February 20, 2021Miss Your Friends? Plan a Virtual Party! Part 2 How To Have a Super Fun Virtual PJ Party In 8 Easy Steps! Today on Ask Nikki, I am posting PART 2 of my advice column about how to spend time with friends during the COVID pandemic. Here is the original letter that I received from a group of friends DYING to hang out together: Dear Nikki, Since the pandemic, I haven’t been able to hang out with my best friends for what seems like FOREVER! We all miss each other and are totally MISERABLE :-(! To make matters worse, our parents have decided that we shouldn’t spend time together in person until the COVID situation is under control. Do you have any ideas for how we can hang out with each other and laugh and have fun?BROKENHEARTED, BITTER, AND BORED BFFs! (Kiara, Amy, Olivia, Emily, Sofia, Emma, Ava, and Imani) Dear BROKENHEARTED, BITTER, AND BORED BFFs, YES, I have SO MANY IDEAS for you that I’m posting a PART 2 to finish answering your question! Part 2 will include Steps 5, 6, 7, and 8. I will also be sharing two NEW videos from a group of friends that had a real virtual party online. Below is just a quick summary of the first FOUR steps that I covered in Part 1. You can read that entire column in more detail here . HOW TO HAVE A SUPER FUN VIRTUAL PJ PARTY IN 8 EASY STEPS! Step 1) Make a List of Friends You Plan to Invite To Your Virtual PJ Party Step 2) Choose A Video Conferencing Service For Your Party Step 3) Select a Date and Time and Send Out Party Invites Step 4) Choose Fun Games and Activities That Can Be Played Online and here are the final FOUR steps!… Step 5) It’s a PJ Party! So Have Fun Wearing Your Favorite PJs Yes, it’s a virtual party, but it’s STILL a PJ party! So, make sure you and your friends wear your favorite pajamas! The more SILLY the PJs the more FUN! Those neon yellow, fuzzy Sponge Bob PJs would be PERFECT! You can also wear a T-shirt and leggings or a hoody and sweatpants. Just grab some super-comfy clothing that you want to hang out in. PJ FASHION SHOW! A fun activity would be a virtual fashion show complete with over-the-top commentary. You can take turns describing each friend’s outfit or each person can describe their own. Try not to laugh! PJ FASHION AWARDS! After you finish your trendy fashion show your next activity can be the “PJ Fashion Awards.” You and your friends will have a blast deciding on the PERFECT award for each person’s pajamas. PJ Award categories can include: Most Cute, Most Comfy, Most Fashionable, Most Colorful, Most Kay-Ray-Zee!, Most Fuzzy, Most Sporty, Most Likely To Be Worn To the Mall, etc. You can make up even more funny awards. SLIPPER CAM! Time to show off your fav foot fashion for even more laughs. Now you have an excuse to wear those super cute, fuzzy bunny slippers that your grandma gave you for your birthday. Giving out “Sassy Shoe Awards” might be fun! Step 6) Plan a Menu That Includes Several Yummy Snacks Everyone LOVES snacks! The yummy food is probably the best thing about parties. But, because your event is virtual, each party guest will need to plan for snacks ahead of time. For salty snacks, you can have popcorn, chips, pretzels, or trail mix. For sweet snacks try cookies, cupcakes, ice cream, or candy. Guests can also eat whatever healthy snacks are in their kitchen like fruit, veggies, nuts, cheese, or juice. Our superfan, Lemonerdy, and her friends each purchased a frozen pizza. They popped them in the oven at the same time and then ate hot, cheesy pizza together during their party! YUM!! Step 7) Make a Schedule to Keep Things Moving Your party can be 90 minutes, two hours, or slightly longer. However, to keep things from getting boring, make a simple schedule of events. The schedule should list all of your games, activities, and snacks in the order they will occur along with the time allotted for each. Choose a fun and exciting game to get your party started. Then, bring out the snacks for a session of giggles and gossip. Since you and your friends haven’t hung out together in ages, you’ll probably have A LOT of catching up to do! If you have a schedule, your party will be well planned and organized. However, don’t let the pressure of trying to stay on schedule undermine the fun! Be flexible, and just go with the flow! Step 8) Enjoy Hanging Out With Your Friends! For the past year, most of us have not been able to spend much time with friends. So, a virtual party is a PERFECT solution! You’ll LOVE hanging out with your BFFs again and will cherish every minute. DORKY DRAWING GAME! Did you know you can share computer screens with your friends just like a real sleepover? Here is a really fun game you and your friends can play together. Go to the Dork Maker game on our Dork Diaries website and then share it with everyone at your party using the video conferencing screen share program. Next, secretly select a friend and then create/draw her using the Dork Maker. Try to make your drawing look as much like your friend as possible by selecting details that match her face, eyes, smile, hair, glasses, braces, etc. Once the artwork is completed, everyone has to GUESS which FRIEND it is! Each person gets a turn to share their screen with the group while they use the Dork Maker to draw a different friend. Watching your friends try to create each other using the Dork Maker will be HILARIOUS! I hope you enjoyed MY advice on “How To Have a Super Fun Virtual PJ Party In 8 Easy Steps!” It’s YOUR party with YOUR friends, so just CHILLAX and have FUN!! As long as everyone is chatting, laughing, and having a blast hanging out together, YOUR virtual PJ party will be a HUGE success! YOU GOT THIS :-)!! Our superfan, Lemonerdy, had a virtual party and with five BFFs! Check out the two new videos below of them having fun with our “Dork Maker” and “Which Dork Diaries Character Are You?!” activities online. Dork Maker Game Which Dork Diaries Character Are You? Do YOU have any ideas for how to have the BEST virtual party ever? QUIRKY QUESTION: If you could have a virtual party with any FIVE famous people (fictional or real) as guests, who would YOU choose? Take out a pencil and paper and make your fantasy GUESTLIST!!