Surprise Sweet 16 Party

Think "youth group" activities. You could do Gorrilla Meets the Man or I Never Ever. Find these and more at www.youthpastor.com/games. Or have just a plain ol fashion toilet paper fight (Buy an abundance of cheap toilet paper, put everyone in a large open area, and start throwing the rolls from one side of the room/area to the other. It's a fun mess that is easy to clean up.

Another thing that would be great for this age group is to have a photobooth. I know you can rent them (pretty steep) but you can just have a photographer and a backdrop and let the kids do their thing.

I am a photographer, if you're interested in this, I can help.

Thanks,
Chris
Teeny Bean Photography
www.teenybeanphotograpy.com

Super fun game make sure you have a lot of room.(for flying peopleand maybe chairs)
Fruit Basket Turnover:

- Rules
The game is played as follows:

The players are divided into equal-sized groups, with each group having the name of a fruit.
A circle is formed with a number of chairs equal to one less than the number of players. The players sit on the chairs, ensuring that members of each group are evenly distributed around the circle.
One player will be left without a chair, and will stand in the centre of the circle.
The player standing in the centre calls out one of the fruit names. When this happens, all players in that group must stand up from their seats and move to another seat in the circle. The player in the centre must attempt to take one of the free seats while the other players are moving.
A new player will then be left in the centre, enabling the game to be repeated. If any player failed to move even though their group's fruit name was called, they are required to move into the centre and the player previously in the centre sits in their seat.
Instead of stating a fruit name, the player in the centre may call "Fruit Basket Turnover!" or "Fruits Basket!", in which case everybody must move to a different seat.
There is a often a restriction that the player must move to a seat not adjacent to their own
In some variants of the game, a player can be eliminated from the game, usually if they either fail to move when their fruit name is called, or are due to appear in the centre for two rounds in a row. Whenever a player is eliminated, a chair is also removed from the circle.

Quick, easy & really good sweet finger food...I buy the pound cake & cut slices & spread cream cheese & sandwich them together & then cut those in three more slices and place them on a plate & fridge them, then pull them out when guest arrive. You can also add strawberry preserves or whatever kind of preserves you like to the cream cheese also.

Actually, as long as you have music and food, you don't really have to plan much else. We decorated the garage for my daughter and put a big Christmas light ball out there with twinkling lights. The kids entertained themselves. Just have lots of food and disposable cameras. We had lots of finger sandwiches, soda, chips and cake and they had a blast. Good luck, I hope it goes well. Oh and if you have any picky neighbors, just make sure you let them know ahead of time so they'll know that there will alot of kids and loud music; that way, you're covered.

My teenagers always love scavenger hunts we put lots of creative things on the list to find like picture with a cute dog, popsicle stick(they eat the popsicle on the way home), green fingernail polish the have to paint on a boys fingernail that way the people don't have to give it to them, lots of interesting things. We did ice cream sundeas(?) where they made them themselves. Also don't make the party to long or you won't have enough things to do and they get their own ideas keep things planned. Hope these ideas help.

C.

Oh how I miss those days. I have a 17 year old sister so I know how teenagers can be. Meatballs are always a hit and can sit in a crock pot. Also mini sausages wrapped in croissants or biscuits are good. If you have a Wii or if you can rent one there is a game called Carnival and it is all the carnival games you would play at a fair and it's lots of fun. I own a DJ Service if you don't already have one for the party. I know you said music will be playing but I didn't know if you already had a DJ or if you'd be playing a CD player. We would love to DJ her special day if you don't have one already. We do lots of teenage birthday parties and you're right they probably won't do much but stand around but they still feel cool if they have a real DJ at their party. I love the masquerade idea. If you are interested in our services please respond here or email ____@____.com you would like to see pictures and testimonies you can visit our website at www.1stclassdjservice.net
Hope it's a blast for your daughter.

Best regards,
S.

That sounds like fun. I would go all out with a rennisance or princess around the world theme. have some prizes for costumes have kids dress up like royalty from all around the world in all different periods.

If you need any Invitations, stationary, party favors... Give me a call

A. J
www.celebritypartyfavors.com

www.marthastewart.com

Enlist the help of her best friend(s). They will love being "in the know" and do a great job and they're old enough to keep the secret. This totally depends on the size of the party and what she and her friends like to do. Maybe somebody in the group has a Guitar Hero game you can borrow? Making the food an activity might be fun - let them make mini pizzas or nachos?? It really all depends on the size of the group. Good luck!

