Have you asked her what she wants to do?
Yes, but she keeps changing her mind.

I was hoping to come up with something out of the ordinary for us but not too expensive.
My dd turned 13 this year. We had her 4 best friends and went to a movie follwed by lunch at Melting Pot. None of the girls had ever been and really enjoyed the experience. It was a great day!
A nice restaurant, that's a good idea. Thanks.
a limo scavenger hunt. Really wasn't much $ as we did it on a weekday morning during vacation. Can you wait until school is out?
I had small trinkets hidden all over town: grocery store hid something behind the customer service desk, our hairdresser, small mom/pop gift shop, and gave them clues as to where we needed to go. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts first and got hot chocolate and munchkins. They had to take a picture at each stop. We also stopped at the Dollar Tree and I gave each of them another girls name and $1 and they had to buy her a gift. You could give them small challenges at each stop as well.
We ended at a small restaurant for lunch but they really weren't hungry from all the sugar.
I would like to wait until at least the end of June, for better luck of hot weather! DD wants it right on the day of - which luckily is a weekend. That's an interesting idea. I bet they had fun.
My dd had a slumber party at a local hotel. They went swimming in the indoor pool, went out to dinner, had breakfast and swam again. It was great because it's not swimming weather here, and the indoor pool made it special.
See, I thought swimming would be great! I thought a day out at an ourdoor swim pool with huge slides, a mini golf place and coke & burgers would be fun. Followed by a sleepover in the playroom with movies, junk food, nail polish & makeup. But DD nixs that idea as she is afraid she (or a friend or two) would not be able to go swimming, depending on the date we picked. If you get my drift?
A girl at dd's school just rented a limo, drove about 45 min to the mall, did basic nails for all the girls, had pizza at mall, then home. Sounded like a fun party.
That's a good idea as well. DD keeps asking about make-up. There's a nice place in a nearby mall where they could get made up as a special treat. Thanks.
Our DD is turning 13 in September. For us, 13 will mark a "rite of passage" birthday. We plan to kidnap her and her best friend from school and take them away for the weekend...no siblings allowed. We have had several "lots of friends" parties, but we want to make this a more special and intimate time to celebrate her moving into "womanhood". We plan to take them to Gatlinburg, which is 3 hours away from us.
I also like the idea that tessieg had about taking them to Melting Pot. Just something more special and intimate verses a big party. Thsi lets them know how special it is to become a teenager. Celebrate it and make her feel special, beautiful and loved during this time when they so often lose their identity.
I like that! My DD hates surprises but would not be so upset if her BF was clueless as well.
I also thought something smaller with just 1 or 2 friends would be much more special for turning 13. Which also fits in well with DD having few friends.
For my dd's 13th birthday we did a night at Coco Key wjth her and just a couole of friends. We did a Friday night so they could use the waterpark that night and again before we left Saturday.
That would be amazing! Actually (and
kwelch - this is the one idea DD never strays from) DD has been asking for months if we could go to Disney for her birthday.

Poor kid. I know how she feels and do I not just wish!
When I turned 12 my parents took my best friend and I horseback riding and I absolutely loved that.
When my sister & I each turned 16 (we're a year apart), a fancy car picked us up at school (she got a limo and I got my favorite car...a pink cadillac convertible), and drove us places. For her birthday, we were driven to the mall where we got Clinique makeovers and the associate handed us an envelope with money in it for us to purchase one makeup item each (my parents drove to the mall separately which we didn't know and handed the envelope to the associate before we got there). Then, we got our nails done I think, and finally, we all went out to dinner at Red Robin. It was so fun! For my 16th, it wasn't quite as elaborate, the pink cadillac took us to the bowling alley (I loved bowling) and then we went out to dinner somewhere. Oh, and when they picked us up at school, they held a sign with our name on it and had a bouquet of flowers. It was so awesome!
If you really want to be able to do Cirque du Soleil (I LOVE), you could consider calling her friends' parents to see if they might be interested in helping pay for their child to go. Maybe you could contribute a portion (half?) for each friend? It would only be appropriate to ask if you actually know all of the parents, though.
That's an idea. DD's BF has had horseback riding lessons weekly for years. But DD has never been on a horse.
See, I
really love the Cirque idea as well! And the Michael Jackson Immortal Tour will be in Toronto late July. I think it would totally blow her mind!

I just priced out tickets again to the tune of $703 for 5 people...

Ticketmaster quotes $125 plus $15 fee per ticket.
Totem cost a pretty penny last September too. I'm almost regretting seeing La Nouba on our Disney trip. I never heard of Cirque du Soleil until then. La Nouba was so cheap! (we only paid $50-$55 per ticket).
I'm going to talk to my husband and see how much he would mind if I just took DD and her BF. He and DS stay home. Even then it will cost $421 for 3 tickets. It's just 3-4 days before my birthday however. That could count as my birthday present too, right?
