Help on 12 Year Old Birthday Party!

We just finished a huge 13th birthday blowout for our daughter just after Christmas. It was a high budget party but there are some things we did that maybe you could incorporate to yours.

I was concerned about RSVP's because daughter was inviting a LOT of friends from school (co-ed) and I had to give a number count to the club. With the suggestion from another mamsource mom, we came up with a raffle to encourage kiddos to rsvp. I had 5 prizes....4 $10 gift cards from starbucks, best buy, blockbuster and a grand prize IPOD shuffle. All invitations stated that the raffle would be held for all who rsvp'd to the party. WOW, that was a hit and worked like a charm. I had locked in my number at 50 and I had about 45 show up. The prizes were a hit as well.. I did no other party favors.

We had a DJ, chicken fingers, mini pizzas, and ravoli (I would minimize these next time), chocolate fondue with fruits, pretzels, marshmallows (BIG HIT) and make your own ice cream sundaes (BIG HIT) and the birthday cake.

At the end of the night, I had a total of 8 girls sleeping over.

TO lower the budget on this..........play cd's, karoke, let the kids socialize. I did not dictate or organize games etc. The dance floor was always full with them doing some new dances and/or just having fun on the dance floor. If you have a Wii (or borrow one) it is a lot of fun and up to 4 at a time can play on some games. I do think our party went on too long. Next time, I would keep it at no longer than 3 hrs., probably closer to 2 -2 1/2. Do your own cake.

Keep it highly supervised yet let the kids do their thing. We had an off duty officer to keep kids from leaving the party. I had a rule....if you leave the party....you go home. The parents knew that when they dropped them off. That was to avoid any potential trouble they could bring in. The kids at our party were all 12-13 yrs old.

I hope those ideas help some

Have fun. Our little darlings are growing up too fast!! I too, have a good daughter and I can't believe she just turned 13.

Susan

OK, I had my niece's 12 yr. birthday at my house! She wanted to have a sleepover at her Aunt's house. Some of the things that we did were good enough for coed also. The biggest hit was a scavenger hunt!! They had a list of 15 things, a time limit of 30 minutes, and were in groups of 4 and they HAD to stick together or be disqualified. An adult was with each group, so that it was safe and didn't get out of hand. They had to find things like a color paperclip, tinted saran wrap, q-tip, Vanilla Wafer, AAA battery, fake red flower, etc.

It was a big hit! The prizes were things from the dollar store as well as things from Sam Moon...boas, etc. You could pick up gender neutral prizes also.

Another fun game was the egg race...

Kids love games! heck, adults love games! You could also have teams of 3 or 4 and give them 2-3 rolls of toilet paper and have a mummy making contest...one person on the team is the mummy and the others are the mummy wrappers. We did this as a fashion show. Each team was to design an outfit using only toilet paper.

Another fun coed party thing would be Laser Tag. My niece did this one the year before and there were boys and girls there...it was so fun!!!

Good luck!

a fun-filled evening at a dollar theater, some $5 Little Caesar's pizzas, and a cake will make an entire evening for a group of kids this age. If you do the pizza thing first, you don't have to worry too much about snacks at the movie theater. One large popcorn can get free refills at most theaters.

AS for the girls at the slumber party: a couple of bottles of nailpolish and some chips and dip will go a long way. Your daughter can probably think of activities that she would like to do with her friends. They can bring a favorite game, look through the school yearbook (which will bring up all kinds of excitement to talk about), and settle down watching a Hannah Montanna movie. Donuts and juice in the morning are easy and they love it.

The easier and less costly I find that it is for me, the more fun my kids have. If you're stressed, they feel it so keep it simple. The wonderful thing about children is that they appreciate the little things in life. It's not until they grow up when that's not good enough anymore (unfortunately!). At least not for the most part!

Have fun!

My sweet angels (boy/girl) twins turned 12 this year and we took a group to Chilis right after school and had appetizers. They let me bring a cake and I bought scoops of icecream for each child. It was one of the easiest and least expensive parties we've had.

D.

Hi W.-
I visit a blog where this woman enjoys throwing Murder Mystery themed parties for her kids, around your daughter's age. As a matter of fact, she just threw one for her son's 12th or 13th bday. I think it could be a fun and not too expensive party. Here is her website, look around a litle-if you go back this to this summer she had one for her daughter and she even showed the invitations she sent out(home made). I bet you could also find resources online for this type of party too .
http://www.mybigfatcubanfamily.com/

N.

How about a movie party? You can rent a popcorn machine and have candies and soda as well. I suggest you pick the movie as with 15 different suggestions, nobody might agree.

To make it a little different and if the weather cooperates, show the movie on a big white sheet hung up outside on the wall. You'll need a projector for that, but you can probably find one.

K.