Sweet 16 on a budget?

[TheRatPack]

Okay...so I want to do a Sweet and 'Sour' 16th birthday party for my oldest son. I wanted to do a candy/dessert buffet for the sweet part....he absolutely is a sugary, sweet tooth kind of guy LOL But for the 'sour' manly part of the 16th birthday party....what do I choose? I thought about Paintball but it's 40.00 per person....YOWSERS. What's another manly youthful thing for a bunch of teens to get together and do LOL???

And it really has to be budget....I could take 2 or 3 of them for Paintball but I'm always against things that the whole group can't do....people feel left out then so I try to avoid party venues I can't afford to let everyone join in. He's not a hunter, not much of a fisher and we don't own dirt bikes LOL

One more question....would it be wrong to print up 2 invitations and invite everyone to the dessert buffet and then invite his 2 or 3 closest friends to the sour portion of the party...maybe the next day or something like that? That way he could celebrate with friends and family on one day and then celebrate paintball the next?

 

[mom2cookies]

My opinion/suggestion lol

idk if you already intend to do this.. but you can have sweet and sour candy for the " big" party and go ahead and have an event party with just a few friends but don't officially call it a birthday party and have it AFTER the candy buffet party. I say after so that those that won't be invited won't feel left out or feelings hurt when hearing your son and closer friends talking about it. In April i had a candy buffet for DD's 16th, it was a great hit with the guys and the girls lol. They are an active group, so i had them go on a scavenger hunt with my daughter being one of the things they had to find lol.

Also for a pretty much free activity... you can go geo-caching. Here is a link if you are unfamiliar with that
http://www.geocaching.com/

... usually the " boxes" are in public parks... turn the party into a picnic and go back home for dessert. Hot dogs are budget friendly lol

 

[Priorityonecb]

Do you have an outdoor area for fun at your house? For our budget graduation party last year the kids played basketball, volleyball, trampoline, sat around a bonfire for hours talking and laughing, lit sparklers etc. This year we've added a pool which would have been a great addition to the fun.

All I did was order pizza and put out some cupcakes (which no one ate! LOL) chips/dip and a veggie tray (which was a huge hit...odd!). You could do your sweet candy buffet and put out little bags as they are leaving the party to fill their bags and that can be their "goodie bag".

 

[lovesmurfs]

Okay...so I want to do a Sweet and 'Sour' 16th birthday party for my oldest son. I wanted to do a candy/dessert buffet for the sweet part....he absolutely is a sugary, sweet tooth kind of guy LOL But for the 'sour' manly part of the 16th birthday party....what do I choose? I thought about Paintball but it's 40.00 per person....YOWSERS. What's another manly youthful thing for a bunch of teens to get together and do LOL???

And it really has to be budget....I could take 2 or 3 of them for Paintball but I'm always against things that the whole group can't do....people feel left out then so I try to avoid party venues I can't afford to let everyone join in. He's not a hunter, not much of a fisher and we don't own dirt bikes LOL

One more question....would it be wrong to print up 2 invitations and invite everyone to the dessert buffet and then invite his 2 or 3 closest friends to the sour portion of the party...maybe the next day or something like that? That way he could celebrate with friends and family on one day and then celebrate paintball the next?

We've done that before -- it works well, but I usually tell the kids to keep the next day's event low-key and not mention it during the party so that others' feelings aren't hurt.

What about laser tag, if you have it in your area? I don't think it's as expensive. Does your park district have a pool that you can invite friends to? It's a matter of personality -- my DS16 wouldn't want to do the pool thing.

What does DS want to do?

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Bowling? Little less expensive than paintball.

The kids around here are obsesssed with scavenger hunts these days.

 

[NHdisneylover]

For sweet and sour do the candy buffet with sour lemonade to drink.

You could come up with a scavenger hunt that works with the theme somehow. We used to do photo scavenger hunts with the theatre group (largely teens). Give each group a digital camera to us (you can have them bring their own r use the cameras on their phones) and a list of photos have they have to get. Things like:

The team all holding a roll of sweet tarts.
A team member making a sour face "at" a certain local statue.
One male team member wearing a "sweet" oink bow in his hair on Main Street.
etc.

Have a prize for the first team back. Make it "On foot" only so no one is tempted to speed. Have a campfire at the end (with S'Mores for a sweet ending maybe?) and they will entertain themselves laughing over their adventures.

I agree with others that if you want to do paintball do it AFTER the part and call it a gift to him NOT a party.

 

[TheRatPack]

Thanks everyone Sadly the pool idea isn't so hot around here anymore...we have a pool so it's kind of a non special thing for him now. We did do a pool party a couple of times though....it's great party entertainment LOL with little to no planning other than food.

I think that would be a good idea to just give him the paintball as a gift later in the week or something....that way no ones feelings are hurt. I know we have quite a few adult men that would expect us to pay for them to play too and at 40.00 a person it's just not feasible.

My husband mentioned the gocart track too....or laser tag like a PP mentioned. Those are also things we have in the area too that I could do. Then again, the idea of setting up volleyball courts and such is a good idea too....we have quite a bit of land so we could have 2 or 3 different game fields going. Two years ago we did the 4th of July thing too with sparklers and s'mores....everyone really enjoyed that.

Thanks everyone for all the ideas....trying to make it special for him but we definitely can't compete with many sweet 16th parties out there LOL He'll be appreciative that he just got a party....that takes some of the pressure off LOL