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Casino Party -13yr- Shop For Prizes

February 2009

Jen in Glendale WI USA

My twin daughters 13th birthday fell on Friday the 13th.  So we held a Lucky 13 Casino Party. 

INVITATIONS: I printed the invitations on my computer. The front of the card said, Do you feel lucky?  I added clip art of playing cards and dice to the front.  Inside I wrote: Try your luck at our casino, during Maggie and Grace's Lucky 13 birthday party! and I included the times, date and directions. 

DECORATIONS:  Red and Black were our party colors.  We hung red & black balloons and streamers in each room, and I draped red/white striped fabric over tables.  I covered our coffee table with green felt, so that it looked like a dice table.  White Christmas lights lit up the main party room and silver tinsel hung from the ceiling.  Playing cards were stapled together and used as garland to decorate doorways and tables.   

GAMES:  When each guest arrived he or she was given 20 tickets.  (The kind of tickets used at carnivals to pay for rides and games these are available at Oriental Trading Company.) The guests used the tickets to pay to play games.  Tickets were earned by winning games.  At the end of the party the tickets were exchanged for prizes. 

Games included: Roulette (I purchased an inexpensive roulette game through Oriental Trading Company), Black Jack, Bingo and Pirates Dice (This is a dice game based on the movie Pirates of the Caribbean.  My children already owned this game, so we decided to use it for the party.)

I wrote rules for each game on a piece of poster board and hung them next to the game location.  (Rules for roulette and other casino games can be found by doing a search online.) Kids ran their own games and each adult at the party had a stash of tickets.  The kids asked adults for tickets when they won a game.   

OTHER ACTIVITIES:  In addition to the casino, which was set up in our living room, we had the basement rec room decked out like a traditional birthday party with balloons and streamers.  Any guest who was tired of playing games (or who had lost all his or her tickets!) was welcome to go downstairs and just hang out.  We had music, an air hockey table and food for the enjoyment of the party guests.   

PARTY SNACKS: I wanted foods that the kids could eat while playing games, so I went with finger foods.  I made little sandwiches, using dinner rolls and assorted lunch meat and cheese.  I also served fruit kabobs (chunks of fresh or canned fruit on bamboo skewers) along with traditional teenage favorites such as chips and dip.  

CAKE: I admit that I cannot bake!  So I bought a half sheet cake at our grocery store and decorated it with dice-shaped gummy candies (from Oriental Trading Company)  

FAVORS:  At the end of the party I opened a shop where guests could exchange tickets for prizes.  I set up three different tables, with signs that said 20 tickets, 50 tickets and 100 tickets.

On each table I placed inexpensive toys or snacks that I had purchased.  (The more expensive things went on the 100 ticket table)  I shopped at the dollar store as well as at clearance sales to buy inexpensive prizes. The kids cashed in their tickets to purchase the prizes and we put them into paper lunch bags.

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