tell me what you did for your dd's sweet 16 birthday party???

[dis2cruise]

not sure if i want to do the party thing...with the cost (some around here go for $10,0000 ) and the chance of kids bringing alcohol and we as parents are resonsable and i don't want to be a reck during the whole party
worring about that. My dd will be 16 next year so I am a mom who always plans ahead.

 

[Soulsearching]

not sure if i want to do the party thing...with the cost (some around here go for $10,0000 ) and the chance of kids bringing alcohol and we as parents are resonsable and i don't want to be a reck during the whole party
worring about that. My dd will be 16 next year so I am a mom who always plans ahead.

I cancelled it. I'm a bad mother. I was a wreck. She cried alot, but truly understood where I was coming from. I was not going down that road.

I surprised her with a much smaller party (50) with all of her friends that she is truly friends with and she had a wonderful time. Shocked at the surprise.

Got her tiara, bought her roses, gave her the money I would have spent as a gift, took lots of pictures. Later made her a scrapbook, also made a cd with pictures and music, which she loves.

 

[Kelliroo3]

Mine was at a bowling alley with close friends. Why invite people in school who are not even your friends. I don't get it.

 

[cmrules]

Does she love Disney? Why not offer to let her pick 2 friends and you take them all to disney. Even with air fare and park tickets you will spend a quarter of what others seem to be spending and she will have wonderful memories.

That is what my BIL and SIL do for Spring break for college for their kids. They are DVC, so the kids earn the rest of the money and they can each take a friend and the 4 girls go to disney. They just feel it is SOOOO much safer than some island where there is a bunch of drinking and drunkeness.

 

[ptmmg]

We rented a limo and did a scavenger hunt around the center of town. I had a bunch of clues to different places to go ie the library and check out a book by a certain childrens author then they would have to get a pic with everybody together sitting on the stairs of the library reading the book. the next clue sent them to a pet groomer where they had to get a pic standing in front of the store posing as their favorite animal lol. They had to do a pyramid in the town gazebo. There were about 10 places they had to go. I also had clues to certain object that they either could buy cheaply or have in their purses. ie Paper clip, gum ect. Then they all went out to eat I pre ordered pitches of soda and a bunch of appetizers. All the kids had a great time and dd has some great photos of her party! Some parties can get outrages I think a lot has to do with that show on mtv "My Sweet 16" where parents spend $100,000 on a rolleyes1

 

[SHAYMARAYSMOM]

When our DD turned 16 we did the big party. I had her invites done on a cd with the the song she 16 she is beutiful and she is mine playing in the back ground with the some doing to voice of where and when the party was being held. She did not know about the party until the day of it when the hall we rented and asked to speak to her father and when she said he was out he said oh are you the one they are throwing the surpise party for tonight. DUH I could have screamed when I found out. But we never had any trouble and there was between family and friends about 200 people. Her friends still talk about it.

 

[singitalto]

We just had a sw16 for my DD. in January. There was about 100 family and friends there. We rented a K of C Hall which provided soda ($1000 for hall) Then to keep costs down I made some food and had some catered(heros, some italian dishes, etc) My DH worked for a DJ company, so his friends DJ the party. They were great. In total for everything it was about $2500-$3000. Not cheap in my book, but it was THE party of the year for the kids. My DD said it was the best day of her life!! All the kids had a great time. It totally is the DJ that makes or breaks the party.

BTW- I offered the Disney trip with friends or a party and she took the party.

 

[Darcy03231]

We did a 2 week trip to Orlando last summer with our family. The night of her birthday we went to dinner at the restaurant of her choice. She picked the trip over the party.

 

[kandeebunny]

I have a choice of a party or a trip with a friend.

I opted for a trip, I chose to go to Montreal with a friend. I have the best memories from that. The private school I went to for high school was notorious for those huge over the top parties, thankfully for my Mom I didn't want one.

 

[Kelliroo3]

Wow you guys really went all out, I feel jipped lol.

 

[mitchwebb]

My daughter is just turning 15 but has already planned her 16th. She wants to take her three best friends to Santa Cruz for the weekend (with mom in tow).
The beach and boadwalk they will have a blast.

 

[StephMK]

Wow you guys really went all out, I feel jipped lol.

I thought I had a great time - I took 2 friends to the local amusement park for the day & my parents got me a little diamond chip necklace. Of course, that was eons ago according to DD14.

Wow, I didn't realize they were that "big" now. I don't remember anyone having a big party when I was young. We will probably do a trip w/DD, she wants to go back to Disney & that would be about when we'll be able to go back. If we're going to spend thousands, it will be on a family trip. I just can't see spending all that on a party, imo. She may get DH's really old Buick if it still runs since we don't have free transportation to her HS.

If we do a party at all, it would be a HS grad party but even then, our family is so spread out it might be tough.

 

[cats mom]

We gave our girls the option of a party or a trip.
Both chose the trip.
Thank goodness

 

[wishspirit]

i can't really remeber (and heck im only 19!)

I think it was the last day of term tht day, so we had a half day and i brought loads of friends home for the afternoon, watched movies and ate food. I'm not really into hosting parties, too much stress.

The big one in England is 18, when you are legally an 'adult' and can drink. My birthday was a non issue, it was tiny! I had my closest friends over for a sleepover!

