Ideas for TWEEN Birthday!

This was around the age that I started having sleepovers for my daughter's birthday. You can keep the cost down by putting a limit on the guest list (sometimes hard to do though because you want to avoid hurt feelings and all). Also by serving hot dogs, (pancakes in the morning), baking the cake yourself and buying decorations and party gifts at the dollar store you can have a great party for your daughter without breaking the bank. Be careful about cliques though, girls have a tendency to form small groups that leave others out. I once had a rather large sleepover for my daughter and to avoid this as much as I could, I let them know right away that I would not tolerate that behavior. I also had a lot of games/activities planned for them that kept them busy and doing things as a group. It was a great success. If you need any ideas for party games/activities, here is a website I have used: http://www.partygamecentral.com/
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I hope this is has been helpful. God bless!

I have a 12 yr. old; try partythemes.com it was a great website. I loved the one....ORANGE you glad I am 12!
Everyone wears orange, orange cake/deco...OR...the girls will love a "scavenger" hunt in the mall! You preplan (most stores will donate)..then hit a pizza place.
Or...how about make your own pizze/dance off at home.
Wishing you blessings!

I know the party already happened, but here is an idea for next year: do a scavenger hunt at the mall!

-->You should go a few weeks before, so you can walk around and create "questions". Examples: what store has a heart on their sign? Where would you find a catepillar roll? Etc.

-->Divide the girls into teams of two or three and send them on their way. You find a central place to sit, relax and wait. Have them come back to your spot every 20 mins to check in. one...to draw out the hunt, and two..to make sure they are all okay.

-->It's even better if each team has a cell phone or a camera so they can take pictures of each answer, instead of just writing it down on a paper (or both)

-->If you can afford it, give each team $10, and have one task related to using that money. I picked something off the sushi menu and one of the "tasks" was to eat it. They used the $10 to do that. Another one was to go to the candy store and buy $1.00 worth of (only) red gummy bears. They used the money for that as well.

-->Set a time to stop the hunt. They all come back to the meeting place and you go over the answers. whomever has the most correct wins a prize (I did $10 mall gift cards).

-->You can extend the fun by having a sleepover and having everyone download, print and scrapbook their photos from the party into little books.

I ended up doing this at Bellevue Square Mall, and can probably find the list if you need it. It was about 4 years ago so it probably needs to be updated. Let me know if you want me to send it to you! :)

Hi S. K,

I LOVED reading your update! It stirred many memories starting with my very best friend and how we would stay at each other's houses and then later in life, sleepovers and how very precious it is to keep it simple on the finance end, trust them to create, play and make memories together. It sounded so fun, I felt I was there. I sure you were peaked after but what a gift your gave your daughters and the others.

Best,
C.