Sweet 16 ideas?

[YankeeMom]

My oldest will be 16 in July. I'd like to make her party special and memorable without it being the scale of those MTV shows with the spoiled brats lol.

Lucky for me, she's only asked for a big BBQ party w/ a bunch of her friends. We'll do it here at our house, but we don't have a pool or anything a bunch of teenagers would probably be interested in. I highly doubt they would get a kick out of the sand box or the swingset

Any ideas for neat games or activities for them to do. Loud music is a given lol.

[DAAC3DEC]

-how about borrowing or renting a "wi"

-renting a dunk tank

-borrow or rent a kareoke (sp)

[suki]

My daughter and friends had a blast with a watergun and water balloon war for an end of school year party at that age.

I had a friend who borrowed a projector and movie from the library and showed an outdoor movie on the side of the garage. The kids loved it.

Loud music and dancing is really all they need, though. LOL

[DAAC3DEC]

I love the projector idea........

[Neeley]

Are you doing the party at night or is it a daytime event?

I threw my step-sis a sweet 16 a couple of years ago. We do have a pool and honestly, not a soul swam.

They all just hung out with each other and ate. I bought a ping-pong table for the party, had it set up and they used it to sit on instead of playing ping-pong.

We had kids scattered all over the house, front yard and back yard doing their own thing.

There is nothing in this city for teens to do at night. A typical weekend night for them includes riding through the Taco Bell over and over and eventually ending up in a church parking lot, sitting on their cars and talking. They were all happy just to have a place to hang out and socialize that wasn't a parking lot and there was lots of food and soda for them all.

Sometimes just having a place to gather, food available and music playing is all some teens want or need to have a good time.

Of course, there is a version of pin the tail on the donkey that uses red lipstick, a poster with a nice looking guy/girl and a blindfold(you have to kiss the poster with the bright red lipstick on, closest one to the lips wins. It is especially funny for the guys to do this. They look funny with the lipstick on.)It can be done in a "clean and respectable" manner, our church youth group played this at the Valentines dance. It was hilarious.

Have you ever played the baby shower game that involves everyone putting a clothes pin on their shirt(or we have worn pacifiers on a string instead). No one is allowed to say a certain word, like "baby", for example. If you are caught saying the word, the person who catches you gets your pin, plus any others you have collected. At the end of the shower, the one with the most pins wins. That could easily be altered to fit a birthday party. You could make the word to avoid something like your DD's name, "birthday", "food", etc....You could substitute the clothes pin for something more age appropriate.

One way to memorialize her party is to take a digital pic of each guest w/your DD. Then ask each person to take one page in a scrapbook and decorate it or just write her a special message on it. Then when you get the pics printed you add the pics to the appropriate(sp?) page. Plus, if you print each pic twice, she can include a copy in each of her thank you notes she sends to her guests.

Good luck!!! You are a creative person. I am sure her party will be perfect.

[northernmom2boys]

renting a hot tub?

[YankeeMom]

renting a hot tub?

Uh no!

Great ideas! Just what I needed to get my creative juices flowing. I think renting a LARGE stereo system would be really good. I like the idea of a "drive in movie" in the backyard... Ohhh, this is going to be so fun

[Cricket1]

You probably don't need one, but you could also rent a dance floor from a party rental place.

[northernmom2boys]

Uh no!

Great ideas! Just what I needed to get my creative juices flowing. I think renting a LARGE stereo system would be really good. I like the idea of a "drive in movie" in the backyard... Ohhh, this is going to be so fun

sorry once I typed it I knew it wasnt right lol
maybe its what I want fo rmy birthday lol

[yankeegal]

Karoke is always fun too...
A luau would be good-limbo contests, everyone wears something tropical etc....
Hope it is fun!

[PrairieRose]

You know that chocolate fountain that was mentioned in another thread would be a great food thingy....I love the luau idea.....hawaiin shirts everywhere, you could give out leighs (lays?) as a favor....have little umbrellas for their drinks (Oriental trading Co.).

[Neeley]

ooohhh...That chocolate fountain idea sounds great. Who doesn't like chocolate? Yummy!!!

[erstbrmom]

My daughter wanted silly games at her 16th b-day party. She had water balloon wars, silly string tag and sundae eating contest without spoons. Those girls were hysterical eating the ice cream especially the ones who usually were careful about their hair and make up! Of course, it was an all girl party so they didn't care how silly and messy they were.
My friend does a version of the ice cream sundae w/o spoons by putting a hershey kiss on the bottom of a bowl and covering it with whipped cream. The person has to find the kiss and be the first one to actually eat it. Another messy fun game!

[G'MaDebbie]

There is a TON of ideas here.....hope you find something you like!

http://www.chiff.com/entertain/sweet-16.htm




When my daughter turned 16 last year, I rented a mini suite for her and her friends at a local hotel. We ordered pizza, watched movies, they went in the hot tub and swimming pool. My daughter also made up her own scavenger hunt and they did that for a good couple hours. When it got dark out, I let them roam the hotel lobby and the halls, normally wouldnt have allowed it, but it was November and the hotel was just about empty. They had a blast sitting in the front room of the hotel with the fireplace just being teenagers.

[TheRootedNomad]

I vote for kareoke at the home drive in. Sounds fun even to me.