How to Plan a Tween Birthday Party

My daughter just turned 12 on Saturday.  It was hard for her to decide how she wanted to celebrate her birthday this year.  She is too old for the traditional kiddie birthday party, but still young enough to want to make it a big deal.  She thought about going to the trampoline park or skating rink, but she also wanted all the family to be there.   Since she is one of the youngest of her cousins most of them would not participate for jumping or skating.  She thought about having a family party at a restaurant, but couldn’t decide on a restaurant and wanted to be able to invite friends from school as well.  We have been talking about this for several months, but she didn’t make up her mind until last weekend.  She finally decided to have a friends and family party at our church fellowship hall.

The Week Before

Once the time and place had been decided we invited everyone at church, sent out invitations online, and printed a some for her to take to school to invite her friends.  Once the invitations had been sent out, then we had to decide what we were going to serve and how she wanted to decorate.

She has had an ongoing love of all things unicorn for the last year or so.  She just keeps liking them more and more.  One of her favorite Christmas gifts was a stuffed unicorn.  So a unicorn themed birthday party was a no brainer.  We bought unicorn plates, napkins, tablecloths and decorations.

She doesn’t like the traditional kiddie party food like hamburgers and hot dogs.  She likes real home cooked meals and that is what she decided on for her party.  She wanted me to make baked chicken, little hamburgers, baked beans, green beans, corn casserole, slaw and sweet tea.  I was going to make stewed potatoes, but she wanted my best friend to make her mashed potatoes instead.  Her aunt made no-bake cookies and her granny made her famous cherry punch.

I offered to make a unicorn cupcake cake or rainbow swirled cupcakes, but she decided that she wanted a store cake with whipped icing.  It had a picture of a unicorn and a heart on it and she loved it.  It actually ended up being a good thing because our week was extremely busy with 2 soccer games, band performance, a family funeral, and my son’s prom.

Before the game on Monday, we went to Dollar Tree and Walmart to buy the party supplies.  We thought that we would find some good deals at Dollar Tree, but all we ended up buying there were plastic tablecloths which were 3 cents cheaper at Walmart and there was a better selection of colors.  All the party goods we bought were 97 cents each.

Tuesday after her band performance we went back to Walmart and ordered her cake and bought most of the food for the party.  After Walmart we stopped at Aldi to buy the ground beef and a few other items I prefer to purchase there.

We had a lot of chicken leg quarters in the freezer, so we put them in a cooler to let them start to thaw on Wednesday since we didn’t have room in the refrigerator for all of them.

I mixed up the little hamburgers on Thursday.  I made a double batch so we would have enough for the party.  Once they were cooked and cooled, I put them in a zipper bag in the fridge.

On Friday, my husband helped me cut the leg quarters up into thighs and legs so they would be easier to cook and eat.  I got all the slow cookers out and laid out everything that we needed for the birthday party.  After we finished taking pictures at Grand March for the prom, we ran to a local grocery store to pick up the slaw mix and ice cream.  She picked out rainbow sherbet and vanilla ice cream.

The Party Day

Then the big day arrived.  After I fixed her favorite breakfast, I started getting ready for the party by putting the chicken in the brine to soak.  While it was soaking, I stirred up the brown gravy and put the little hamburgers in the slow cooker to heat up, put the baked beans and green beans in slow cookers to cook, stirred up the slaw and made the sweet tea.

Then it was time to get the chicken ready to bake.  I dried and seasoned the chicken, placing it in 3 large pans.  My husband took 2 of the pans to my parent’s and his sister’s houses to cook on his way to pick up the cake and ice.  I cooked one pan in my oven along with the corn casserole.  While the chicken and corn casserole cooked, I took my shower and got ready.  When they got back from town, it was time to load up and take everything to church.

We arrived about an hour early so we could decorate and get everything ready.  The kids played for awhile and then we served the food about 30 minutes later to make sure everyone had time to arrive.  I forgot to take the candles to church so we just sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her before we served the cake and ice cream.

The kids played outside on the swing set and with some balls and a frisbee on and off during the party.  I didn’t do any specific games or activities since we had a wide variety of ages, we just let them play.

Everyone seemed to have a good time and Shaylee was able to enjoy time with all of her family and friends from 7 weeks to 79 years old.  After we cleaned up the fellowship hall, we brought everything home and put all the leftovers in the fridge, then we spent the rest of the night playing cards with my son and his girlfriend.

Looking Back

While it was a stressful week that required a lot of planning and work on my part, I think it was a very successful party.  I spent about $25 on decorations and party supplies, another $25 on the cake and ice, but the main expense was the food.  I am not sure how much it cost since I already had some of the items in the house.  None of the sides were very expensive and I spent less than $40 on the food this week, but that didn’t include any of the chicken since it was already in my freezer stash.  I spent less than $100 for the total party, but even if I had to have purchased everything this week, it would have been under $150 which is usually the bottom amount for any of the planned parties at the trampoline parks, bounce houses and other party places.  It ended up being a fairly frugal party for about 30 people and we have enough leftovers for several meals as well.  We ate supper out of them last night and I plan to make chicken enchiladas and chicken dumpling casserole next week.

How do your tweens celebrate?  Do they like big parties, small gatherings, family or friends?  Leave a comment and let me know.

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