 

[twoeeyy]

DD turns 16 this Oct. We are of course going to WDW. We have been taking her there for her B-day since she turned 12. This year I will have a few extra surprises like Cirque,swimmimg with Manatees, Sea World with a tour (forgot the name of it ) etc... We tried to get her cousin to go, but my brother will not let his daughter go as it would be her first time flying and he wants her first time flying to be with them , what a bummer, now that would have been a Great surprise for DD.

 

[LSchrow]

after going to many SS parties (complete with engraved invites, limos, evening wear, & halls), DD opted for one in our yard with about 25 "close" friends.
we upped the lighting (sparkling white light sets in the large potted & small trees in yard), put up a second gazebo (the elegant canvas & wrought iron ones, with lights strung inside), added "conversation areas" (comfy seating w/ tables) throughout the yard, put lots of candles on tables & floating in the pool. catered the majority of it (i made ziti, salad, & other foods kids like), gallons of soda, bottled water, iced tea, lemonade.
turned up the outdoor speakers & the kids had a great time ~ laughing, dancing, some swimming, etc. oddly enough, her party was "the one" that everyone talked about
btw, DH & i stayed mostly indoors, & we invited a few of the parents to stay with us. there were no problems, but we were there to "step in" if needed.

 

[Floridagal23]

My sweet 16 was 9 years ago, but I had a huge bat mitzvah on my 13th and knew I was getting a new car for my 16th so no big party like on MTV. There is a really nice 2 level restaurant nearby so they closed off the top floor for my party, and I got to invite 15 girls for dinner with a pre-planned menu (decorated with my name on it, chocolate place cards, etc). It was really fun and we felt very grown up! We had "mocktails" and stuff like that..really a good time!

 

[StillPinballFamily]

My DD17's friends still talk about hers, too, but boy, it was done on the cheap compared to some of these descriptions! The total cost for this one was about $350.

She had about 18 friends (boys and girls) over to our house/yard for her 16th. We have a gameroom with lots of pinball machines, so had contests with fun/silly prizes for the high scores, other corny/retro teen games I found online that the kids loved, an "endless present" game that we always do for our (younger) kids parties (wrap a prize - this one was a cool t-shirt) in LOTS of layers of newspaper, boxes, brown paper grocery bags, shipping tape, string, duct tape, rope - whatever you can find - and put candy in the layers. The kids sit in a circle and each one gets 10 seconds to unwrap as much as they can and anything that falls out while they unwrap they can keep. They keep going until someone gets to the prize in the center. This has now become a "classic" at our DD other friends' parties and now she always gets asked to bring one along as her present. (It is amazing what small and surprising things entertain kids...! ) You can do this for kids of any age - vary the gift inside and wrap the layers more snugly or not, depending upon the number and age of the participants.

My husband is a (hobby, but VERY good) magician, so there was a magic show, too. This was a huge hit. We did a Chinese food buffet and lots of juices and sodas, a homemade cake, and lit a bonfire/campfire in the pit in the backyard as darkness fell. I bought flashing light-up LED (not glow) necklaces from glowsource.com and they ALL (boys and girls) wore them, and one kid brought a guitar and they all sat outside singing/laughing/talking for hours. We sat inside (but came outside to "check on the fire...") occasionally, but there was not a single problem. In all, the party lasted for about six hours. When the parents/siblings started to show up for pick up, the kids howled that they wanted to stay longer - so many did! They all got goody bags upon leaving - containing jumbo chocolate bars, Jones sodas, and goofy/cheap snacks like Pringles and Smartfood popcorn. They all were SO excited about the goody bags - they hadn't had any at parties in FOREVER, they said. They enjoyed the walk down "Memory Lane" too, I guess!

It was fun to type this all in and relive the memory - our daughter had a wonderful time with a great group of friends. We are so lucky that this is a good bunch of kids and that they still talk about the party as a truly fun one.

 

[allison443]

My oldest DD did not want a big Sweet 16 party, so instead we took her and 3 friends into NYC to see "Rent" on Broadway, lunch at ESPN Zone, gave them game cards to play in ESPN zone for a while, went shopping at Sephora in the city (gave them money to spend there)(at the time sephora was not in our local mall like it is now, so it was a treat for them!)
My second DD totally wanted a party! We gave her a budget and she kept to it. There was about 100 people- 80 friends and a few tables of family members. We had it in a local Knights of Columbus, the food was catered by a local Italian place-we had platters of sliced up hero sandwiches which the kids liked, along with trays of hot food like ziti, mac and cheese, chicken francaise. She got a gorgeous dress for $7.98!!! (on super-clearance at Macys) and a tiara at Claires. The big expense was the DJ, I agree with a prior poster who said the DJ makes the party. We got a really good one which was worth it. We had a "candy buffet", a table with glass containers filled with all different kinds of candy-we used chinese food containers in pink and blue, and the kids used scoops to fill their container with whatever candy they like. This was the favor. The kids really loved it! She had attended at least 25 other sweet sixteen parties before hers (late birthday) so she wanted to have something unique, luckily no one else did the candy buffet!
Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

[spalady]

My oldest DD will be 16 in 8 months and has told me over and over again that she does not want a party. If I do it she will be mad so I probably won't do a thing unless she changes her mind.