Spa Party

This is a bit of a flashback here - nearly 5 years to be exact!  In my determination to get all of my previous parties finally posted, I've been going through photos, and found these nearly ready to post.  My daughter was turning 13 and will be 18 this fall!  So I'd say it's about time!

DISCLAIMER:  This was another early-blogging party (done before I really got into this blog thing), so my photos are lacking proper backdrops and there is a surprising lack of detail - and designer cupcakes! :)  It may not be up to my current party standards, but we all start somewhere, right?

Theme:
We picked a theme that any new teen would love - pampering herself!  I have to admit that having only one daughter, any chance to get all girly-girl is fun for me also.

Invitations:

No freebie here - sorry!  I saw this idea online.  This was my pre-Adobe Illustrator years too folks, so don't judge ;)

There are many cute Spa Party invites you can purchase online.

Food:
Finger foods were on the menu!  Small sandwiches, ham roll-ups, mini pizza bites, fresh fruits, chocolate covered strawberries, and eclairs.  Then instead of a cake or cupcakes, we had a yummy fruit pizza!

Activities:
WELCOME TO THE OOH LA LA SPA!  My daughter drew the activity list on the whiteboard.  The lips across the top were actually our first activity.  As the girls showed up we gave them a bright lipstick and an index card to lay a big smooch on for WHO'S LIPS ARE THEY?  The cards were numbered, then they had a list of all of the girls' names and they wrote the number of their guess next to the names.

The whiteboard shows the list of activities, and we had candies available for leisurely snacking.

The goody bags:  Held nail files, manicure kits, toe separators, candy, and gave them a place to put all of the other goodies we made throughout the night.  I got the cute little bags at Target, and the nail kits from Dollar Tree.

To start with, I had purchased several lotion-making and lip balm-making kits from JoAnn's Fabrics.  I made several trips there so I could use 40% off coupons for them all.  This saved me a lot of money on this activity.  Any craft store probably carries them.  Making LUXURIOUS LOTIONS and LIP BALMS mostly just involved mixing in scents and coloring then pouring them into individual bottles.  The lip balms were a little messier because it involved heating the wax also, but was a good project for that age group.  Each girl got to mix and make their own for each lotion, and worked in groups of 4 for the lip balm mixing, but then filled their containers themselves.

Our FABULOUS FACIALS starting with letting the girls pick a cute colored headband to hold back their hair.  They were also given a washcloth and a small towel.  We had the charts (below) at each station so they would know the steps to follow.  I mostly used my favorite beauty essentials, but I suggest you use very mild products since this was the first time almost all of these girls had ever used anything on their faces.  Great age to learn though!

Girls, you look fabulous!

MAGNIFICENT MANICURES and PERFECT PEDICURES pretty much followed the same steps.  Four girls to each station kept it manageable.  I picked up the soaking tubs from Dollar Tree and we added warm water and Epsom Salts to make a nice soak.  Then we gave them a sugar scrub to exfoliate.  After rinsing that off we washed out the tubs really good and got clean fresh water for the next girl to use.  Those doing hands went to feet, and vice versa.  While it was their turn to soak their feet, we had the girls file and buff their nails from the kits in their bags.  When they were all done with feet and hands we did all of the polish and decals at once. The girls helped each other a little on the polish, so that really helped out.

Show off those manicures girls!

We had planned a MARVELOUS MOVIE at the end until parents picked up their kids, but actually didn't have time for it.  Any young teen movie would be fun, but we wanted to watch Doris Day's Pajama Game.

Music:
I had soft spa-like music playing in the background.  My Mom is really into that, so I had some of her CD's of piano and new age music with waterfall/nature sounds in it.

This party kept me on my toes :) with so many activities needing me to assist the girls.  Luckily my sister stayed and helped me out.  Lifesaver!!!  It was fun to pamper my daughter and was a great girly party for her and her friends.