Teenager Birthday

When our daughter got to their teen years, we started celebrating birthdays differently than when they were a kid. As kids, we would throw a BIG birthday party at the house with all our friends, and they would pick the theme, and of course, I would go all out with games, food, and decorations all around the theme. As they got older, it was time to shift the thinking to something smaller that was special for them and a few close friends. My oldest, whose birthday is in January, was first, and she sure did make it hard. Every idea she came up with for something she would like to do was a spring or summer activity. We finally found one that would work, and that was a swimming party. So I found a local hotel that had an indoor swimming pool and had a sleepover pool party for her and three friends. While it was a party away from the house, I still wanted to make it special, so just like all the parties, there were party favors, a cake, and activities. 

Her theme for this party was fairies, and for her cake, I made a simple single-layer cake with blue frosting and chocolate fairies that I had made from melting chocolate and drawing them out on wax paper. I had printed a fairy design from the computer and placed it under the wax paper on a cookie sheet. I then piped out the chocolate and then placed it in the freezer to harden. As always, I made extra just in case they broke when I tried to remove them, but I got lucky and none did.

For party favors, I made each of the girls a pillowcase using my brother's embroidery machine. I was able to stitch out a fairy and the girl's name. I then bought pillows from Walmart to put in the pillow cases.

In the end, it turned out to be a really nice party with pool time, movies in the room, a sleepover, dinner out at an all-you-can-eat restaurant, and friends.