If you are having a sleepover for younger children, it is all about the shape. You can feed them really nutritious snacks and they'll have a great time eating them because they have a certain shape or are decorated a certain way. Here are a few fun and easy snack ideas:

• Cut bread into fun shapes with cookie cutters and add peanut butter and jelly to create sandwiches that are sure to bring a smile to some little faces. If any of the children are allergic to peanut butter, you may want to make mini grilled cheese sandwiches instead.
• Buy baby carrots and serve them with a bowl of ranch dressing for a crunchy snack that is easy to grab.
• Turn ordinary celery into ants on a log for another snack that provides plenty of crunchy fun. Simply cut the celery into four or five inch sections and spread peanut butter inside the hollow. Add a few raisins or dried cranberries for the ants.

• Look for dinosaur shaped crackers, teddy bear shaped graham crackers, etc. in your grocery store. Fill a bowl with these fun shapes instead of offering more traditional snacks like potato chips.

Older children have as much fun making their snacks as they do eating them, so don't blow your budget on an expensive pizza delivery. Instead, buy a package of fortillas or pita pockets and have the kids make their own individual pizzas. Provide a bowl of pizza sauce, (a thicker pasta sauce will work, too.) shredded cheese and a few toppings. Pepperoni slices and ham, sausage, or bacon cut into smaller pieces work well. Cook the pizzas until the cheese melts and serve.

Other snacks that are popular with older kids:

• Popcorn can be a lot of fun if you provide toppings, too. Just be aware that popcorn has a tendency to cause food fights, so you may not want to use a lot of sticky caramel or strawberry toppings if the group sleeping over is on the rowdy side. (Yes, I said strawberry. Gross as it seems, our guys love strawberry popcorn.)

• Let some of those toppings multi-task and have the kids assemble their own sundaes. Plain vanilla, strawberry and chocolate ice cream are fine - they like their variety in the toppings, not the ice cream flavors. Provide chopped up candy bars, gummy bears, chocolate, strawberry and caramel syrup and plenty of whipped topping.
• If you don't mind a major mess, candy making is a ton of fun. You can either help them make molded chocolates or stir up a batch of taffy for them to pull.