A chocolate fountain is a must!!! They will love it. You can get them fairly easy now days and then just do cut up fruit & pound cake. Cheese cubes & crackers, veggies and dip, the food doesn't have to be hard to look nice. For drinks you could do a fun punch or sodas in cans. For fun things to do maybe have cameras laying around that they can take pics with or have some type of photo op. for them to go to and have their picture taken. Another thing to do might be Karoke(msp?)although it depends on the group. Either way HTH and have a great time.

cute idea :) You are creative just in coming up with it!

Maybe have some theme-related cards (or just plain or colored index cards) for each guest to write (privately) a birthday wish or compliment for the birthday girl. Then, be sure to get a photo of her with each guest. After the party, she can read the cards and put them with the pictures in a scrapbook.

Sounds like a great idea. We had my daughter's 13th bday party last Dec and I was surprised to see how many of them were dancing. Of course, you are looking at a 16 yr old vs 13 yr old so that might make a difference.

Are you catering? We had ours at Gleneagles CC in Plano and the food that was the most popular were mini pizzas, chicken fingers, chocolate fountain with an assortment of foods to dip and make your own ice cream sundaes.

Maybe have a outsider come in to judge the costumes and give a prize?

Have fun!!

A sweet treat! www.candisno.com

Other than that, I dont have teenage girls YET, so I have no clue what they would like for activities.

Good Luck!

Most kids this age love board games of any kind. Mine love Scategories, Apples to Apples and others. Also "Charades" are good. If it wasn't a surprise party, I would suggest you get your daughter involved and ask her what she would like. Maybe ask a trusted friend of hers to help with ideas and keep the secret.
As to finger food, use your imagination. There are a number of cookbooks and magazines available this time of year that have great recipes and suggestions for Halloween refreshments, which would be fun for your party.
Don't stress over it, do what seems practical and fun and have a great time with it.

I think at this age kids just want to be left alone and hang out with their friends. If you have good music, food, disposable cameras and maybe movies as an option they should be happy. Ask your daughter what she likes to do at parties or call her best friend and ask him or her. Then you'll have the perspective of the kids at the party. If you need a cake I do make them as a side business. take a look at my website www.freewebs.com/sweettemptationbakery I'm also listed on mamasource. Thanks and have a great time!

I did a suprise party for my 18 year old daughter for a bon voyage to college theme. But things that were great was I had three different friends of hers burn CD's for "party" music for me. One friend from our church, one from her school and one from her Ulitimate frisbee team so we would get a good mix of tastes. Then I had planned a scavenger hunt that took up time and got the kids all mixing and mingling. We drew numbers for teams so they couldn't pick their own group. I had lots of food around...the cake, chips and dip, veggie tray, sweedish meatballs (that went super fast) a tray of chicken salad croissant sandwiches and an ice chest with cold drinks and one with small water bottles. There was very little left. I also had a few decks of cards on laying out on the coffee table and in the kitchen and that prompted a few smaller card games going on, I also had a bowl with several disposable cameras that gave us some great pics of the day. The kids were in the house and back yard and it went well. I had a set time and everyone was great about sticking to it. Hope this helps.

You don't say how large the gathering is expected to be so this makes it hard to suggest food. My kids and their friends love guacamole and queso (the latter, you fry Jimmy Dean's regular sausage up like hamburger and throw it in a crock pot with a can of Rotel tomatoes and a log of Velveeta) the queso is easy and adults and children alike love it. Pigs in a blanket, pizza bites, go to Sam's, tons of frozen finger foods that are easy to get together.

I just asked my 16-year-old who said the scavenger hunt and board games might not go over well so I would go with enlisting the help of her close friends. The disposable camera thing is a good idea and something I just thought of is similar to what they do at my daughter's choir banquet. They have someone do a video mantage of the whole year, the kids love it and it is the highlight of the deal. They do some video, some slide show, good sound track underneath, poll the friends for someone who is into computer stuff that would be kewl.

My daughter's other suggestion for making sure it is a surprise for your daughter is making up a fake invite to the party like it is for another kid which would then totally surprise her when it was for her.