Bday get-together ideas

[eve143]

Hello all...DH and I find ourselfes on an extreme budget as of late.
Daughter's 14th bday is rolling around. I wanna do something nice for her.
It'll have to be just a few friends and I'm hoping someone can give some ideas on something fun, mabe out of the ordinary that wont break the bank but won't seem as if she's bein cheated... HELP

[Katheda]

please delete, thank you

[cinnamonamon]

Our birthdays were always a bunch of friends, a cake, icecream, a few presents & a fun sleepover. Let her rent several movies, have lots of popcorn, a silly teen boardgame, maybe... if you are in an appropriate area, perhaps a bonfire? We had almost $0 growing up, but mom always decorated with crepe paper & ballons & usually bought at least colored paper plates/cups for the festive look. We usually had guests over around 7pm to save $$ on dinner for hungry kids, but mom always made pancakes/french toast, etc. for breakfast.

You could always provide supplies for make-overs, manicures/pedicures, or a nice big area for the girls to create their own dance to a popular song. This was always big with my little sisters who were into dance squad in middle & high school.

Good luck!


Oh, and try to keep the "yelling for peace & quiet at 3 am" to a minimum!

[sweetfiend]

My neighbor's daughter did a thrift shop bday party that was inexpensive and cool. They took the girls to a street that had several thrift stores, broke them into teams, gave them $10 a team, and had a scavenger hunt. Then they had lunch (you could do a picnic) and returned to the stores to shop for themselves (with their own money). You could give them less money, only have two teams, limit the cost in that way. (Of course, you have to have access to a couple of thrift stores).

[mommyto3girls]

I was also going to suggest the make over party. I teach junior high and 6 of the girls did that this weekend. They said they had a blast trying different hairdoos, giving pedicures and manicures to each other. They said it was great to be silly together without the pressure of boys around (yuck, so many kids are having these co-ed hotel pool parties) they tried some crazy hairdoos and they all had cute new doos for school today

[Alkenny]

Pizza, cake and ice cream, sleepover and leave them to their own devices. I find that my DD and her friends don't want ANYTHING that I have planned.

[PiePie]

make their own jewelry?

The Bead Shop sells a "Bling Bling" kit -- they could make 24 bracelets and 12 rings out of 1 kit for $16.
Alex makes a Friendship Wheel that helps you make those woven "friendship bracelets" -- I think it's about $13. The problem with that is only one girl could use the wheel at a time.
Either would appeal to their accessorizing/makeover side, if any, making them would take up time, and their own handiwork would cover any perceived need for party favors.

[Purrfect_doll]

We try to do theme parties for our kids. My dd last one was "An Unfortunate Birthday" themed around the popular Series of Unfortunate Events books. We had cake and potluck lunch and games were themed like the Reptile Room stomp where the kids had to keep the 'snake' (balloon) tied to their ankle alive while stomping on all the other 'snakes'. Another game was the Foul Fungus Fill where I took cornstarch and water and mixed it together to make a paste and the kids had to work in teams to move the goo from one side of the room to the other (game best played outside unless you like cleaning cornstarch off the floor for a few days afterwards).

Are there any books she is into or movies that you could theme the games around?

[SweetAfton]

The beauty school in my hometown does free make-overs for preteen/teen girls as part of their birthday special- both hair and makeup. That could be fun. Maybe check if a nearby beauty school does that?

[teastaigh]

One of the neatest birthdays I ever went to was a sweet-16 party for a friend, right around this time of year. They had a harvest theme. We played old-fashioned games: apple bobbing, apple-biting on the string, tag, hide-n-seek, pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, duck-duck-goose, and a version of musical chairs with throw pillows where we danced and crashed onto a pillow when the music stopped. Some of the games had little prizes. I won Hubba-Bubba bubble gum and a marathon candy bar (don't think those exist anymore?!) and a nun eraser. We decorated cookies and had cake and cider. I took home some of the cookies when my dad picked me up. I thought it was sort of intimate and real -- totally different from all of the other parents-aren't home-we-have-alcohol stupid parties or the other ones where catty girls make at least one miserable before morning. It wasn't too big. Oh, and the parents had Christmas lights all over the yard which made hide-n-seek fun.

I went to another party more recently that I liked. We all had s'mores in the park and used the park's bbq. We played kick-ball. There was a book theme and we were supposed to give a favorite book from our young adulthood to give -- used or whatever. It was neat that everyone signed the books and said why they chose them and what they hoped for the birthday boy (15).

Money can be more of a hindrance to true celebrations, sometimes. Something really unique or fun or special might just arise from tougher circumstances. Happy birthday to your special young person!

peace,
teastaigh

[NiBeKa]

My friend is having a 16th birthday party for her dd. She is bringing the girls to the mall to do a scavenger hunt. No cost. Some of the questions are: What is the Yankee Candle flavor of the month? Who has the least expensive ipod, etc. She is going the day or 2 before to search out good questions. They will go back to her house for pizza, her mom has a scrapbook with some photos of dd and friends and each girl will make a page in the scrapbook. I thought this sounded like so much fun. I want to go.