Idea No.
17330
Generic Party 11yr
Award
Date
January 2008
From
Suzette in Philly PA USA
Honorable Mention
I did this party for my 11-year old, and he and his friends got a huge kick out of it. We couldn't come up with any typical theme ideas, and so we went for a TOTALLY GENERIC BIRTHDAY PARTY!" Kids (at least my boys) at this age are a little too old for the cute kid's themes and at this age they usually have a twisted sense of humor that appreciates this snarky "so bad it's good" concept. ***INVITATIONS: We copy-pasted barcode designs from the internet (barcodeart .c0m will let you make up your own customized personal barcode!) and the slogan "Always Remember: You Are Unique Just Like Everyone Else" and also clipart of super-corny retro/vintage kid's birthday parties. "We are celebrating {Bobby's} Unique 11th Birthday with a Totally Generic Birthday Party! Join us for all the Usual Stuff: the same old Snacks Games and Birthday Cake! Just like every other Birthday Party but Better!" ***DECORATIONS: We used the worst/cheapest/cheesiest generic birthday decorations we could find and I printed-up large B/W barcodes on standard letter paper to hang here-and-there. I also used plain white ballons and used a black marker to draw-on barcodes. ***SERVINGWARE: I bought sturdy plain-white "chinette"-style paper plates and spent an afternoon drawing-on barcodes with a permanent black marker (the trick is to vary wide and narrow lines) with the barcode letters/numbers spelling out child's name and age. I used a silver marker to draw barcodes on the outside of black paper-cups for a bit of dash. I bought plain black and white cocktail napkins and stacked them alternately. Generic plastic silverware of course. ***REFRESHMENTS: We bought generic-brand soda (also got some name-brand and tore off the label replacing it with a B/W printed barcode and "[BRANDNAME] COLA"). We got generic party snacks like chips pretzels pizza etc. (store-brand where this wouldn't negatively impact flavor). I used big plain-silver mixing/serving bowls onto which I attached a label with a barcode and "CHIPS" or "DOODLES" etc to identify contents. ***CAKE: This was SO easy: I baked a 13x9 sheetcake with tons of white icing and used black writing-icing/gel to make a barcode on top with the barcode letters/numbers spelling out child's name and age; did varying vertical stripes on the stides. Used plain white candles. ***ACTIVITY/FAVOR: We had the kids make their own Pet Rock: we picked up likely rounded rocks at a local creek. I had googly-eyes and tacky-glue leftover from other projects. I also set out my box of random "craft stuff" leftover from other projects: jewels feathers poms little paints and brushes glass/plastic beads etc. Most of the guys were happy to just glue on googly-eyes (preferably mismatched in shape/size or in odd numbers). I also got little fold-up chinese-take-out-style boxes at the local dollar store (we took one with us when we went to pick-up the rocks to be sure they would fit) and some kids decorated those as well. I provided a bit of paper shreds to line the box. ***GAMES: We went for old standby generic party games with a little twist: we did "Pin the Star on the Barcode" (prize for closest to where child's age was noted). We played ball-toss and tug-of-war in the yard as well as "Capture the Flag" (at this age the kids are fairly well self-directed and need only a few directed games/guidance to keep them smoothly sailing along). We gave out dollar-store ribbons for prizes tried to get the goofiest ones ("I'm Special!"). We also have a longstanding party "trademark" of doing a Balloon Pop where we fill about 8-10 hefty bags with about 100-200 cheap latex balloons (pretty-much as many as we can stand to blow-up in the days before the party) then we dump them in an area and just let the kids have-at til they are all popped. We then give a prize to the kid who collects the most scraps so it's a self-cleaning-up game! ***FAVORS: You could put the usual sweets-and-stickers "stuff" into a brown paper lunchbag and print out/glue-on a B/W Barcode that says PARTY FAVORS/THANK YOU in place of numbers. We only had about 8 guests so we bought inexpensive teeshirts and I made an iron-on transfer that had a B/W barcode on the front and the words I AM NOT A NUMBER (go0gle images for "barcode not a number" to find this). On the back the transfer had the slogan "Always Remember: You Are Unique Just Like Everyone Else" in bright-red lettering and a funky font. With larger groups we have told kids to bring a teeshirt and I did the ironing-on during the party (takes very little time) while Dad was minding the kids. Or you can just give out the transfer for them to iron-on at home. My son was boggled to have a college kid compliment him on his "very cool" teeshirt!"
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