Party Tips and Ideas

Children’s Party Ideas

• Pizza Party – Don’t just order pizzas, make it interactive!  Set up a pizza buffet line in your kitchen.  Let the children go down the line and create their own personal pan pizza!  Kids love this and it is a great way to keep them entertained!  You can enhance this with Italian Style decorations: red/white checkered table cloth, red and green balloons, and recipe cards the kids can fill out and take home with them.  The cards also make a great party favor.  You can also tell them about where pizza comes from, a little education too!
• Pirate Party – This is a great theme to add a Scavenger Hunt in your back yard!  Kids love it!  You can also create a treasure map for them to follow.  For party favors – gold coins, treasure maps and even treasure chests that you can fill with candy or other fun toys!  You can also get plastic pirate swords and hats from the dollar store.  You can create a make your flag station complete with construction paper and cut outs (pirate related: skull, parrots, treasures, chests, etc…).  Have ½ the children create flag and the other half can get their face painted to complete their pirate look – have scars, beards, curling mustaches and patches, everything pirate.  Then the groups can switch.
• Vanity Party – You can add to a dress up party by hiring a Mary Kay or other representative to come in and do different spa treatments and makeup for the girls!  They will love this and it is a great way to teach them what is appropriate at their age.  You can put together cute purses with the essentials of make-up or skin care in them for cute party favors! 
• Oscar Party – This is an ideal party for pre-teens.  Have all the girls come dressed in their best “red carpet” outfit, with their date!  Rent a red carpet to lead up to the front door.  Have a friend or family member interview the girls as they come in the door (just like the Oscars) – the video will be priceless later!!  You can also add photographers (friends and family) like the paparazzi!  Set the girls up to play a trivia Oscar game or watch a previous Oscar show – depending on their age, dancing is always a winner.
• Tea Party – This is always a hit with girls!  You can get various tea sets at Wal-mart or the Dollar Store.  Set up the tables with various mini-treats (mini cakes, pastries and breads) and fun flavored teas.  With this you can get as fancy or simple as you like.  Have the girls come dressed in their princess dress up gowns.  For party favors, have each girl bring an inexpensive tea set and then play a game where they can secretly swap tea sets with each other.  You can also play pass the teapot.  Play some music as the girls pass the pot around.  When the music stops the girl holding the teapot is out and can take out a treat or sweet from the teapot.
• Princess/Knight Party – Girls go into the kitchen to decorate their crown.  You can get silver crowns at the dollar store.  Get fur ribbons, rhinestones, glitter and anything else they can use to decorate their crown.  The boys can earn their swords by playing games.  Such as, have someone dress as a dragon and blow bubbles.  They have to pop all the bubbles before they hit the ground.
• Jewelry Party – Set up plastic bowls with different beads and let the girls sit around the table and design their own necklaces.  For party favors, give out inexpensive jewelry boxes filled with enough materials to make another necklace at home.  Don’t forget to include the instructions!

Teen Parties/Sleepovers

• Murder-Mystery Party – Send invitations out in a code and include a de-coder.  When the girls arrive, have tem all pose for a picture and have a large mat they can all sign.  This makes a nice frame and memento for later.  Create a Scavenger Hunt of clues that lead the girls to a telephone.  Taped to the telephone should be a ransom note that tells the girls to call and ask for the “loot.”    The person on the other end should be a cell phone of the person going to get food for the party (such as pizza).  When they get the call this is their cue to ring the doorbell.  The next game is a murder mystery game that can only be played at night.  All you need is a deck of cards, the girls, and a very dark room.  Pull out a deck of playing cards – you will need one Jack, one Queen and enough cards for the number of remaining girls.  The Jack is the detective and the only one to share his/her card.  The Queen is the murderer and the rest are participants.   The detective goes into another room and the lights go out.  The girls go around and shake hands.  The murderer should tickle the hand of the person she plans to kill.  That person counts to 10 and then screams and falls over (murdered).   Lights go on.  The detective comes in and questions the girls, like were you standing next to the table or the chair?  Questioning continues until they have determined the murderer.  When cake is served, pull out the cake box.  Decorate it beforehand with question marks.  When you open the box the cake is missing and a note is placed inside – “The cake has been stolen – play hot or cold until you locate it!”  To end the night play scary or mystery movies.  This party makes a great Teen Sleepover!
• Super Model Party – For this party pre-determine outfit styles for the girls on their invitations.  (such as: evening wear, bathing suit, 80’s, or artist style).  To prepare for this set up a table with mirrors, curling/flat irons, makeup, etc…).  Then set up various sets to go along with your theme.  You can get cheap fabric in different colors and styles for your backdrop.  Pick up props from local thrift stores, dollar stores or Wal-mart.  The girls should be paired up ahead a time – the girls will spend time getting ready and dressed for the first theme photo shoot.  One girl is the photographer and the next is the super model and then they switch.  Once all the girls are done – you can change to the next set while they prepare and get dressed.
• Guitar Hero/Singstar Party – Have the children come dressed in their best “rocker” outfit!  Set up a velvet rope out side and have photographers there as well.  Have friends or family dress like bouncers.  Everyone must say their name at the door as a VIP – then they get checked off and their name tag..  Include a lanyard or pre-made name tags with their “rocker name.”  Set up the room like a stage –have a fog machine and a strobe or dance lights.   You can even hang posters on the walls of different rock bands.  Set up one or 2 stations to include “Rock Band” and/or SingStar.
• Masquerade Party – This is a party that is easy to decorate for because the tackier the better!  Purple, Green and Gold balloons tied together make a great arch for the arrival of guests.  Guests should come in their ballroom gown and a mask!  Pick up fun serving pieces, colored plates and glasses from local thrift stores.  Have tables set up with colored table’s cloths – satin looks the best and you can get just satin fabric at Walmart.  Decorate the tables with a glass cylinder or bowl with gold coins and ask the guests to guess how many coins are in there for a prize.  Confetti also looks good sprinkled on the table.  Use decorative masks to cover the walls of the room.  Have random balloons covering the dance floor.  Use a fog machine, strobe lights, etc… to enhance the effect.  For the cake – order the cake with the baby in it.  The person, who finds the baby, wins a prize!  You can also get bags of mardi gras beads to give out as favors for the party!  If there are windows, you can cover them with colorful door beads to add color and glamour to the walls!  For the buffet tables use mardi gras fringed skirts.

