Teen Beach Movie Birthday Party

Decorations

I'm not a high-end party stager. I like to convey a mood without going overboard on cost or construction. Personally, I'm not going to build anything out of wood and I'm not married to a man with a wood shop in the garage. So, I tend to stick with cardboard, foam core and recycled materials. I'm a huge fan of remnant fabrics to dress things up. In this case I found some cute pink surfboard fabric, retro motorcycle fabric and some tropical prints all for less than $5/yard.

The front porch was decorated with beach ball paper lanterns, boogie boards and a grapevine wreath decorated with tiny paper umbrellas (we had both components on hand already so this was free!). Each guest was greeted with a flower lei.

I set up a buffet for the food. 

I hung a motorcycle balloon over the drink table and a surfboard pinata by the snacks.

Vintage motorcycle fabric, helmet and balloon represent the Bikers.

Surfboard fabric and surfboard pinata represent the surfers.

Pinatas do double duty as both decorations and a party game

I made two foam core posters- a juke box and, of course, the Big Momma's signs. I'm really happy with how the Big Momma's sign turned out. I hand lettered the sign using magic markers then I traced each letter using plain white glue. I waited 24 hours for the glue to dry completely. The glue gave the letters a little dimension and shine similar to neon letters. It also created a resist that allowed me to paint the background of the sign to look like weathered wood.

Adding the glue over the letters

I spent a lot of time making the sign, but only about $4 on the materials. (Thanks to Dollar Tree.)

Our Ion juke box  is really a dock for an Iphone so we played the Teen Beach Movie soundtrack. Our party playlist also included an overview of early rock and roll: Beach Boys, Elvis and the Beatles and of course,  Wipe Out .

Danielle wanted there to be a Big Poppa's surf shop. I made another sign for a "surf" atmosphere. Cutting surfboards from cardboard is much harder than I'd expected. I would advise against it - my attempt at creating a surfboard was pretty lame.

I  decorated the backyard with bunches of balloons and tiki torches. I used a discount coupon to buy a helium tank for under $20 at Michaels' and  picked up the torches at the end of summer for less than $1 each.

Games

In the retro spirit, we kept the games simple.

First we divided the kids into two teams: Bikers and Surfers. I hid themed flags for each team around the back yard. The first team back with all of their flags won.

Next was limbo. The kids loved it!

The kids also played a chaotic version of volleyball. We used a giant beach ball for the game. We needed an air pump to inflate it. You can get one that is almost as big as the one  in the Teen Beach Movie promos, but it costs almost $100. Ours cost less than $10.

I wanted to have a hula hoop contest, but could only find 2 hula hoops in October.

Menu
We served kid-sized versions of classic diner food --mini corn dogs,small hamburger sliders, chicken nuggets and tiny tacos. There were chips, crackers, fruit kabobs and veggies with dip.

The kids sat on beach towels to eat.

I made this cake myself: chocolate motorcycle, brown sugar sand with fondant towel and surf boards.

Second cake - not finished in this photo. Wilton soccer ball pan covered in homemade marshmallow fondant

The rest of the dessert table was created by My Petite Sweets in Marietta, GA. What a disappointment! There was no artistry in the baked goods I received. Cake pops and marshmallows simply rolled in colored sugars. The cupcakes had two globs of frosting and a paper umbrella. I could have done that myself.

Worst of all, the chocolate dipped strawberries that were specially requested by the birthday girl were spoiled and moldy! The one child who ate one vomited before we discovered the rotten fruit.

Cupcake from Petite My Sweets

 I would have gotten better looking - and tasting!- baked goods from Publix.

Spoiled and moldy strawberries from Petite My Sweets

Marshmallows and cake pops from Petite My Sweets.
I made the chocolate motorcycle lollipops myself.

Danielle and I both love to give party favors. In general I prefer to give one big item that can be used again rather than a lot of little things that will be thrown out or vacuumed up. I considered giving  motorcycle helmets to the boys, but I couldn't find a similar item for the girls. Retro toys like jump ropes and marbles might be another good choice. Hula hoops would have been a great gender neutral party favor if I could find them.

I know a lot of parents hate goodie bags, but I think its important for the birthday child to give as well as receive. We had to go against my usual philosophy and hand out bags with several small toys- windup motorcycles,  shark tooth or flip flop necklaces, flower bracelet craft supplies, puzzle books and pencils.

We ended the party smashing open the surfboard pinata. Who doesn't love a candy free for all?

Backup Plan in Case of Rain or Cold Weather:
If it looks like bad weather you don't have to panic and put in a DVD of the  movie. Just put on your retro thinking cap. So many kids have never played classic party games! You can still play limbo and pin the tail on the donkey inside, but races are obviously out of the question.

Danielle asked that we create a scavenger hunt for her friends which is how we came up with Find The Flags. You can hide flags inside or you can print pictures of household items for team to find. For older kids, write out clues for specific items then have the Biker and Surfer teams find them.

You could also have the kids play indoor volley ball with balloons as long as there is nothing too fragile or valuable in the room.

Try playing Pass the Parcel using items that would have been prizes. Wrap a "big" prize in the center, then add a piece of candy or a smaller prize and wrap it. Add a little confetti and wrap the next item - and on and on...You can make any number of layers. You can use scraps of gift wrap, tissue paper or even plastic wrap. Some people wrap a random number of prizes; others make a layer for each child (good for younger children so that everyone gets a prize).

Another classic game involves food. Have the kids try eating hanging pieces of food. You can use doughnuts, apples or marshmallows -  anything you have on hand or might have been serving another way. The winner is one who finishes his or her piece fastest without using their hands.

Or try a pie eating contest using graham cracker tarts and canned whipped cream- if you don't mind the mess.

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