We are lucky to have nieces and nephews that are close in age and location to my kids.  There is always a cousin around for a sleepover.  We hosted a cousin sleepover recently and made it memorable with a Waffle Bar with all of the fixings! When 8 kids are in a house for a sleepover, (and the guaranteed late night for Mom and Dad), an easy morning breakfast is a MUST!  We threw this Waffle Bar together and fed the hungry cousins so they could get back to playing (…and making messes, fighting, and generally sounding more like there were 23 kids in our house rather than 8…) and doing regular cousin-fun stuff!

Setting up our waffle breakfast bar was a breeze.    Sleepovers can be exhausting, so feeding hungry kids needs to be low-maintenance.  We pulled enough frozen waffles to feed the cousins out of the freezer and spread them onto trays.  While they were toasting in the oven, I scooped out Greek yogurt, fresh fruit, and poured our favorite granola recipe.

Kids love special touches to an ordinary meal.  Preparing our waffle bar as a buffet style with decorations, bowls, and colored spoons made breakfast special and something they were talking about all day long.  

Setting up an easy breakfast waffle bar:

Waffles
Fresh fruit: choose fruits that require minimal prep work, like blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries.
Homemade granola (make this the night before.  While the waffles are toasting, all you need to do is pour the granola in a bowl!)
Chocolate chips (for a small sweet touch.)
Cherries
Greek Yogurt
Sprinkles
Fruit/Vegetable juice (served in a dispenser makes the party special!)


I tried to maintain a healthy breakfast combined with ease.  

Other options for healthy waffle toppings:

Nuts
Shredded coconut
Frozen fruit (I love the added convenience!)
Chicken
Eggs
Raisins
Cinnamon
Dried cranberries

I loved that once the toppings were placed into bowls, the kids could (mostly) help themselves.  The littlest cousins needed help scooping their waffle toppings.  Placing spoons into each serving bowl on the waffle bar made self-serve easy for these cousins.  

The older girls liked directing the younger ones along the breakfast line.  They also helped with decorating for our breakfast feast.  We went super simple with decor, using a disposable table cloth (Eight kids = guaranteed mess.  Bundle up all of the dripped yogurt and toss it away.)   I had the two oldest cousins tape colored cupcake liners to the wall for pops of color.  They also made us pretty tissue paper flowers for our breakfast table.  Every cousin sleepover needs craft-time and these girls were excited to pull out the glue and tissue paper.  They loved making our breakfast a real party (I’m pretty sure “fancy schmancy” was mentioned a time or two!)  They were sure to dress up in their party clothes for the waffle bar breakfast extravaganza!