Let's Party!

Hello Everyone!

As I've said before, I love to plan parties and I have done quite a few successful ones. Today I want to tell you about my oldest daughter's Sweet Sixteen.

I think the easiest way to come up with a theme for a party is to pick something that the guest of honor really likes. In my daughter's case, she's a big soccer fan so I decided to have a soccer- themed party. Because the guests were going to be 15 to 17 years of age, it was important to keep the decorations and activities suited to this age group. Her favorite team wears black and red jersies so I asked everyone to come dressed in these colors. I decorated with red and black streamers and balloons. I used a red table cloth, black and red napkins, and red plastic plates, glasses and utensils. I served mini quiches, hamburgers and pasta salad. Instead of a themed cake, which can look childish, I served her favorite Ferrero Rocher chocolate cake. All this gave an older feel to the birthday party.

When you have a bunch of teenagers in the house it's important to keep them entertained. I came up with a few fun activities that everyone could participate in. Since this was a surprise party I had one of my daughter's best friends help with the guest list and with the invitations. These included activity sheets for the guests to prepare in advance and bring with them on the day of the party. Each guest had to fill out a "How Well Do You Know " quiz, a "The Flower You Most Remind Me Of And Why" quiz, a "Did She Ever Do This" quiz, a "My Favorites List" quiz and several others. When arriving at the party each guest was given a pen with a number attached to it. They used these to sign a group card and then kept them for a number picking game where the holder would get a gift if their number was picked from a bowl. I also filled a big glass with small candies and the person who correctly guessed the number of candies in the glass got to take it home.

After playing these games and eating supper, we played a game of "Kiss the Hunky Actor", which is a variation on "Pin The Tail On the Donkey". I bought a poster of my daughter's favorite actor, taped it to a door and the guests each took turns trying to kiss the actor on the lips while blindfolded. The spots where marked with lip-shaped stickies which I had cut out from regular square ones and the one closest to the actor's lips won a prize. The favorite game of the night was "Dress-Up Black Jack". This is a variation of "Strip Poker" which I came up with and which is much more appropriate for a teen party! In advance of the party I had filled up a big black garbage bag with an assortment of clothes and accessories. I put in hats, gloves, nylons, bracelets, earrings, necklaces, ties, scarves and boxer shorts. The guest of honor had to play every hand against a new opponent. You play Black Jack and the loser of the hand had to put on something from the bag that the winner of the hand picks out from the bag without looking in.
Needless to say that everyone had on a crazy assortment of items on especially the birthday girl since she played every hand and had more chances of losing and putting something on. All the guests had a great time and they all got to bring some gifts home. Everyone likes a little something, even though they're not little kids anymore.

It seems that the more simple and casual the party, the more fun it is. My daughter had many friends who had Sweet Sixteen parties that year which were done at restaurants or reception halls and many were not very enjoyable. I was told that they felt impersonal and that they couldn't really enjoy each other's company. But to this day, 5 years later, many of my daughter's friends still rave about her party and how much fun it was. You don't have to spend a lot of money or do some fancy thing. All you need is some creativity and effort to make everyone feel
comfortable and appreciated.

Make today a pretty day!

Pretty As A Peacock