William Tell Target: Tell the kids at your sleepover the story of William Tell. Because of a disagreement with the king, he was forced to shoot an apple off his son's head with an arrow. Don't worry; you're not going to use a bow and arrow on your guests! Get a child to stand against a wall and balance an apple on his head. Watch out! Apples are wobbly. When the apple is balanced, have another child stand about five feet away and toss a cotton ball to try and hit the apple. How many tries does it take? Take turns so everyone gets a chance to be the target as well as the thrower. Aren't you glad you're not using a bow and arrow?

Super-Sized Sumo Wrestlers: Clear a large space in the room (or play this outside), get out some old T-shirts, and prepare to have kids bounce around. Pick two people to put on the T-shirts. Stuff the fronts with pillows so the kids are extra padded. Now here's a chance to pretend to be a professional sumo wrestler. Have the two chubby people bow in front of each other and then proceed to bump into each other. Encourage loud grunting sounds as they smash their padded stomachs together. Let everyone have a turn at bouncing off each other's stomachs. In Japan, sumo wrestlers are considered great sports heroes!

Sleepover Exercise Video: Since everyone is moving around anyway, put that energy to use by making exercise videos. If you have an exercise video handy, play a few minutes to give the group an idea for what they should do. (This is a great use for those old Jane Fonda workout videos!) Divide into groups and separate throughout the house. Help each group select music and then choreograph an exercise video. After everyone has practiced, video each group. Here's where the fun comes in… after all the groups are filmed, play the recordings and have everyone follow along to the routines.

Puzzle Races: Divide the group into two to four kids each. Give each group a 100-piece puzzle. On "GO!" see which group can put together their puzzle first. After everyone has completed their puzzles, combine all the pieces of all the puzzles. Staying with the same groups, have them try to assemble their puzzles again, selecting pieces they need from the pile of jumbled up puzzles.

Batter Up Popcorn: You probably have bowls of popcorn sitting around during your party. Turn some of those popcorn pieces into mini-baseballs and give a child a wooden craft stick or a large pretzel stick to use as a bat. Select someone else to be the pitcher. The pitcher tosses a piece of popcorn to the batter. Naturally the batter tries to hit the popcorn out to left field. All the other guests will be outfielders trying to catch the popcorn…with their mouths! (You may want to play this game outside or over a large blanket for easy cleanup.)

Frozen T-Shirt Contest: A day before the sleepover, get two or three T-shirts completely wet. Wring out as much water as possible and form each shirt into a tight ball. Freeze overnight. At the sleepover, divide the group so there are three to four children in each group. Give each group a frozen T-shirt. Their goal is to defrost the shirt so that one member of their team can wear it. The only rules are no liquids allowed and no microwave allowed. You'll be amazed at how they rub the frozen shirt on their bodies, sit on it, blow on it, and roll it in an attempt to thaw out the shirt.

Hopefully by the time your party-goers have played some of these games, they'll be ready to settle down and go to sleep by 9:30 PM. (OK, that's only a fantasy on the part of parents!) In any case, a few well-planned activities give structure to the sleepover, so you only have semi-chaos rather than pure-chaos. Have fun!

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