{Party Feature Thursday} Water Slide Tween Party

We see a lot of parties for younger children. I mean, A LOT :) While I do love those (especially since I still have younger children) it's nice to see a party for a tween/teenager too. This week our feature comes from Jessica of Let's Get This Party Started! It also comes with a fun DIY tutorial for a very cool Ice Bucket! See what Jessica had to say about this "non party" for her 12 year old son.



"My oldest son turned 12 last summer, while he wanted a party, he didn’t want a “PARTY”. He begged me not to style it, insisted on choosing which serving bowls we would use, chose mismatched cakes, and made me promise not to make favors. He wanted a water slide, he wanted Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, tons of candy, a cookie cake, a Batman cake, and glowing lights because they were going to play on the water slide after dark.

Those are hard demands when you’re a party stylist!

With my list of no’s and demands, I began working on his party. I created his invitation with subway style writing, and printed it on bright card stock for him to pass out to his friends at school and church. I knew I would have to set up food outside for the kids somehow, so I used our banquet tables and covered them with beach towels and brightly colored table cloths. To keep the food area separate from the water slide area, we set up our pop up canopy and I used a Tommy Hillfiger top sheet we have as the backdrop to hide the front windows of the house.

I didn’t want to use a traditional cooler for his party, so I made an ice bucket cooler and I used a clear storage tote for the other drinks. I placed light up balloons tied tight with the excess cut off and placed them in the clear coolers to give them a glowing appearance. I placed the food in my sons favorite mismatched bowls, but added our skim boards and wooden crates for height.

This party was out of my comfort zone, but in the end, the birthday boy was very happy and I loved so many aspects of it!

I purchased the candy from Target, the cakes from Sam’s Club, and the snacks from our local grocery store."

 Ice bucket DIY Tutorial

• 1 large bucket or bowl
• 1 smaller bucket or bowl
• LOTS of strong tape
• Weight(s) for the smaller bucket
• Large freezer

You will need to start this project one week before your party. Tape your smaller bucket to the center of the larger one from the sides, so it dangles in the middle. Slowly add water to the larger bucket adding weight to the smaller one as needed to keep it in place. (Remember that water expands as it freezes and leave room for that...I may have forgotten that step) Then carefully place the whole thing in your freezer for several days. After it is frozen solid, remove your bucket from the freezer and take the ice out of the bucket. You may need to run it under water for a while to get it to release, but that is
ok. Put your new ice barrel back in the freezer until you are ready to use it! We added a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper and ice to ours and it lasted over 5 hours in the FL summer heat.

Facebook: Let’s Get This Party Started!
Instagram: LGTPS
Twitter: LGTPS10