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Birthdays, Holidays & Parties, Summer

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

by Kirsten · on August 13, 2014 · 22 Comments ·

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Best Birthday Party for Kids ages 7-14+ (Girl/Boy) and 12 Tips to make this party amazing.

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) and 12 Tips to make this party amazing.

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

Best Birthday Party for Kids ages 7-14+ (Girl/Boy) and 12 Tips to make this party amazing. _MG_0056

This was our home base. You’ll see more of this in just a second.
Best Birthday Party for Kids ages 7-14+ (Girl/Boy) and 12 Tips to make this party amazing.

Girls just wanna have fun…

Best Birthday Party for Kids ages 7-14+ (Girl/Boy) and 12 Tips to make this party amazing. _MG_0061 _MG_0062

The beginnings of the night games.

_MG_0064

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 ;).

_MG_0066

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.
_MG_0068

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!

Best Birthday Party for Kids ages 7-14+ (Girl/Boy) and 12 Tips to make this party amazing.

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.)

Best Birthday Party for Kids ages 7-14+ (Girl/Boy) and 12 Tips to make this party amazing.

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.

_MG_0083

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

_MG_0071

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.

_MG_0074

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

_MG_0077 _MG_0078 _MG_0079

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

_MG_0080 _MG_0081

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.

_MG_0082 _MG_0084 _MG_0085 _MG_0086 _MG_0087 _MG_0088 _MG_0090 _MG_0091 _MG_0092

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.

_MG_0094 _MG_0095 _MG_0096 _MG_0097 _MG_0099 _MG_0104 _MG_0105 _MG_0106 _MG_0107 _MG_0108 _MG_0110 _MG_0111 _MG_0112 _MG_0114 _MG_0118 _MG_0119

More recharge station pictures.

_MG_0121 _MG_0122 _MG_0124 _MG_0126 _MG_0127 _MG_0129 _MG_0132

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.
_MG_0135 _MG_0141 _MG_0143 _MG_0144

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.

_MG_0147 _MG_0148

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.


Oriental Trading

For more party posts see:

Fancy and Fabulous Birthday Party
5fancyfabulous5th copy

Puppy Party

 

Puppy Party

Ballerina Party

sm ballet party cupcakesThis post contains affiliate links

About Kirsten

is the author of this post. Wanna know more about the Chicks? Click here. :)

Comments

  1. keri @ shaken together says

    August 14, 2014 at 12:32 pm

    This is absolutely GENIUS! I have two boys – 11 and 14 – and this is the absolute perfect theme for their upcoming birthdays! YAY!!

    Reply
  2. Marnae says

    August 16, 2014 at 3:39 pm

    This is adorable!! I have an 8th Birthday coming up, so this may be our party right here!! What games did you end up playing??

    Reply
  3. Allison says

    August 23, 2014 at 12:50 pm

    My daughter would love this for her June birthday. Night games with friends are such a fun part of getting older when you’re young. Glow sticks make it even more fun!

    Reply
  4. Shauna says

    September 24, 2014 at 10:22 am

    Hi great ideas. I’m doing a little party like this on Friday night. I was wondering if you ever posted the night games you played? Those are ideas I’d love to have for our party.
    Thanks,
    Shauna

    Reply
  5. natalie says

    October 5, 2014 at 12:58 pm

    where can i find a list and instructions for night time games?

    Reply
  6. Darla says

    October 5, 2014 at 5:20 pm

    Very interested in the night games you played

    Reply
  7. Kesiah says

    November 21, 2014 at 3:02 pm

    This a great way to just hang out with friends too!!! Sooo trying this!

    Reply
  8. Tiffany says

    December 19, 2014 at 7:03 pm

    Love the theme but looking for games/activities to do to keep them occupied.

    Reply
  9. Viki says

    February 23, 2015 at 5:08 am

    What a great idea! I see how my boys and their friends would be really into this. Unfortunately I am not able to find the second post you mentioned with the games to this theme. Could you provide the. Link to it? Thanks a lot.

    Reply
  10. Ginny says

    February 28, 2015 at 9:39 pm

    This is absolutely amazing! So glad you shared. I’m like the other moms and would love to know what the games were that y’all played!

    Reply
  11. Chris Svee says

    April 27, 2015 at 1:17 pm

    I really would like to know what night games you played. I want to do this for my sons camp out sleepover birthday.

    Reply
    • Becky says

      April 27, 2015 at 5:54 pm

      Hi Chris,
      We’ve tried to find out the games played but unfortunately Kirsten has left our team and we haven’t been able to get this information from her. I’m sorry. We will keep trying and update as soon as we can. Thanks.

      Reply
  12. Jamie says

    September 4, 2015 at 3:34 pm

    Hi. Great job on your party! Can you share the games you played?
    Thanks!

    Reply
  13. Robyn says

    May 25, 2016 at 8:36 am

    SUCH a cute party … You did a great job! What was your camera set on to get such great pics?

    Reply
  14. Liv says

    December 4, 2017 at 2:36 am

    really awesome my kids birthday is coming up so this really helped!

    Reply
  15. Carrie says

    June 20, 2022 at 8:00 pm

    Great ideas! Thank you for sharing.

    Reply
  16. Kevin White says

    July 13, 2022 at 2:04 am

    This will be perfect for my 9-year old. I might buy some Legos to make the party even more awesome.

    Reply

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