Chocoholic Sleepover -15yr- Hot Cocoa Competition

It's my fifteenth this year and I'm normally on our yearly trip to L.A. during my birthday but this year, it was cancelled because of dad's big job thing. So I decided this party would make up for the ones I haven't had here.

INVITATIONS: My sister is an amazing comical illustrator, so I got her to draw me sitting on a balloon in midair wearing a silver dress eating a bar of chocolate saying CHOCOHOLIC!". I scanned it into the computer put a border around it and typed some info on the flip side (Always remember to ask about allergies or food stuff or medical conditions if you don't know the people inside and out). I printed the invites out in chocolatey brown and sent them to 16 of my friends in pink envelopes. (NOTE: I looked through this website a lot while planning my party and kept getting warnings saying keep it small but for me-this is just me- big worked really well and everyone had their own friendship groups inside it so no-one was left out.)

DECORATIONS: I do about three dancing classes a week in this amazing medium sized place. It's got heating you can set the lights into disco feel or bright or dimmed down and the sound system rocks! My teacher owns the building which is a bit bigger than a medium sized house (With bathroom and kitchen) so for a small fee of $25 we could rent it out for a night and a bit of the next day. Of course not everyone has this type of luck any medium sized place works well. We picked up pink and brown balloons from the two dollar shop. We threw balloons everywhere and hung up the streamers messily. There were some fairy lights and flowers everywhere (Also beanbags and inflatable chairs) and on the three snack food tables brown tablecloth with pink plates and napkins. On the floor we over padded with mattresses. No cracks or anything but it was hard to pack up although bedding wasn't a problem. I thought something was missing so I had a workshop with my three closest friends and my family creating a big banner that said "Grace's Chocolatey 15th!" and also a ginourmus heart to bash (Inspired by Valentine's Day the movie) that was filled with glitter and of course chocolate.

THE PARTY: The guests arrived at about 6:30pm on a Saturday night. While everyone got there there was a small room to wait in just chatting and having some veggies (We had the room hidden until everyone got there.) and when everyone arrived we revealed the party room. Some people screamed others just looked awestruck. Basically everyone knew each other but just in case we had some ice breaking.

This is a game I made up myself I like to call HOT CHOCOLATE MAKING. It's not a very good name but it's a very good game. We had a medium sized table with a table cloth and everything hot chocolate making ingredient you could think of. Melted chocolate (Dark milk and white) chocolate chips chocolate powder (Three brands and one of them had a mix of dark milk and white) full cream milk whipped cream from a can ice-cream (milk dark white) chilli powder (cause some people like that) condensed milk (OMG was that rich) marshmellows coffee EVERYTHING! So everyone had one mug (There was heated milk warm boiling a froth maker a microwave from home boiling water-for the just ad water products- so much!) and fifteen minutes to create the best hot chocolate they could think of! My parents judged the three best and we all got a sip of them to decide. The one that ended up winning had melted chocolate (All three types) chocolate chips chocolate powder (All three brands!) ice cream (milk and dark) marshmellows coffee whipped cream and HALF A CAN OF SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK. We could barely have a small sip. Then we all named ours. The winning hot chocolate was named "Holy Chocachino". After that we ran a few laps of the room to burn off the sugar.

We also played this sickening game where you had to dip something gummy (Gummy lips gummy bears etc.) in melted chocolate three times in a row freeze it dip in whipped cream keep putting sweet stuff on and then put in on a plate in front of you. Everyone made theirs sickening in the hope that they could serve it to someone else.

Then we played a quick game of Yahtzee and whoever had highest score put their treat on the lowest scoring person's plate. We kept playing until all but one person had nothing left on their plate. Then they had to eat every single treat! We played quite a few rounds of this with the people who lost doing so much jogging they were big drops of sweat. Then we just hung out for a bit in the beanbags reading mags taking quizzes etc. Then music came on and the lights went disco so we danced and nibbled on treats and chatted. By this time it was around 8:00pm. My parents had left so we were kind of wild. We steered clear of classic chocolate games and created our own.

We played a game from this site called the M'N'M challenge (You pick two M'N'Ms from a bowl blindly if they're the same colour you can eat them if different you have to keep them in your mouth. The game stops when someone gives up. When you get two of a kind you can eat all the M'N'Ms in your mouth. Fun but gross if your mouth gets too full) but also made our own types of chocolate making up brands. Eventually we got into this funny game where about three people were in a chocolate shop and you trade your homemade chocolates for others in shops it was childish but actually really fun. You got such amazing types of chocolates and it was really creative making up names and making announcements about your newest type of chocolate. We had different shop names too. It was nearly 10 by then so most people gathered their chocolate treats in a bag (We had some other stuff in there too including a carrot but mostly fun stuff) and we all took photos outside our shops (We had disposable cameras on a few tables that people left in baskets at the end really recommend it if you want memorable shots and cheap) and one big group photo with a high tech camera.

Lastly for a thank you we made ads for our chocolate shops and recorded them on camera. It was really fun and a great birthday party thanks for coming gifts (Later on about a week). Before the parents came we had my layered cake (See more later) and decorated t-shirts. 11 of my guests said goodbye and five of my closest friends stayed for the sleepover. The sleepover didn't have too much outrage we did stay up till 4 in the morning hyped up n chocolate though. We had dinner at about two in the morning pizza we had delivered form a 24 hour shop nearby. The next morning we woke up at about 10 with not too big tummy aches. We tried not to do anything to crafty with the small group so that the others who didn't stay for the sleepover didn't feel left out. It was a great birthday party and we all had a blast. I have a copy of the group shot in my room at home and at our holiday house in LA to remember one of my best birthday parties ever.

PARTY SNACKS: There were butter fingers Hershey's kisses all types of m'n'ms kissables and all sorts of chocolate chipy things. There was of course some party pie for old times sake and definitely veggies and lots of water (With this kind of party water is a must).

CAKE: I had a cookie based layer cake. The first layer was like a cookie pizza base. On top of that melted chocolate then fudge then a light chocolate sponge then crushed m'n'ms and butterfingers then melted chocolate then this tube of belgian melted chocolate (Delicious) then a mix of fudge and kissables. On the top it was actually vanilla which covered the whole thing so no-one knew of the chocolatey delight inside. On the Vanilla icing in mini m'n'ms it said HAPPY 15TH GRACE! And the candle was amazing! It didn't say 15 but you it was shaped like a rose and when it was lit it played music and the petals opened up to the bud in the middle (Which was edible!!!!). I could hardly bear to cut the cake but when I did the layers stayed in perfect shape (It'd been frozen the night before) and it tasted amazing.

FAVORS: Well there was some cake to take home (We had so much everyone could take some) on napkin and in a bag there were the chocolate bars from trading (Soooooo many left over) and for a little extra something we had a balloon as an extra party bag. They left with cake in one hand carrot in the other holding a balloon with a bag on their shoulder. The balloon said "POP ME FOR TREATS (Quick before I run out of puff!)" and when guests did a shower of chocolatey treats came out. Basically the party snacks with out the party pies and veggies but some gummy stuff added in sour straps and a chocolate scrub facial along with some red nail polish that smelt like chocolate and a how-to on chocolate make up (Yep its possible!)

END NOTES: The party was an extreme success and the chocolate left over lasted so long. A few pointers; everyone always makes such a fuss over invitations I think it’s the party that matters not the invites. When playing the chocolate treat yahtzee game don't force the loser too hard to eat the treats.