 Adult Party Ideas

• 80’s Party – Everyone must come dressed in their favorite 80’s attire.  Offer a prize for the best dressed boy and best dressed girl!  This will get everyone going!  When guests arrive have a totally 80’s photo shoot set up – like an 80’s prom…white columns, etc.  Use a Polaroid to take their picture.  Cover one wall with paper and cut out neon letters “Grafitti Wall” – attach markers with Velcro so guests can graffiti all over it!  Suggest themes like – favorite 80’s songs or sayings..or biggest icon of the 80’s!   Put out all the 80’s toys like play-dough, rubix cubes, etc…Set u a room with karaoke or the 80’s Singstar game.  Give a prize to the highest score and the first to complete the rubix cube!   The 80’s was all about Junk Food, so load up on Mike and Ike’s, Bazooka, etc..   For favors – fill cellophane bags with totally 80’s candy (ring pop, pop rocks, candy necklaces, jelly bracelets, slap bracelets, etc…).  You can also hold an 80’s quiz.  Send their Polaroid’s inside thank you cards!
• 50^th Birthday – Plan this as a 5 year old birthday party!  Everything in primary colors.  Play child games like pass the balloon to your partner, pin the tail on the donkey, hire a clown to do balloons or a magician to do magic tricks.  For decorations buy tonka trucks and trains and beach buckets to hold snacks.  Buy blow up pools to hold ice and drinks.  This is a party you can take and run with.  The ideas are endless.  At 50, we all want to remember what it was like to be 5 – so do it!

Girls Night

• My Favorite Things/Books Party – This party is themed off Oprah’s Christmas show where she talks about her 10 favorite things that year.  Send out invitations letting the women know how the party works.  Each woman will pick her favorite thing for the year within a $5-$10 budget.  A few weeks before the party you call all of the women to let them know how many will be attending.  They are to bring one of their favorite items to each of the women attending.  For party favors you can decorate some sort of box or hamper from Wal-mart with each women’s name on it.  This will hold all their new “favorite things” when they leave.  You can also play trivia games and give out prizes (spa prizes are inexpensive and work nicely).  You can also relax and watch chix flix.  Each woman is to get up and share their favorite item and why.
• Naughty or Nice! – Each guest chooses red devil horns or a nice halo when they arrive.  The halo group sips champagne, white wine or white pina coladas while the devil group sips red hot martinis (dry ice makes great steam for these) and red wine.  Play a game called naughty or nice or choose truth or dare.  Use a Jenga game to play Truth or Dare.  All the pre-determined angels must share a truth.  The pre-determined devils will have to pull pre-made cards with dares written on them.  When you share a truth you get to wear a white boa.  When you complete a dare you get to wear a red boa.  Then have the group vote on their favorite angel and favorite devil for a prize!  You can also serve a buffet of red and white food, such as boiled eggs, mashed potatoes, lasagna, or pasta.  For dessert serve a Naughty or Nice Sundae bar with whip cream for the angles and red hot’s for the devils!  Decorate with red and white floating candles or roses.
• Mystic Goddess Gathering - Decorate your house with complete Greek emphasis!  Decorate with beta fish on the tables, hand teal dyed sheets and cheap oil or incense burners.  Each girl must show up wrapped, goddess style, meaning sheets!!  Have a bowl of “goddess names” in which the girls can draw from.  Set up spa stations, such as a facial steamer, foot bath, paraffin wax or even hire a massage therapist.  Put on face masks and meditate while the mask is at work.  Then, put on a belly dancing video.  You can also hand out cheap hip scarfs for hysterical fun!  Serve Greek goddess foods such as baklava, kabobs, mimosas, smoothies, chocolate covered strawberries and charm cakes (complete cupcakes with fortunes on the bottom).  Buy tarot cards and an instruction book.  Plan ahead and read each girl’s cards.  For party favors, include 8-balls, lip balm, foot soaks or face masks!  If you are really daring add a Ouija board for night-time fun.  This makes a great adult sleep-over!