Birthday Ideas....Help

LOL Your son is very popular. I wouldn't rely on preteens to do any RSVPing. Just put out plenty of food and see who shows.

That still cracks me up, though. I don't think my mother would have called any of my birthdays "stressfests." But of course, I'm an introvert and I hate parties. :p She always begs me to tell her what I want "special" on my birthday. Yesterday she said, "What do you want special for dinner on your birthday?"
I said, "To not have to sit down to a dinner."
Mom: "Well, it's your day. What would make it special for you?"
Me: "Give me lots of money. And a job."
Mom: "Well, a job is not within my power. Money is. But it's not within my ethics."
Me: "Is purple hair dye within your ethics?"
Mom: "No."
Me: "How about a digital camera, laptop, and webcam?"
Mom: *rueful smirk*

*sigh* :rolleyes:

would board games work at all? or no? like yatzee, (sp?) babble, etc. just the short ones.
wasn't sure, so didn't want to mention, but like i play online babble, there are lots of players.

just reread "like i play" - that reeks of california. :D

btw, it's a little addicting, but here's the address if anyone's interested:
http://www.playbabble.com/index.php?pid=437

i dont think i could get everyone to agree on a game, let alone focus on it for more than a second....maybe truth or dare? or spin the bottle? NOT!
i now have fifteen confirmed tweens...ten of which are girls...im going to have to recruit adult males to dance with some of these little girls. thank goodness the kids are taller than they used to be!

then i like the food/movie idea.

popcorn? only because it's my favorite snack, and you mentioned movies. :)

i think i would prefer it that way, but i think that i would have a hard time fitting all the kids in my itty bitty living space, especially cause it is overwhelmed with boxes and piles of stuff ready to pack. if there arent many kids coming, i was going to do the movie thing, but if there are enough that its not just two kids dancing with each other while one sits and watches, then it should work out. i have great lighting, and some of that stuff you put on the fire to make it different colors (i dont want to hear about the chemical make up of it, either...i know). add snacks and adult supervision and i should be good to go. thanks for all help...mucho!
Wish me luck~!

best of! wow, his last b-day before the teen years. enjoy, both of you! :) the three of you, i mean.

:bday_2: Patrick!!!

VB,

How'd it go?

is tonight at eight....am frantically preparing...
guess what? its pouring rain :rage:

figures,

Ah well, that's good craps shootin' weather.

okay, so this is how it went down:
we set up the dance in the carport; we hung balloons and a black light and had tiki torches surrounding the driveway. i outlined the "dance floor" with a string of rope lights and we had a table set up for food and a scaled down tee pee for the presents. all the children arrived and set about popping all the balloons and eating all the snacks, while studiously avoiding one another. then i brought out trays of watermelon and they then engaged in the most rabid war of "spit seeds on your friends" imaginable, in the pouring rain. when they were all dried off and it got dark, we lit the torches and the chimmnea (which had some of those packages of stuff that makes the flames different colors) and then spent the next hour trying to prevent the children from setting themselves on fire. we solved that by stationing my boyfriend, with his huge arms folded across his chest forbiddingly, in front of the fire. (dont forget he is a fairly large man, and has the forbidding look down pat, as he is not only a soldier, but he does teach in boot camp!)
so we got down to the music part. the kids picked out all the music, so most of the adults were tortured by the sounds. it rather seemed a waste as when the music started the kids lined up all around the perimeter of the carport, avoiding the inside of the rope light dance floor as if it were a mine field. we left them standing there for a while, though, as it was easier to keep tabs on them when they were all frozen into immobility, but eventually we encouraged a breakdancing competition, laid down cardboard and quilts and laughed our butts off at these kids trying to be cool!
as the competition started to wind down, we brought out cake and ice cream, followed by presents. that kept the kids occupied as they all tried on his new clothes and such, and fought over the toys. i think really they are no different now than they were when they were younger, except there were more facial piercings and they are more fascinated with fire (mostly the boys, i think that might be a puberty thing, though....hmmm....fire.....must create fire...?)
all in all, it was a success. the kids all had fun, no one got hurt or inflamed, and nothing got severely broken. i am still cleaning up watermelon seeds and dead balloon skins from my yard, and i was required to sleep till one in the afternoon the following day. i think however, we have recovered and will be ready for the next one, in a year or so. i think next time, i'll send them paintballing (with his dad?). whew. glad its over for now. thanks for your help!

I'm glad you survived the party. I didn't have any ideas for a boys party. This year we had a slumber party for my daughter's 10th birthday (NEVER EVER EVER EVER AGAIN). There were 16 little ten year old girls.
I had a friend of mine, who teaches belly dancing, come to my house and show the girls how to belly dance. That was hysterical. Ten year olds have no coordination. I was laughing so hard.
She also had a few games to play with the kids.
Then there was cake, fruit and veggie trays, and she wanted me to cook a brisket and mac and cheese.
By midnight three had called to go home.
By 3 in the morning I was counting the minutes till they would go home.

I am definitely not looking forward to her teenage years.

I don't know about fire being just a guy thing, I love fire, and creating it is well within my capabilities. Glad that it turned out okay even though it was raining.

VBM, Bravo! Bravo! Encore! Encore!

Excellente, este es muy bueno senora.

With that description, I am sure that I’ve been there before. I have a vivid picture of the stoic soldier pulling a gratuitous guard-duty tour for his sweetie.

Sorry but my mind is weak and I can’t get the dark-green Canadian fatigue color in my head. Although I do see: big fore arms folded, desert-tan cammy’s, brown polypropylene T-shirt, tan suede combat boots, high and tight hair cut, and an “if you eff with me, I will rip your heart out and stomp that sucker flat” - look.

Aiy, ayi, ayi. That was fun.

Thank you.

wauuuu.... this ended very well, indeed.... congratulations that you survived...
I wouldn't dare to do it. had once two children plus several friends in the house, two of mine friends were badly attacked by the three year old one... :mad: my sister was crying because of that little cutie... :mad: and I was mad... ended well for me :brow: after all...

so it is great that your party was that well...