Casino Party -13yr- Dice Favor Boxes

For my daughter's 13th birthday she was leery of having a dance party because most of the kids her age won't dance with others.  She feared it would be boys on one side, girls on the other.  I decided I would come up with a theme where the girls and boys would have to interact with one another and not make it too kiddy. I wanted to think of something that could signify her leaving youth and entering the teenage years. 

The idea of a casino party came to mind and when I told her she was thrilled.  I made the invitations in Wordperfect.  I goggled pictures of dice, roulette wheels and a craps table and put them on the invitation.  Then I put a picture of an Ace of Hearts and put my daughter's picture in the middle. After putting the invitation in the envelope I sealed each invite with a casino chip for the person to bring with them to the party.  I put different numbers on the invitation chips and planned on calling out different numbers throughout the party for prizes. We did put on the invitation that it was all in fun and kids would be playing for prizes, no cash would be involved. 

For the decorations I hung a few red and black streamers and inflated about 50 red and black balloons to hang from the ceiling.  I got a cream colored fabric tablecloth from the 99 cent store and painted a picture of a big ace and wrote the words, Danielle's 13th casino Party above it.  As each child came in I had them take a picture with my in front of the drawing with my daughter.  During the party I printed out the pictures for the kids to take as keepsakes. 

For other favors I brought small white boxes and red and black felt from the craft store.  I used a paper puncher to punch red and black circles out of the felt and then glued them around the small boxes to make them look like dice, I used a piece of yarn and cut a small slit in each box and then tied two boxes together (one with red dots, one with black).  They looked just like the furry dice people have in their car windows.  Inside one box I put some candy and gum, inside the other I put dog tags I brought off line from gotags.com  The dog tags said VIP of Danielle's Casino Party, established 1992 (the year she was born).  The dog tags were only $2 each, all in all I probably spent $5 per child on favors and pictures, but the kids loved them and still wear the tags months later. 

I brought all the casino items off of ebay.  I got a roulette wheel, blackjack tabletop and over 2000 chips for less than $150.  I also made a craps table top out of wood.  I brought large cups from the dollar store and put chips in each for each child to receive when they walked through the door.  My husband, sister and I were the dealers.  I brought visors from the 99 cent store and wrote dealer on each for us to wear.  I wrote the instructions for each game in large letters on poster paper and put them behind their appropriate tables. 

After all the kids arrived (about 25 in all) we explained the rules and they began playing.  At different times throughout the party I would call out a number of one of the chips from the invite and if the person came up they received a prize (I brought a assortment of things from the 99 cent store as prizes).  After an hour of casino playing we told the kids the casino's buffet was open.  I had set up sternos in the hallway with chicken wingettes, fish sticks, french fries and tater tots. 

After eating we resumed the casino games.  After another hour (the time went really fast with all the action) we brought out the cake which I had made with the same picture of my daughter from the invite.  After cake and ice cream my daughter began handing out the pictures and dice favors and thanking everyone for coming.  We collected the chips and the girl and boy with the most received a prize, as well as the boy/girl  with the least. 

Throughout the party there was music playing and a few kids did dance in small groups in the corner.  She had kids from our family as well as from school that didn't know each other but by the end of the party everyone knew each other.   It was a great party, she was thrilled and doesn't think I can top it for her Sweet sixteen but with my creative mind and this great site I'm definitely going to try.  Thanks!