The Big TEEN Party...

My daughter was recently invited to a photo shoot party. They went to a studio and the photographer treated them all like little models. Then the parents could get online and order whatever pics they liked for a fairly minimal cost. I was really cool!

I don't really think that parties have to be expensive or elaborate to be exciting and memorable. My daughter's favorite party was her at home and the kids are still talking about it.

Since both of my girls have mixed groups of friends, we need to have parties that are boy/girl friendly and this was a big hit, and easy to do with a large group so would be great for a popular girl. :o)

We split up the kids into teams of three, gave each team a digital camera (we have two and we borrowed the others from friends) and sent them out into the neighborhood (with specific street boundries) with a list of things they needed to find. They had instructions that at least one member of their team had to be in each photo and creativity counted. They had a two hour time limit. I drove around the day before to compile a list of things to find. A house with its Christmas lights still up. A hot car. Two houses with the same street number. Brightly painted front door. A house in desperate need of a paint job. A dog. An animal other than a dog or cat. We also had two 'most' catagories. The team with the most pics of basketball hoops and most signs (all must be different). When they all returned we plugged the cameras, one at a time, into the tv and viewed each team's entries. Taking into consideration creatively staged pictures as well as completing the list ( you could have 13 things), we picked a winning team. There was no conflict. All the kids agreed that team should win just for the laughs they got from some of the pictures they staged, like one kid with a belt loosly around their neck like a collar, with another holding the end like a leash (both with overly serious faces like high fasion models) next to a sign about obeying the local leash laws! The prizes were $5 gift certificates at a local ice cream shop.

The safari, pizza, cake and a video kept them all happy for over nearly 5 hours. This party has been copied numerous times by friends. :o) If your neighborhood isn't a good choice for this, it can easily be adapted to do at a mall. My kids suggested it to the teen leaders on a cruise this last summer and it was a huge hit! One of their items was 'More than 5 people in a conga line'. The other passengers were happy to join in and we heard serveral positive conversations in the dining room that night about how much fun the teens looked like they were having.

My 13 year old is planning a 'Minute to Win It' party for her next birthday. Can't wait!

I don't know your budget or what you are looking for so here are a couple of things very popular that we've done.

10 and 11 bdays, Limo party with small group of girls. At 10, the limo picked each girl up personally at her home. When everyone was in the limo, they rode around town, back to our house, got pizza, made crafts, mani/pedi, movies, sleepover.

@11, same thing with limo, smaller group, we went to a nice hotel, they swam, etc, then all got dressed for a nice dinner out. This was in Plano at the Shops of Legacy. We went to dinner, ice cream, back to hotel (we were in a suite.....I was in the same area but not "in" watching every move they made, they had some freedom and of course, they did not leave the room), midnight room service snack, everyone left by 10am after breakfast.

@13, the big one. My daughter is quite social, cheerleader, orchestra, honors, etc....she deserved this party and helped with planning, etc. It was a (NO GIFTS PLEASE) as all of her parties are.

Held at our private country club, co-ed, great DJ, hot/cold appetizer finger foods, ice cream sundae bar, games with prizes (i-pod shuffle being the big one), others were $10-$15 I-tune cards. Our rule with big parties is same as the rule our club follows...teen parties = off duty police officer to be around. "IF YOU LEAVE THE PARTY FOR ANY REASON-YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED BACK IN" This was clearly stated on all invitations, and mentioned to parents. We had no issues, about 60 kids in all. It was by far the priciest one we had so far.

Since the 13th party, it was wildly popular, we did an end of the school year at the club and another birthday party at the club. Teens NEED a safe place to go, hang out with friends. I consider these parties to be just that...something for all the teens.

Last fall, we scaled down a bit (or so we thought), to have the party at our home. We have a huge back yard area, great for a party. We did the same thing except scaled back on food. We had a great DJ, 2 police officers because it was at our home. It was very successful. I believe we had about 120 teens here. My costs were drastically cut by having it at my home.

The police officers are not that costly (we paid $100 each including tip) and they help so much we being around in uniform and it just keeps the honest kids honest. We noticed some older boys coming down the street and we said nothing. They started to walk down our driveway, saw the police, turned and left...all knowing, the party would not be crashed with drugs, alcohol or out of bounds activity.

This year, we are already planning the Sweet 16 for early January.

Have fun! We are enjoying our planning already!!

What about helping each girl put together a "time capsule" for them to open at graduation from high school? The girls can take them home with them (or you can just give them to their parents directly) and their parents can hang onto them until graduation.

Have them put things inside like:
A list of who the cutest boys are.
Who they think will graduate with the highest GPA.
A list of possible careers they might want to consider.
How many kids they would like to have one day.
Their favorite song (write out some of the lyrics even).
Their favorite actor and movie.
Their favorite perfume.
A photo of them at the party.
Their current height.
Their favorite nail polish (paint a swatch onto a note card).

If she is truly service minded then how about a birthday party at Harvesters? We know lots who have done this there and it is a wonderful experience for all. It is really outside the box and helps with the community as well. I think they'll even provide the cake too. Go to their website to learn more.
Hope this is outside the box enough. Good luck and God Bless.
P.S. Just celebrated my oldest's 13 and she wanted a party at CoCo Key and it was a blast and all the work was done for me. Yay!

If they are going to the beauty school you could do a fancy dinner after, or even go see a play (a bit different than the typical movie). Take a carriage ride on the plaza.

If you are looking for a special cake idea you can visit my site www.crumbscustomcupcakes.com

Best of Luck

My sister's daughter just turned 13 too. My niece is very sporty so my sister threw a sport (co-ed) party for her. She put a volleyball net, bought lots of basketballs for them to play, badmitten, etc. So maybe if you wanted to take the girls out for manis, then you could also have some sort of co-ed party outside wth music, games, etc.

One thing my family has done is made a scrap book of sorts for each nephew/niece that has turned 13. Each member of the family was asked to make a page for the book that could include anything from memories or stories of the teenager, advice or whatever they wanted for a memory book. It was great because family who lives far away could be included. And then the book was given on their special day.
One other idea is maybe she and her friends could do something fun for the community. Like maybe a shoe drive for homeless kids or some other way to provide fun community service.

A co-worker took a group of girls to a hotel overnight. It had a pool and a game room. They did the usual sleepover stuff, pizza and movies.