How To Entertain Tween and Teen Age Girls, or Having Fun at Our CycloGirl Party

On Monday we had a large gaggle of girls over for a party. It wasn't anyone's birthday, or any official holiday. It was our wanting to celebrate and enrich the relationships of the girls who compete together most weekends of the year. We could not invite every girl who races in Colorado. Rather, we invited Ellie's team mates and the girls who seem to be at nearly every race each weekend.

They began showing up at lunchtime. Laurel's mom sent sandwiches on a stick, which was a hit. It had chunks of bread, grape tomatoes, ham, cheese, and turkey. The girls played a few games of sardines. It is sort of like hide and seek, where the one person hides. As each person finds them, they hide together. It does not sound like much, but it was great fun. Next up was the root beer tasting. I got this idea from my friend, Natalie. We rated 7 root beers on color, aroma, taste and overall appeal. My personal favorite was Bulldog Root beer which comes from the World Market store. Lots of the girls like the Barg's best. They could spot it right off just from the smell. They found that one had a buttery taste while several had a light kiss of mint in the aftertaste. They played games a bit more and took the dog to the park. Reisha delighted them when she acted like a playful pup. She had fun but was soon snoring away once they got back home. Maddy had to leave for softball practice and Morgan shjavascript:void(0)owed up. The next activity was decorating flip flops (I've included some notes below on how to organize it.) They were a hit with everyone but Morgan. She gave it a go, but it is really a bit too girly girl for her. Then we were back to more games of sardines. We had a taco bar for dinner and then headed to Blockbuster to rent a movie. I was proud of how the girl's worked out picking a movie. They had lots of limits, likes and dislikes. They finally settled on "Pink Panther II." Ellie and I put together fun snack trays ahead of time. We picked out six different snacks and filled small muffin tins with the treats. Each girl got her own treat tray. After the movie was over the girls moved their playing to the back yard and the basement. Laurel and Kirsten had to go home at around midnight so I stayed up working on digital scrapbooking pages. I asked the girls to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Some did as I asked, others, like Ellie, stayed up all night.

Tuesday we had a nice breakfast. Many of the girls were a bit grumpy and punchy from being so tired. We pulled out the crafts and began to make decorated journals. Laurel's mom, Mike, sent those along,too. Some of the girls got a book done. Most simply got them started and some never got organized. Mike was generous and did not mind letting the girls take stuff home to finish their book later. I made a book for Mike. It was a perfect craft for me that day.



The party was a whirl wind. We had fun. The girls are already thinking about planning another get together. I'm onto helping Ethan figure out what he wants to do for his upcoming 16th birthday party.

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Tips on Decorating Flip Flops:

You need flip flops and strips of material to decorate them in the way we did. I found that strips of cloth that are 6' or 7" by about 1" wide work well. I cut them on a slight angle on the fabric so that they do not get the long strings and frays that you would get if you cut them straight. We had 8 girls decorating shoes. I bought 1/2 yard each of around 7 colors. It is fine to use really cheap cloth. Mine came from Walmart at $1.50 per yard. After I cut the strips I placed them in plastic dishes (Gladware, Ziplock, etc.) so that they were organized and easy to get to. The best way to do them is to start at the back of the plastic strap on the flip flop and tie the strip on using two knots. This keeps them from falling off. Continue in this way until they are fully decorated. Use sharp scissors to trim off the extra long pieces, paying special attention to the parts that would get stepped on. It was a fun, inexpensive craft that most of the girls enjoyed.