Sixteen Year Old Birthday

If her heart is in community service maybe you can get a few of her friends to spend the day doing good works at a local shelter/foodbank/park. Then take them out for a nice hot pizza and soda explosion the talk about the day! To someone who is civic minded helping others is what makes you feel good and helps you a well rounded person :)

How about Movie Night with classic movies. The girls might get a kick out of doing a movie theme about Old Hollywood with classic "stars" to celebrate your "star"!

Or how about movies that have themes for the activities in her life: baseball, charity, schoolwork?

Teen movies from the 80's? They can dress 80's: big hair, etc. and watch Sixteen Candles, Ferris Buehler's Day Off, Risky Business, Pretty in Pink....etc.

Good luck, she sounds like an awesome daughter to be proud of!

You daughter sounds beautiful inside and out. I only thought of a neat gift for her. Being so involved, she must have t-shirts with her team name,school, logos of the community work, music, things shes in to. You could collect them and have a quilt made with everything she loves at 16. I know there are places who do this, you might even be, or know someone who could. Her friends could all add their shirts to it too. At her party, they can all tell stories and memories of each shirt added. Something she would keep forever!

Congrats on such a wonderful daughter.

I like the 80's party idea. if you dont have room in your home how about a resaturant that offers a free banquet room. i work PT at an italian place and we have a room that is free when you use our food, i waitressed a sweet 16 party about a month ago, it was really cute, the mom decorated the room, made a cute poster for all her friends to sing, had an awesome cake, food, and the girls seemed to have a great time. she had a table with bowls of candy, and even a few silly party games. my mom never threw me a 16th party and i would have loved to have had one like this girls!

sort of like the have all of her friends sign a poster for her idea... for my brothers graduation, my step mom put a picture of him and matted it on a much larger matte.... leaving a wide border around the photo of him for us all to write a little something to him. i think something similar would be cool for 16! if you think she would be into it at this age, you could also do poster boards or cork boards with photos from birth on up. like a collage or something to display. my step mom did this for my brothers 18th though, so just use your best judgment.

you could keep it at your house for a movie night. maybe 16 candles, 13 going on 30 and other movies like that. the girls could get involved with make your own pizza, and make your own sundaes! you can have them make them on english muffins, or french bread. i wouldnt recommend fresh dough would be too messy and time consuming. have some mozz cheese and sauce and favorite toppings. and you could bake a pan of brownies or get a roll of cookie dough and smash it all out and bake that in a 13 by 9 pan. the girls could microwave their cookie or brownie for the bottom of their sundaes. and some favorite ice cream toppers again.

keep an eye out at the store now. by english muffins at the store when they are buy one get one free. same thing for the ice cream. normally everything goes on sale at some point, so if you check on these things each time you are in the store, im sure you could save some on costs that way. do you have a surplus store near you? i get lots of toppings, chocolate chips, sprinkles, ect from a place near me.

good luck to you! and happy sweet 16 to your daughter!

Hi M.,

For my son's 16th birthday we had a "blowout" music and movie party. We set up Singstar in the living room, and Rock Band in another room. We set up teams to compete on who got the most points. The team thing fell apart, but it turned out even better as everyone got involved in different ways than they would have. We had the usual food -- pizza, munchies, cake -- but a friend loaned me her chocolate fountain. Another hit! I bought champagne flutes at the dollar store and, when we cut the cake, I poured sparkling cider into the champagne flutes. There was music playing and they all danced. Later, some of the kids went home but the majority stayed over and watched movies all night. Everyone agreed it was the best party.

So, find something your daughter likes to do and try to do it up as much as you can. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money. Do you have friends you can borrow stuff from -- like we did with Rock Band? Is there a vacation house someone owns that you can borrow to take your daughter and a few friends to for an overnight?

Sometimes it matters most who is there rather than what they do. My daughter (turning 15) is perfectly content with a sleepover with her friends for a birthday party.
They have a blast!

Make whatever you do memorable, whether you do a karaoke contest and video tape it, or take a ton of photos while they are playing charades. You can make an album or other keepsake to help her remember the fun.

Have a great time, whatever you do.

You said your daughter is into community work send out invitations and say in lue of a party your daughter is requesting people donate to a local charity under her name. This would help you both out and it would be great for the community.

When I was 16, I chose 5-6 close friends and we went to a really nice restaurant without parents. My mom dropped us off, and we all just we dressed up and had a great time. I don't remember how we paid... I know I didn't have anything to do with it - I think she prepaid or came back to take care fo the check. Anyhow, my friends & I thought it was great! Afterwards, we came back to our house and opened gifts & played music, danced, laughed & had a fabulous time! It was really memorable. Sometimes big is just a hassle. Small has more meaning!

What about a surprise party?? I did one for a friend who was not getting a sweet sixteen party. We had told her I was going to take her out for dinner instead we had friends over in my basement. You could ask a friend to help you and see if you can do it at their house???