A Movie Night 14th Birthday Party

With Samantha's birthday approaching, I had asked her what she wanted to do to celebrate.  She told me that she wanted to invite a few friends over for a sleepover and wanted to 'keep it simple' and not go 'overboard' with a theme and a balloon arch and basically all of the things that I tend to do for birthdays.  

Secretly, I had an idea in mind already to celebrate with a 'Movie Night' theme, but waited to see how it all played out.  When she told her friends that she was keeping it simple, each one of them was disappointed and told her that they look forward to her birthday parties every year because they are so fun, different and over the top.  She didn't realize how special the parties were to them too and didn't want to disappoint them.  

And so it began.  She agreed to the Movie Night idea, chose four friends to invite (plus her and her sister, for a total of 6 girls) and I started to scribble ideas together in a notebook for the event.

The invitations, ready to hand out to the girls:

The party favors:

Everyone received a large popcorn container (that they could fill with popcorn later in the evening), a few bags of Skinny Pop popcorn to take home, some fuzzy socks and a monogrammed tumbler for hot or cold liquids.

We set up a projector in the garage along with a couch and a couple of recliner chairs that we inherited recently.  I put together a little "Concession Stand" with all of the movie favorites and we rented online two "old school" type of movies that the girls could watch.

The popcorn machine was set up and I also surprised the girls with special glowing cups to use in our darkened garage theater.

Another highlight was the chocolate fountain.  We have certainly gotten a lot of use out of this over the last couple of years.  

Samantha's dinner request was a nacho table with the nachos spread out on the tablecloth and the toppings passed around the table.  Her friend, Grace, does this with her family every summer vacation (and Sam travels with them) and it was a big hit.  Plus, the clean-up is a breeze because you just fold up the tablecloth afterwards and throw it away.  Easy peasy.

Opening gifts!

Soft PJs and a warm blanket!  Perfect!

And then, the best idea ever!  A game of old-fashioned BINGO complete with a rolling rack, bingo balls and marker daubers.  

We started out with one card each and as the girls got better at their techniques, we upgraded to more than one card.  

Even the boys joined in from the other side of the room.

And then ... the prizes!  I set it up so that every one of the girls ended up with exactly two envelopes for prizes.  They were able to choose which numbered envelope they wanted as they "BINGo'd" and the envelopes contained small gift cards or cash.  They loved it!!!

Movie time!

Surprisingly, the girls only stayed up until about 10:30 pm and only watched one of the two movies that we had rented (Meet the Parents).  They were tired and headed inside to the basement to crash for the night.  Apparently teenagers that play sports and love their sleep are not as apt to stay up until the wee hours of the morning.

The next morning, I made a full pancake breakfast for the girls and they wanted to play BINGO again.  And of course, since we did not cut the cake the night before (because there were so many treats at the Concession Stand), we sang to Sam then.  Some of the girls had cake with their breakfast (!!!) or took it home with them.

She asked for a "Stranger Things" theme for her cake because it is one of her favorite shows right now.  Personally, I have never seen any of the episodes so I figured that it might be a bit of a challenge for me, but I followed a similar picture that I found online and Sam loved it.  Each of the items on the cake (like the small waffles on the top, made out of fondant) and the lettered Christmas lights and the "Friends don't lie" sign are all symbolic.

It was a full day of celebrating Samantha and we can't wait to see what Year 14 holds for her!