After Hours Pool Party (13-14yr) Underwater Strobe

Last summer for my 13th birthday I had an after-hours pool party. My mom works at a tennis and pool club, so we could get free access to the pool at night. My party was from 7:30 to 10:30 at night, for about 20 people (12 girls, 8 guys).

INVITATIONS: I made message-in-a-bottle invitations by buying a set that came individually with a plastic bottle that the bottom came off of to put stuff in, plastic shapes, like mini sunglasses and tropical drink bottles. I added fake sand into each one with a printed up invitation that said the basics on cool paper (Date, Time, Place, RSVP, etc.) Then I printed up labels with pool party clip art on them and wrote each person's name on it.  

DECORATIONS: Because it was a pool party, we didn't need much decoration, but we put underwater strobe lights in the bottom of the pool, added Christmas lights to the fences, and put out citronella candles. The color scheme was bright pink, lime green, and bright aqua, so we used those colors for plates, tablecloths, etc.  

ACTIVITIES: We mostly swam, because that's what everyone wanted to do, but we also had lots of pool toys to play with and we ate cake toward the end, about 9:30, and then went back in the pool, where we jumped off of the lifeguard stand. We also had a candy bar (see favors?) and I had made a playlist with my iPod and put it on the speakers.   

GAMES: We played Marco Polo, did relay races, and basic pool games like that.   

COSTUMES: n/a, we just told everyone to bring a bathing suit and towel on the invitation.   

PARTY SNACKS: We served lemonade, iced tea, water, and soda as beverages, and we had chips & salsa, pretzels, etc. as snacks.   

CAKE: For the cake, we made two: a 1" and a "3". One was vanilla and the other was chocolate and we made them pink and green. We wrote "Happy Birthday Emily" on it and put flower decorations made out of frosting.  

FAVORS: For party favors we gave each guest a beach ball from the pool that we had inflated and put in the pool and we had a candy bar. We put tons of candy in (new) sand buckets with shovels to get it out and gave each party guest a smaller bucket to put their candy in.

My birthday party was sooo much fun and everyone loved it. It was great because it was a big pool and we didn't have to share it with anyone. It was a great party and I am probably going to do something similar this year because it was such a hit."