12271

Sleepover Party -13yr- Mall Scavenger Hunt

October 2005

Christina in Bakersfield, CA

Runner-Up

My daughter just turned 13 and I wanted this to be an extra special birthday but it also had to be cool.  We decided on a nontraditional sleepover party.  The guests and my daughter would be picked up from school on Friday and be taken to our local Mall for a scavenger hunt and then back to our house for the party.  THEME:  Her theme consisted of her two favorite colors; green and purple. 

INVITATION:  The invitations were simple.  We bought round note cards that were light green and light purple and vellum.  I printed the invitation on the vellum, cut it in a circle, slightly smaller than the note card, punched two holes and attached it at the top with a ribbon.  I put the invitation in the envelope with confetti.  I had cookies made in the shape of a flip flop in green and purple with the number 13 on the heal, punched a hole in the invitation’s envelope and attached it to the cookie with ribbon. 

DECORATIONS:  The decorations were also simple.  I hung a Happy Birthday sign from the eve of the house in front of the front door.  Inside the house were five dozen green and purple balloons with matching curling ribbon floating from the ceiling.  The food was set up on the kitchen table with a tablecloth with green and purple balloons on it.  The plates were alternating green and purple and the napkins were green, purple and white striped and white with green and purple dots, also alternating.  The cups were Hawaiian print in green and purple (the set came with more colors but I picked out all of the green and purple ones).  For my daughter’s birthday present, my husband and I decided that instead of picking the party guest up in our cars that we would rent a Limousine to pick up the girls from school. 

PARTY DAY:  The Limo arrived about five minutes before school was out.  Earlier in the day, I had made a sign that said Happy Birthday Bailey with confetti all over it.  My daughter called me from her cell phone when school was out to see where we were waiting.  She gathered up her friends and headed out to where I told her to meet us.  I was standing in front of the Limo with the sign (and video camera) and the driver was standing next to the open door.  When Bailey and her friends saw the Limo they stopped and stared for a few seconds.  The 10 girls piled into the Limo and headed to the Mall while my husband and I followed them in my car. 

GAMES:  Our first game was a Mall Scavenger Hunt.  The Sunday before the party I had gone to the mall and picked items from some stores.  I bought green paper with purple circles to print the clues and game rules on and matching envelopes.  The teams were named Team Frog and Team Monkey (2 of my daughter’s favorites).  Each team had to figure out the store and the item from the clues that I gave them.  The clues consisted of things like 1. Go to an OLD store and buy the following 2 items.  Do not spend more than $11 total A purse on clearance that has one of Bailey’s favorite colors in it and A Halloween item that keeps your feet warm. The Store was Old Navy and they were to buy a purse with green in it and a pair of Halloween socks.  Each team had five stores to go to and seven items to buy.

When the girls got out of the limo, each one picked an envelope.  Two of the envelopes had money in them.  The girls divided into their teams.  The two girls who picked the envelopes with the money were the team captains and were responsible for the money.  Once the teams were divided, I passed out shirts that I had made, five in green and five in purple.  The front of the shirts said, Bailey’s 13th birthday party and the back said Team Frog or Team Monkey.  I cut the letters out of green, purple and white plaid fabric and ironed them onto the shirts.  Each team had 30 minutes to complete the scavenger hunt.  The winner was determined by the amount of points they earned.  The winning team received a prize.  When each team was done, we met them in the food court and bought them all lemonade.  When they were done, they called the Limo driver to pick them up and headed to a local ice cream parlor. 

After ice cream they were taken back to our house.  When we got to our house, each girl called their parent so that they could drop off their suitcases and sleeping bags.  Once everyone had made their phone calls, I ordered pizza for dinner and passed out a green or purple gift bag to each girl that I had decorated with their name and frogs and moneys so that they would have a bag to put all of the prizes that they would win throughout the night.  The next thing we did was a piñata.  After the girls were loaded down with candy we headed back into the house and moved all of the furniture against the walls in the living room. I had the girls get back in their team monkey and team frog teams and did a relay race.  I set a bowl of clothes pins between the two teams.  Each team member had to get a clothespin from the bowl and run across the living room with a clothespin between their knees, pick the clothespin up to their chest and drop it in a water bottle.  When the bowl was empty, the game was over.  A prize was given to the winning team. 

The next game we played was the candy in the jar game.  I bought a green sports bottle and stuffed it with suckers and had each guest guess how many suckers were in the sports bottle.  The prize was the candy stuffed sports bottle. We had a gift-wrapping contest.  The girls went three at a time and had a box, a piece of wrapping paper and tape.  They had to wrap the gift, put two colors of curling ribbon, a nametag and write their name on the tag.  The first one finished in each heat won a prize.  These were sent home with the girls the next day with a notebook and matching pencil in them.  The last game that we played was similar to musical chairs but cooler.  The girls sat in a circle with nine hats and wigs in the middle.  I played music as they walked in a circle.  When the music stopped, each girl grabbed a hat or wig and put it on.  The one without a hat or wig was out.  Each round, a hat or wig was taken out.  The winner of this game received a prize.  I also gave prizes for the first and last present opened and put a sticker under two dinner plates and two cake plates.  Those guests also won prizes. 

After dinner we ate a giant, decorated cookie (my daughter doesn’t like cake) and opened gifts.  The girls played music, danced and videotaped the party throughout the night.  Around 10p they got their sleeping bags out and got into their PJ’s.  I popped popcorn and they sat on their sleeping bags and made lanyard string key chains.  When they were done, we got the movies out.  My daughter picked two PG13 movies Boogieman and Beauty Shop. 

THE NEXT MORNING:  I woke the girls up around 8am and went out to get the newspaper. I had bought a small ad with her picture that said Happy 13th birthday.  I cooked waffles, bacon and hash browns for breakfast while the girls watched the video from the day before.  After breakfast, they picked up their sleeping bags, got dressed and went outside to play volleyball and wait for their parents.  THANK YOU CARDS:  As a thank you, I make copies of the video that they shot for each guest.  I scanned the ad that I had bought for the newspaper and transferred it onto a label for the front of the videotape and attached a thank you card that my daughter had written.  The girls had a great time and I am sure that my daughter will always remember her 13th birthday.

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