Milk jug donut treats

Why, thank you, Pinterest, for such a whimsical idea for serving milk and donuts! These adorable treats were a huge hit.

Bacon

With nine boys in attendance, this breakfast meat disappeared in SECONDS.

And, obviously…

Ain’t no way we’re having breakfast without coffee. (And orange juice.)

Decor and Activities

Fruit vases

At an event centered around eating, I always love incorporating food into decor. The appealing look of citrus stacked in glass lends a pop of bright color and a sense of freshness to any breakfast spread.

Newspaper coloring

When I think of the classic hallmarks of a leisurely breakfast, I think of lounging over coffee and the newspaper. (Though I’m sure kids in this day and age probably won’t have memories of comics in the Sunday paper, or Saturday morning cartoons, for that matter.) In the spirit of perusing the Sunday paper, I thought it would be fun to cover my dining room table with newspaper, especially the comics, and let the kids color all over them.

I mean, hey, when do they ever get the chance to draw all over the table?

The newspaper also served a double purpose as a tablecloth. (A much-needed one, as it turned out, when my son spilled a full cup of orange juice.)

Custom Crossword PuzzleContinuing the Sunday paper theme, what else is fun in the newspaper? The crossword puzzle, of course! For our party we had not just any crossword, but a custom one created on Education.com. To go with the theme of both breakfast and our kids’ school, I made sure to include clues they would know the answers to, like the name of our neighborhood pool and what grade a certain teacher teaches.

Toothbrush to take home

Since after breakfast most people feel the need to brush their teeth, toothbrushes seemed like a most sensible take-away from this party. (I happen to brush my teeth before breakfast, but I know I’m a weirdo.) If nothing else, it’s always nice to have an extra toothbrush lying around, right?

 

With this event behind us, I can say I would totally host another Pajama Party Breakfast in the future. For a birthday or special celebration, it offers the sleepover feel without the hassle of an actual sleepover.

I’m pretty sure these kids would do it again, too. 🙂