Party plans for thrifty people: you don’t have to have a lot of money to have a lot of fun!

Preparing for a birthday sleepover party for a soon-to-be 12 year old girl can be a lot of work. Here is some of the prep work and planning we are doing this year. I was definitely focusing on doing things frugally, and have made more work for myself in some cases.
Party preparation timeline (Word doc)

Invitation

I used a graphics program to create a custom invitation. We used a swirly purple graphic and a butterfly. We sent the invite to be printed at the local CVS, printing them just like a photo. Normally I would just print them, but my printer is on the fritz.

Decorations

Tissue paper pom poms from the Martha Stewart site that are always pretty.
We will also be making some tie-dye coffee filter butterflies to hang.
We will be cutting stars out of cardboard saved from boxes and covering them with tin foil.

Party food

Make your own quesadillas – cheese, salsa, sour cream, refried beans, guacamole, onions, peppers, chicken, pepperoni, mushrooms, meat. Precooked veggies 350 deg 10 min (WW Core Mexican Rice, Refried Beans). We are going to use food coloring to paint initials on these.
Chocolate dipped_____ (World’s Best Butter Cookies, Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies, Homemade Marshmallows, pretzel sticks, chips, strawberries, pickles)
Cucumber Tea Sandwiches
Edna’s Apple Crumble/Crisp w/Never Weep Whipped Cream
Nachos Real Old Mexico Style (Refried Beans, Salsa)
Whoopie Pies
Chocolate Mug Cake
County Fair Kettle Korn
Grapes
Ginger ale, Sprite
Frosty Fruity Sodas
Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Ice cream

Morning After:

Home Baked Bagels (cream cheese)
Homemade Pop Tarts
Waffles
Fruit

Sleepover Activities

Sprinkler, water balloons, giant bubbles

Spa Night
Several of the goody bag favors are for the spa night. There are emery boards in there. There are headbands to hold hair back for the facial mask, and microfiber facial scrubbers to wash it off. There are socks to keep feet soft after the foot scrub.
Hand and Foot Scrub
Oatmeal and Yogurt Face Mask
Nails, makeup

Karaoke
We will use the karaoke machine (from a yard sale) we have with several karaoke sites. You can use a computer microphone as well, you don’t need a machine. Disney Sing It is also available for PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, and Wii.
Try these karaoke sites:
The Karaoke Channel Online
SingSnap
FreeKaraoke.com
Karaoke.com

Music Videos
Once they have done their spa night and makeovers we will make music videos. We will use my camera that takes video and the karaoke machine (you can just use a webcam). The videos will be taken off the camera and emailed home if they like. If you think they will want to put them on YouTube you should speak to the other parents first and get their permission.

Make chocolate dipped _____ (World’s Best Butter Cookies, Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies, Marshmallows, pretzel sticks, chips, strawberries…)

Board games

Wii games

Netflix movies – We will use the Wii to watch Netflix streaming movies. Some G and PG movie ideas are:
Alice in Wonderland
The Cheetah Girls
Emma
High School Musical
The Princess and the Frog
Ponyo.

Games:

Truth or Dare

Download my “Safe” Truth-or-Dare Game Questions and Dares for younger girls/tweens printable text

Take Test Your Survival Skills quiz

He Said She Said – To play, sit all your guests in a circle. Each one should have a piece of paper and a pencil. At the top of the paper they write a girl’s name, then fold it over. Then the pass it to the person on their right, and write a boy’s name, then fold and pass. Then you write where they went, what he said, what she said, and an ending, passing the paper to the right in between each. But no peeking at what other people already wrote, or it won’t be as fun! In the end each guest will get to read their story out loud.

Creating Fashion Designs – Print out croquis/paper dolls off the internet and make designer outfits using glitter glue. Then vote “survivor” style on the best design. Be aware of what your fashion templates look like, the ones I linked to are a little more realistic in the proportions of their body.

Piggies in a Blanket – One person, who is the ‘farmer’ goes out of the room. Then, all the rest of the people hide in their sleeping bags, or other people’s. When everyone is ready, the farmer comes back in, and sits on someone. They say, “Piggy piggy!” and the person has to disguise their voice and say ‘oink oink!’ The farmer has to guess who they have caught. If they guess correctly, they come out of the sleeping bag and they are the farmer. If they’re wrong, they are silent and the farmer tries again with someone else until they figure it out.

Two Truths and a Lie – Have all guests write three statements, two of which are true and one of which is a lie, on a piece of paper. Guests should take turns reading the paper and having the group raise their hand when they hear the statement that they think is the lie.

Favor Bags

These favor bags cost me $4.06 each. Almost all of these items I got at the local dollar store. I wanted less candy and more “real” items. The cheap junk we usually get in goody bags always gets thrown away.

White lunch bags $0.04 each
Glow sticks 4 pack don’t open them until you’re ready to give them out (yes I learned this the hard way) $0.25 each
Bread sticks and cheese dippers 5 pack $0.20 each
Microfiber facial scrubbers 3 pack For facial scrubs $0.34 each
Headbands 8 pack For facial scrubs $0.13 each
Ankle socks 3 pack For after foot soak $0.34 each
Emery board 4 pack $0.25 each
Pop rocks 3 pack $0.34 each
Ring pop 4 pack $0.25 each
Poptarts 6 pack Have to bag individually $0.17 each
Chocolate Cake Bath Salts for favors $0.26 each
Oatmeal Milk and Honey Facial Scrub for favors $0.77 each

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*Also see our Teen Zombie Walk Makeup with Frugal Recipes

DIY Glow Party Teen Birthday – Free Printable Neon Invitations

Photo credits
Chocolate dipped homemade marshmallows jasonlam on Flikr
Cookie cake cup.cakers on Flikr
Giant bubble GrahamKing on Flikr
Facial mask FoundryParkInn on Flikr
Croquis irina ivanova on Flikr
Emery boards ohdearbarb on Flikr
Bath salts natalieingram on Flikr

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We hope you enjoyed Tween Girl Rock Star Spa Night Birthday Sleepover Party

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