Best Birthday Party For Kids Ages 7-14+ (Girl/Boy) and **12 TIPS**

If you are looking for a party that boys and girls will both LOOOOOOVE, then look no further. This party was so much fun!!!

I have a sweet 9 year-old boy who wanted a birthday party but didn’t want anything traditional. Me, as his mom, wanted to take full advantage of the remaining days of summer and wanted to entertain all these crazy kiddos outdoors. I knew we had to find a party that didn’t cost a lot, and plan something where they would all be entertained with out too much headache. We looked on Pinterest, thought long and hard and then it hit us…a night games party, oh and why don’t we throw in a whole bunch of glow in the dark awesomeness to top it off. So a Glow in the Dark Party it was! It really did turn out perfect.

I was able to order a whole bunch of awesome glow in the dark stuff from Oriental Trading Company because they have not only the regular stuff like glow in the dark necklaces and bracelets, but glow in the dark glasses and frisbees, etc etc. I made my husband be in charge of the night games, and honestly, the kids knew what they wanted to play already so it was super easy!

Best Birthday Party for Kids ages 7-14+ (Girl/Boy)

I’m going to share a bunch of the details that made it really work out well. (Here are the ladies of the party…I knew they would join my photoshoot when none of the boys would at first so kiddos to them.)  Aren’t they cute?

TIP 1:  The party went from 8:30PM-10:00PM  This was a great time frame. The sun set at about 8:40pm that night so they had a good half hour to arrive and play around before we started the official night games.

TIP 2:  We started out and gave everybody glow in dark necklaces, found HERE. This was an unforeseen benefit. Kids may have fun into each other later in the night as they were playing night games if they didn’t have these on, but they didn’t. They did play a game or two where they took them off as well.

GLOW IN THE DARK PARTY SUPPLY LIST:

• Glow in the dark bouncy balls
• Flashing bouncy balls
• Glow in the dark necklaces
• Glow in the dark shades
• Glow sticks found
• Glow in the dark frisbees
• Black plastic tablecloth
• Glow in the dark flyers
• Clear cellophane bags
• White balloons

This was our home base. You’ll see more of this in just a second.

Girls just wanna have fun…

The beginnings of the night games.

TIP 3:  We have a bunch of trees in the common area behind our house so I put a necklace around each of the trees in hopes that the kids wouldn’t run into them. We had no casualties. I guess somehow we all survived as kids playing night games without those ;).

TIP 4:  If you can, plan it near the full moon. We just happened to be a couple days away from the full moon so the night was BRIGHT!!!! That really helps.

TIP 4:  Cover the display table with a black tablecloth. OK, onto the really fun stuff. I had a table on my back porch and covered it with a black plastic tablecloth. This really made the glow in the dark items stand out.

TIP 5:  Use a variety of glow in the dark items. Glow in the dark bouncy balls, glow in the dark necklaces, bracelets, frisbees, shades, pennants, flyers and flashing balls…oh, and a whole lot of treats!

TIP 6:  Put all the different items in clear glass bowls so you can see through them. In each of the bowls take glow in the dark necklaces and put them around the inside of the bowls to light them up. If you don’t have enough bowls (like I did with the ball, just loop them on the table and let the balls sit right inside them. See below.)

TIP 7:  THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST TIPS EVER…have a giant spot light out there. This light for us was one of the lights I use when I am building things in my garage. You could probably use a powerful flashlight. This was our recharge station for all the kids. The regular glow in the dark items like the glasses, balls and frisbees need to be recharged in the light. The kids had so much fun doing this. I had my teenage niece Molly come and help me. This was her job, she was awesome.

Glow in the dark balls, frisbees and shades. The kids loved these so much.

TIP 8:  Give the kids these items after they have played a bit or they will just lose them. I gave these to them when it was totally dark so they could really enjoy them. It was a good move. I gave them a cellophane sack when their name on it…nothing fancy, I just wrote their name with a sharpie. I added their treats to this same bag as well. These shades below make for great low-light pictures.

These balls were actually cooler than the plain glow in the dark ones. When you bounce them, they flash. (Link below)

TIP 9: Write their name on the frisbees or they will NEVER know who’s is theirs. We did this, it worked out well.

TIP 10:  This was also added a really fun affect. If you take white balloons and stick a glow bracelet inside, they will make the whole balloon illuminate. It’s not super super bright, but just enough to look pretty cool.

If you have a camera that can take pics in low light, take advantage of glow in the dark pics…I love how they turned out.

More recharge station pictures.

TIP 11:  Put glow sticks in the bottom of a bowl and put gummy bears on top of them or other see through candies. They glow. This affect was AWESOME. The kids were super impressed.

TIP 12:  Use the spotlight to open presents. This was really fun. How often do you get to open presents at night, outside and almost in the dark. This was really fun too.

This party was a blast. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend it. Stayed tuned soon for a list of fun night games to play that worked really well for this fun and rambunctious crowd.

For more party posts see:

Fancy and Fabulous Birthday Party

Puppy Party

Ballerina Party

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