I need ideas for an 11 year old birthday party. My location is in a public park with a swimming pool. I need help. I don't know what my daughter likes or dislikes.
I am also trying to keep the cost down around $200. I don't have much money.
Walter from Alexandria, VA
We just had the most fun for my 11 yr old daughter. It was all her idea. We pitched a tent in the back yard, grilled hamburgers, hot dogs and had all the "fixin's". We had a fire in
a portable fire pit, and made s'mores after it was dark. I also found some glow stick jewelry that they wore for awhile and then hung them all throughout the tent. When it came time
for jammies and bed, they were all excited and went in the tent and sang, and giggled and stayed up all night. Granted they only slept about 3 hours, but they were all contained,
and had a blast. (09/17/2007)
By mktnt
My daughter is turning 11 today. She wanted to have a sleep over again. She invited her whole soccer team and 6 girls from school. We have a huge play house outside and they are
sleeping out there. I ordered pizzas and bought all the junk food and movies for them. I also did breakfast menus for them. They can pick what they want for the morning wake up just
like being at the restaurant. I also did an 8pm drop off and 11am pick up. I figure they would be asleep for a while in the morning. I don't think that girls at 11 should have a
mixed birthday because they aren't quite sure yet about the boys. I will wait till she is 13 to do the night time DJ Dance with the guys over then. (10/05/2007)
By La Domma
Since my daughter has so many friends, it seemed meaningless for a huge birthday party where she wouldn't be able to spend any quality time with each one of them, so we decided to
split it up into 3 parts. One was just me taking her 6th grade friends to the mall and going to dinner, kind of a girls night out. Dad hates shopping. Another one was hosted by her
Dad to play mini golf with 5-6 girls she grew up with, and a third is a sleepover with 3 friends from her old school,in a few weeks. Each group was with 3-6 kids. Very informal,
more like playdates, more quality time and cost effective, too. (10/18/2007)
By Leah
We love to play Bingo at our parties. Prizes could be pens, a little toy or stuffed animal that is in good shape, gum, etc. Scavenger hunts are fun too. You could even do an Easter
egg hunt with coins, gum, candy, etc. inside the plastic eggs. An easy craft is taking clean empty jars and covering them with pieces of tissue paper and and white glue water mix.
They make great candle holders for tea lights. Good luck. (10/26/2007)
By Cheryl
My daughter has been invited to a few Scavenger hunts at the mall. Make up a rhyme with clues, the kids go into groups and meet at the food court for cake. (10/27/2007)
By mom
Here are some ideas on what to do for a birthday party:
Decorations: have some balloons, ribbons, to make it seem more partyish. Maybe have a poster of some sort or even make something of your own to put up. You could even have a
certain theme. A pinata is always fun.
Games: limbo, pin the tail, musical chairs, hot potato with a watermelon, freeze dance, mummy wrap, egg race, arts and crafts, balloon races, island (get across a certain area
with out touching the floor), treasure hunt, 4 corners, bingo, hide and go seek, tag, jail, sock and pillow wars (every one takes off their socks and outs them in the center, they
all take pillows and put them under their shirts. Then everyone has to try to find their socks and put them on in 1 minute with out the pillow falling out), Musical clothing
(everyone sits in a circle and there is a bag filled with all sorts of clothing. The music plays and the bag is passed around, when the music stops the person who has the bag has to
pick a piece of clothing from the bag and put it on. Underwear, bras, shirts, pants, socks, hats, pacifiers, etc.) And my last game for you is ship wreck (a room with lots of
furniture. Everyone walks around the room and when 'it' says "ship wreck" then any type of furniture, for example "bench" every one runs to the bench and tries to get on. Last
person to get on sinks and then becomes "it". Have fun.
Prizes: have prizes for each game for winners. Metals, coins, tokens, gift bags, small toys, etc.
Last: Have loads of fun. After all it is your birthday. Thanks for reading. Hope this helps. (12/01/2007)
By Jessica
My daughter will be turning 11 and we are having a Glow-in-the dark party! We bought glow in the dark bracelets, jewelry, and even barretts, and rings at the Dollar Tree. She is
having boys and girls. We are decorating with glow in the dark stars, and poster boards with highlighter pictures, swirls and other drawings on them. My daugher and her friends will
be drawing on the posterboards. We are using black lights and handing out glow-in-the-dark bracelets. You can also buy them at Michaels for $1.00 for 15 braclets! I haven't found
G.I.T.D stickers yet but I'm looking for them.
The invitation I did on the computer, says "What has 2 eyes and glows in the dark?" It has a picture of two eyes in a black starburst type clipart. When you open it it says "You
will at my Glow-in-the-dark party!" I didn't use Glow-in-the-dark-paint, but that is an idea as well. Walmart also sells neon colored printer paper. Publix has neon food coloring,
you can even buy flourescent candles.
For games we are playing mummy wrap. Teams divided and they have one kid who gets to be the mummy. First team who uses a whole role of toilet paper on the mummy wins. We are
playing a human board game where there are circles on the floor to make up the board game. The kids are the playing pieces and then you decorate a huge box to be the playing dice.
The kids move to the circles and the circles say things like "Hop till your next turn" or "do your loudest dog bark". Later a circle may say something like, "crab walk to your next
turn", "advance two circles", "move back one space", etc. We are also diving into 2 teams and using a hula hoop. The kids have to hold hands and move the hula hoop from the beginnig
of the line to the end without letting go. I also found these weird looking glowing balls at the Dollar Tree. The possibilities are endless if you plan ahead. Hope it helps.
