By Amanda Formaro of FamilyCorner.com

Planning your daughter's first slumber party? Flower power is all the rage right now, and can be found on countless items in the stores and malls. Here are some simple ideas for a fun time for all.

Invitations
Purchase blank note cards and a package or two of flower stickers from a discount or dollar store. Have your daughter decorate the outside of the notecards with markers and the stickers.

Decorations
Purchase colorful streamers from the dollar store. Cut streamers into 12" lengths. Fold each length in half and tape together to create flower petals. Cut circles from a piece of posterboard. With five petals per flower, secure streamer petals by sandwiching between two circles. Tape flowers all over the room. For plates and napkins, either purchase them with flower designs, or pick your daughter's favorite colors. If purchasing balloons, try to find ones that have flowers on them. (We did!)

Note: Balloons can be a choking hazard, so exercise caution when using them. Always throw away broken balloons immediately.

Cake
Use your favorite box cake, confetti is always fun! Prepare the batter, pour half of it into a single round cake pan, pour the remaining batter into cupcake liners. Allow cake and cupcakes to cool completely before frosting. Using half of a container of white frosting, tint it pink with red food coloring. Frost the round cake pink, then using white decorator frosting, pipe flower petals around the cake. Use yellow decorator frosting to "draw" on a center. Seperate the remaining frosting into 5 dishes. Tint each one with food coloring to create purple, yellow, green, blue, and pink. Press different colored gumdrops, point down, into the center of each cupcake. Use white cake decorator gel to draw flowers petals on, using the gumdrop as the center of the flower.

Party Favors
The dollar store is a marvelous place to find party favors and little prizes covered with flowers. We found little flower mirrors with play lipsticks, flavored lip balms, flower shaped lip gloss containers, flower keychains, change purses decorated with flowers, and much more.

Fingernail Painting
A great way to provide a big array of colors for the girls to choose from is to use acrylic paints. Begin by painting on a fingernail polish clear top coat. Then paint on any color of acrylic paint. When dry, use a toothpick dipped in a contrasting acrylic color and draw on five petals. This is easily done by either drawing them as straight lines, or by placing a dot of paint on, then dragging the toothpick through the dot to stretch it outward. Finish with a clear top coat.

Face Painting
Create different colors of face paint for fun and funky flowers. You can purchase face paint or make your own with our homemade recipe.

Crafts
Make adorable flower pots from clay pots, craft sticks, and foamie flowers. You can get the instructions here. Other ideas might include coffee filter flowers, a ribbon flower frame, lip gloss necklace, or a button bouquet and sun catcher.

Game
Play "pin the center on the flower". On a yellow piece of posterboard, draw a large five petal flower. From a small piece of white posterboard, cut out small circles and write the name of each party guest on each one. The closest circle to the center wins! Give out a prize to the winner. To avoid any hurt feelings for those that didn't win, you can individually wrap small prizes with tissue paper and number them. Then have the birthday girl walk around with a hat filled with pieces of numbered papers. Have each girl draw a number out of the hat, they receive the corresponding prize.

Popcorn & Movie
Rent or buy a great chick flick! Princess Diaries is a perfect choice, or you might try other titles that are just for the girls. Make microwave popcorn and let everyone cuddle up in their sleeping bags to watch the movie.

Amanda Formaro  is the entrepreneurial mother of four children.
She is also the owner of FamilyCorner.com Magazine at http://familycorner.com where you will find recipes, crafts, family activities, parenting advice, home & garden, and plenty more. Be sure to visit the bustling message board community to make some new friends!