17709

Elegant & Fun Tea -16yr- Team Cake Decorating

March 2008

Jane in Davis, CA USA

Honorable Mention

For my 16th birthday party, I wanted to do something classy, original, and unique and at the same time fun and affordable. After all, you turn Sweet Sixteen only once in your life! I was tired of all those ubiquitous pool parties been there, done that, boring! Instead, I decided to reflect back to the past" when we all used to play pretend. What better way than to pretend to be classy British ladies having a nice cup of tea on a sunny Sunday afternoon?

So quilted flower pattern cards for only $1. Using a birthday card generator I wrote in a fancy font "You are invited to Jane's Sweet Sixteen Tea Party! Please join me this Sunday  for a relaxing cup of tea and enjoy a day of fun and games. Dress to impress and please be on time" And on the bottom I wrote Time (5 to 9) Location (My apartment's clubhouse)and RSVP information. I decorated the plain white interior with tea cup stickers. 

DECORATIONS - On the day of the party I bought two bouquets of metallic and pastel balloons and a classic "Happy Birthday"banner and plastered them on the entrance to the club house. Upon entering the guest needed to sign their names on a whiteboard and I also had a message board in which the guests could write down any messages (Happy Sweet Sixteen! I love the decoration etc).

In the middle of the room was a center table with three pots of green black and herbal teas 20 plus tea cups (easy buys from thrift stores) finger foods like vegetables (baby carrots cherry tomatoes celeries bell peppers) fruits (cantaloup pineapple strawberries grapes) as well as biscottie cookies chip&salsa dark chocolate) I put stringers around the wall and the club house itself was an extremely cozy place with couches fireplace and plenty of place for people to chat etc.

ACTIVITIES & GAMES - Let's get the party started now! While we waited everyone to arrive the guests who were dressed in their fancy dresses chatted and mingled among themselves. They enjoyed drinking teas snacking on the finger foods and complimenting each other for their outfits.

Once everyone arrived I announced to everyone how the party was going to work. Basically my party was two hours of continuous competition against each other. We were going to play numerous group and individual games and every time someone wins a game she will receive a sticker on her palm. At the end of the game who ever collects the most sticker goes home with amazing prizes that I prepared before.

So for the first game we played "Name That Cake" I asked all the guests questions like "What kind of cake do you feed your rabbit? (Carrot cake)" and "What is the heaviest cake? (Pound cake)" and the person who shouted out the answer first got a sticker each. My friends really enjoyed this game and they got pretty competitive as well! I had a total of 15 questions and at the end of the round everyone was pretty hyped up and ready to play some more!

Now on to the next challenge - Cake Decoration! In order to organize teams I had each guest pick out a piece of paper from a brown bag. Each paper had names written on such as Mickey Goofie Donald for Team Disney; Doc Dopey Sneezy for Team Snow White; Sully  Mike Boo for Team Monsters Inc. etc. The first team to find all of its member was awarded with a sticker. There were a total of 6 teams.

I gave them about 25 minutes to decorate small cakes that I had baked the day before. The guests decorated these cakes using cake icing frosting chocolate chips macaroons strawberries and whatever goodies they could find. At the end of 25 minutes I was more than impressed to see how amazing the cakes turned out! With the help of my mom and my brother I picked out the best cake and that team was awarded with 3 stickers each. 

After the cake decorations the guests had some free time to chat amongst each other. There's an exercise gym in the clubhouse so some girls had fun "working out" in their dresses. 

DINNER - For dinner we prepared meat lasagna and vegetable lasagna from costco. It was very easy to serve and everyone enjoyed the meal! We also served ceasar salad vegetables and fruits.

GAMES - more games after dinner! We played classic games like Musical Chair and Form Group (When I shout a number say 4 then 4 people form a group etc). Whoever won each game also received stickers.

After playing these classic games for 30 minutes I had everyone gather around the fireplace and we played white elephant. I prepared about 20 gifts and wrapped them up in fancy && Wacky ways. Most items were bought from Target and dollar trees including goodies like earrings cozy socks necklaces pedicure set candies flower pen hair accessories candles soaps etc. and they were wrapped up in newspaper stuffed into cereal and cracker boxes hidden inside easter eggs iPod box. The guests had fun picking out each prize and they were certainly surprised shocked or excited to reveal their prizes! At the end of each round they had chance to swap/ steal others' gifts. 

CAKE - The guests feasted on Six Amazing cakes they decorated themselves! It was very delicious and they had fun eating their creations. We served the cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream. Yummy! For the remaining 30 minutes I opened presents and soon the parents started showing up . But be hold it's time to award the guest with the most sticker! The guest with second most sticker won a make-up palette from sephora and the first prize winner received a very cute underwear from Victoria's Secret! It's truly a girly thing! All the other guests also went home with a group picture we took at the beginning of the party. 

Now one year later my friends still talk about how much fun they had at my party!"

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