(01/24/2008)
By Racquel
Last year we had a spa party where the girls were being pampered by the adults. I had a few of my friends help. We had makeup to do their faces, nail polish to do their fingers and
feet, and we had warm water with a foot soak to rest their tired feet in. It was a blast. The girls also had their own plastic champagne type glasses with a paintpen to have their
names written on them. I bought a face peel mask at Walmart and cucumbers for their eyes.
Do note, that you need to include in the invitation what is going on to make sure parents are OK and there are no allergies. We got tons of pictures and then had pizza and
chocolate covered strawberries for a desert. She had a sleepover and then the girls got little, small purses I found at the Dollar Store with nail polish in them, lip gloss, nail
files, emery boards and those toe seperators for when they had their toes painted. They loved it all, they felt like princesses and had a blast. Make sure to get wild colored nail
polishes for them to have their nails painted. Some wanted white for the french manicured look. Oh, and we had those cloth headbands for them to wear for their peel masks to keep
their hair out of their face. All those things were in their little purses for them to take home. Dollar Tree has tons of stuff once you start looking. (01/24/2008)
By Racquel
If you only want to invite some friends to sleep over, but don't want anyone's feelings to get hurt if they find out; you wanna have a party with other friends before. Do it
backwards and have the sleepover and then have the bigger party. Hope this helped. (04/02/2008)
By The Handy Dandy Notebook
We live in Arlington. Why not do a party package at Cameron Regional Park? We did it for our son last year at Upton Regional, near us and the boys had a blast. It included pizza,
drinks, cake, and even the goodie bags. Or, how about a good old fashioned slumber party with some kind of a tween theme? (06/09/2008)
By Jackie
I just borrow my mother-in-law's camper and let the girls get some snacks and just camp out in our backyard. They love it and every year my husband and my son go out in scary
costumes and scare them until they scream and cry. It's a ball every year. (06/30/2008)
By Stacie
I just had a party for my son who turned 11. He had a Reality TV party. We did it for:
For Fear Factor we just mixed up all kinds of crazy foods and played a card game, whoever was the last out had to be blind folded and taste something. Yuck. For Survivor we set
up a bunch of things to do like blow up a balloon and sit and break it. There were 3 teams of 5, we did jumping jacks, puzzles, etc. Whoever finished all the projects first won. For
Ace of Cakes I made 3 sheet cakes and cut them into fours I put a rough base coat on each, then bought cheap icing and mixed up about 4 or 5 colors for the kids to use. You can buy
cheap plastic icing bags and cut a small hole in the bottom of each, plus I bought some cheap candy to finish the decorating. At the end we gave out ribbons for most original 1st
and 2nd places. They had a great time. Hope that helped. (07/25/2008)
By Kris P
I am the mom of a girl turning 11, tye dye t-shirts, you can get plain white cheap t-shirts at the Dollar Tree or some other inexpensive place. Roller skating is always a hit if you
have a place in your area. Movie and popcorn is a good choice, too. If the party is for girls only, paint nails, and don't forget toenails. If you have a computer let them pick
their music selections and burn a CD. You can send each home with a CD of the party music instead of goodie bags. Digital camera? Take pictures and if you can download and print
them same day, let them make their own birthday scrapbook. And make your own sundaes or make your own pizza is usually popular. Right now Camp Rock is big for this age of girls.
They can make their own Camp Rock T-shirts. Use permanent marker and have them sign each other's shirts. Have fun. (07/28/2008)
By Rachel
I know that an 11 year old would love a surprise party. You should tell her for her birthday party just the family are going to have a BBQ down at the park, then surprise her with a
lot of friends. Then let everyone go swimming. Maybe even buy vanilla ice cream and lots of toppings and let people top their ice cream. But do not plan too many things, then they
will not have time to just hang and do whatever they want. (07/30/2008)
By Molly
Please, don't have a big party and then select a few kids to stay on for a sleep-over. This happened to my daughter and she was really upset when she had to leave, feeling like she
wasn't part of the "in" kids and that her friendship didn't matter to the girl. Have a sleep-over another night. This year for my daughter's 11th we are planning a SPA night, I'm
trying to enlist a few Mom's to bring their beauty skills. Have pizza and pedicures, Munchies and Manicures, talk about teen beauty products, clean skin, and a healthy body image!
(10/15/2008)
By Barbie S
I had a party for my 11 year old and instead of Pin the tail on the donkey, I bought a Jonas Brother Poster and I cut out different lips from different fashion magazines. I
blindfolded the girls and had them pin the lips on the poster. I did buy a close up of just the face though.
(12/11/2008)
By Carmen
If you have a close by buffet then go to that with your daughters friends. They can pick what they want and they will be happy as well as you. Just make a reservation ahead of time.
Then they can go back to your house, put out board games and put up a tent inside and watch a movie. (12/25/2008)
By Destiny123
You should do a survivor theme and have water gun fights, and pie eating, and of course a scavenger hunt on a beach or at the mall; that is what I am suggesting for a boy/girl.
(01/01/2009)
By Alyssa
For my daughter's birthday last year we let her invite 5-6 friends for a sleep-over. Since this time of year is typically cold and wet, I came up with an indoor craft for them
to do. I visited a website and got a simple pattern for making sock monkeys. Then I went to a local store, like the Dollar Store and bought the correct number of cute, knee high
socks. I used the pattern from the internet to make all of the stitches for the pattern.
Then when it was time for our project, each girl was allowed to select the socks she
liked, cut out the pattern I had sewed in advance, and stuff their monkey. Then I gave them needles and thread to hand sew the arms, legs, tail and mouth onto the body. It was a
huge hit!
The girls ages ranged from 9 to 12 and they spent about 1 1/2 hours on this and loved every second. Some of the girls still sleep with their monkeys every night. Hope I can come up
with another fun idea for this year's party, but I don't expect it will beat a Sock Monkey Sleep-Over. (02/28/2009)
By MadsMom
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
