Birthday Tips

Teen Birthday Party Games

By the time a child reaches his or her teens, pin the tail on the donkey is just not that fun anymore. Luckily, there are many options that are perfect for teen birthday party games.

One idea that is fun for girls and a bit scary for any boys who are at the party is a scavenger hunt that is limited to purses. Break the kids up into teams and have the teams hunt for the items on the list in their team's purses. The first team to find everything on the list gets a special prize. (Obviously, there can't be any boys only teams, unless one of the boys is carrying a purse!)

Anything that is messy or gross is still popular with most teens. Egg races, guessing what is in different covered containers by feel or smell and water balloon wars are all good choices. Truth or dare type games are also very popular, but can sometimes get out of hand if they are not supervised.

For girls, any activities that have something to do with makeup, glamour photos or other girly themes are sure to be a hit. If most of them are similar in size, a wardrobe swap can also be fun. Have them each bring a few pieces to swap and make sure you have ten or so extra trendy pieces to add to the pile.

Teen Birthday Idea for a New Driver

Your child is just turning 16 and you need a fantastic teen birthday idea to commemorate this special day. If he or she is a new driver or is about to take the driving test, why not use this event as the party theme?

• Just because the car the birthday boy or girl currently drives is a real clunker, there is no reason to avoid party supplies with a sports car theme. However, if your child has a sense of humor, you may want to opt for supplies with the Cars cartoon movie characters on them, especially if they feature the battered, but goodhearted, Mater.
• Gifts for this party should be car related. Driving gloves, an old fashioned duster, an AAA membership, a GPS navigator, a lug wrench, an emergency battery charger, a tire pump that hooks into the lighter, mix CDs perfect for road trips and safe driving lessons are all great gifts for a new driver theme.
• Activities can include seeing who can take the worst drivers license photo at a station that has been set up to resemble your local drivers license mug shot area (Don't forget the stereotyped unhelpful and rude employee.) and a race car video game tournament.

18th Birthday Party Ideas

It can be a bit of a challenge to find some good 18^th birthday party ideas. Eighteen is an age when most children feel that they are adults. They can vote, join the army, or move out on their own. Boy bands and makeovers are no longer quite as exciting. So, what themes can you use for your child's 18th birthday?

For many teens, a visit to the local paintball range is plenty of fun, but it does cost quite a bit. Why not set up your own version of a paintball course?

• Collect light-colored, loose clothing that is no longer wanted or head to your local home improvement store to shop for painters' overalls. Don't forget to pick up protective eye gear, as well.
• Give the kids water guns instead of paintball guns and dye the water you put in the water guns for each team with a different color of food coloring.
• Create an obstacle course with plenty of things to hide behind and give each team a home base and a flag to guard. If your yard is small, ask a local farm or park if you can use space for the game.

13th Birthday Theme

Your child is turning 13 and is complaining that the adorable bedroom you so lovingly created several years ago is downright babyish. Why not throw a room makeover party for a 13^th birthday theme that is useful and makes your child happy?

• Make sure you pack up the room ahead of time. Four to six kids in one room equals a whole lot of awkward limbs waving about and everything fragile is living on borrowed time if it is still out.
• Allow your child to pick the paint color even if you hate it. After all, unless you are putting the house on the market next week, paint is just not a big deal. Since almost every teen wants a black room, be prepared for that request with a suggestion that you paint just one wall black or offer to allow black trim with a white or gray room. This way, when the black phase ends and you're trying to cover up that dark paint with a new color, you'll only have to put three or four coats of paint on a small portion of the room.
• Provide unlimited pizza and drinks for the hardworking teens and be prepared to do a lot of painting yourself when it turns out most of what they've applied has ended up in their hair and on their clothes.

Birthday Coloring Pages

Birthday coloring pages are great for kids who want to give cards to the birthday boy or girl that they've made themselves. They are also an ideal base for easy kids' birthday craft projects. You can find quite a few different free coloring pages with a quick web browser search.

• Be sure you don't go to a site that has a lot of pop-ups. Many times, coloring page sites are very ad heavy to make up for the high bandwidth costs of the graphics-intensive Web pages.
• If you aren't sure whether the image will print right, be sure to use the print preview option before you hit the print button. This shows you how the page will look after it prints and lets you see how many pages will be printing out. Many times, a second page with URLs or an ad comes out along with the coloring sheet. Seeing that there are two pages in the print preview page allows you to select the option to print just the current page with the coloring sheet on it.
• Once you have the coloring sheets printed out, take a quick look at them to think what else can be done to make them a bit more fun for the kids to work on. For example, if they are coloring a page with flowers on it, why not give them a few flower cutouts to glue on to the page, too?