Color War Party (13-15yr) Teen Sleepover

For my daughter's 14th birthday, she wanted to have an original, fun, birthday party that all her friends could enjoy together. She loves playing sports and being active. Her birthday is in May so I knew the weather would be nice. So, I came up with the idea to have a color war birthday party where her friends could would be divided into teams by color and compete for prizes. She loved this idea and asked if the girls could sleepover after. I agreed and we started to plan!

INVITATIONS: Before sending out invitations my daughter made a guest list of 24 friends, both boys and girls (this was her choice to have both boys and girls, the party could be all girls or all boys). The boys were not allowed to sleepover. Then we divided the guests into four teams- blue, green, red, and yellow. Each team had six members. We didn't write their teams on the invitations because if some kids weren't able to come then we would have to reconfigure all the teams so they would be even. So we decided when they RSVP-ed" their team would be assigned. We also bought four packets of colored paper (red blue green and yellow for the four teams) and layered them and put party information on the top layer. There were two versions- one with sleepover information for the girls and one without for the boys. The boys would stay from 3pm - 8pm and the girls would stay from 3pm - 11am the next day. The kids were also told to dress in the color of their team and go "all-out" with team spirit!

DECORATIONS: I bought colored streamers balloons confetti (for spreading on the tables) and made construction paper shapes (to tape on the walls)- everything was in the four colors of the teams: red blue green and yellow.

PARTY PREP: I pushed all my furniture to the sides of my living room to have a big space for the girl's to sleep. Out of the 24 kids my daughter invited 12 girls and 8 boys were able to come. So in the corner of the room I put 5 big blankets 8 pillows and 2 extra sleeping bags for the girls. I also put a bunch of "sleepover supplies" near the blankets so when it was time for bed the girls would not need to get up much. Sleepover supplies included: a few bottles of soda cups two bags of chips bowls a bowl of candy veggies & dip playing cards a bunch of dvds they could watch paper pencils (for games) and our dress up box :)

I also made a space for shoes and coats. I also made our den into a recording studio. We bought a bunch of blank video tapes hung up a white sheet as backdrop and assigned my husband as recorder. When the kids weren't competing they could go in the den record short videos of cheers for their teams and take them home with them in their goodie bags. We also had to set up for the games which will be explained in the next section.

GAMES: We planned tons of games for the kids to compete in. They were all set up outside in our yard and were all very easy to set up. My husband my neighbor my sister and I were each in charge of one team leading their teams to each game explaining the rules and running the game. Each leader was given a bag with supplies they would need for most games- four bean bags four balls hula hoops building blocks etc.. As well as a clipboard to record points and a schedule and map of the games their group was going to play.

There were a total of twelve games which each lasted 10 minutes and there was 5 minutes in between each game to set up and get organized for the next game. I organized the party so each team was competing against another. This took a lot of organization and planning. The winner of each game was awarded 5 points the loser was awarded 2 points teams with good sportsmanship were awarded 1 point and teams who cheered the loudest were awarded 1 point. I explained the rules to the kids after everyone arrived.

The games played were: tower building contest water balloon toss a very short scavenger hunt freeze dance knock out (basketball game) hula hoop line game (kids hold hands in a line and pass a hula hoop over their bodies down the line) outfit switch-a-roo cartwheel competition cucumber eating contest commercial making contest bobbing for apples and tug of war. All of this planning may sound like a lot of work but I was able to get all of my game supplies in one trip to Target for about 40 $. The entire party cost about 215 $ - about 10 $ per kid. If your child likes sports or being active this is the perfect party for them!

FOOD: I set up a table near the door to the backyard so the kids could run in for a snack whenever they wanted. The food plates cups napkins were all red green yellow and blue- the team colors. I had lemonade limeade cranberry juice and blue food colored water for drinks. There were M&M's and Skittles divided by color in bowls for the teams. I bought cheap plastic bowls from Target and put different chips in each of the four bowls. I also made dinner dishes like lasagna (red) salad (green) blue sherbet and pasta (yellow). The kids thought this was great!!

SCHEDULE: There is a lot of information given here so I thought I would include a basic schedule of events of the party:  3:00 - 3:30- Give time for the kids to arrive let them put sleeping bags in the living room presents in the kitchen and coats in the front hall.  3:30 - 3:45- Give the kids time to have some snacks take pictures and hang out.  3:45 - 3:55- Explain rules of the day and get kids pumped up!  3:55 - 4:00- First transition time for kids to go to their first game 4:00 - 5:30- Have the kids do their first six games  5:30 - 6:00- Let the kids have some dinner and snacks 6:00 - 6:10- Dinner clean up and transition time to next game.  6:10 - 7:40- Have the kids do their last six games  7:45 - 8:00- Let the kids hang out while you add up all the points of the day and determine a winner. Announce who wins and award them prizes. I first gave everyone a goodie bag of candy. The fourth place team was awarded another small bag of candy. The third place team was awarded larger bags of candy. The second place team was awarded small bags of candy and 5$ Dunkin Donuts cards. The first place was awarded large bags of candy and bags of a bunch of party favors. 

AFTER THE BOYS LEFT I let the girls hang out for about a half hour. While they were inside we put a bunch of inexpensive tiki candles in our lawn brought out our boom box and had a dance party for the girls. This lasted until until around 11pm. We made sure the music was not too loud. Then we brought the girls inside. Instead of cake my daughter wanted a dessert buffet so we made platters of cookies cupcakes and smoothies. Then we popped in a dvd for them and checked in periodically. They fell asleep around 2:00am. The girls slept until 9:30am. We didn't do breakfast because there wasn't enough time. This was overall very successful! "