'Tweens' have a ball

They create a mood and collection of memories that linger long after the cake has been eaten, presents opened and the decorations cleared away. Metrolife takes a peek into what goes into the creating the perfect theme parties for Bangalore’s imaginative moms and their tween (girl between 10 and 13) offspring.

When it comes to the perfect themes birthday party for pre-teen girls, what is in and what is out changes more frequently then the seasons. For a tween, a 13th birthday is a time to bid farewell to the world of dolls and fairy tales and step into a new and exciting phase of cosmetics, global fashions, edgy music and new friends.

“We picked the Disney theme of High School Musical for Leah’s 13th birthday to make it really special,” say Erica and Jimmy Mehrotra who planned every last detail to perfection from the party invitations, to the food, the giveaways and the decoration.

The scene of the action was Leah’s great grandmother’s garden which was set up with white marquees decorated with bright clusters of balloons. There were tables laden with fun finger foods like marshmallows, tiny lemon tarts, quiche, donuts, coloured sandwiches, kebabs, a variety of edible delights and colourful glasses of fruit punch.

After the cake was cut and part of it smeared across Leah’s face, the young party goers rocked the evening away on the specially created dance floor while the DJ kept the tempo up playing all the latest tunes including some from the musical itself. Shalini and her daughter Sara chose to have a mother-daughter party with a five of her close friends and their moms for her 13th birthday. “ We had moved to India recently and since I wanted to get to know some of Sara's friends and their moms, we decided to try this idea.

After an ice-breaker session where we got to know each other a little better, we organised pizza making in the kitchen with each pair making their own personalised pizzas as we had the bases ready and a variety of toppings on hand. We then had music and dancing in the living room teaching the group some of the steps we had planned in the course of the week.

We played dumb charades and a few silly party games ending with a mother-daughter makeover which was hilarious. Everyone had a really good time and we’ve had many more activities as a group since then,” says Shalini. Pamela had a fashion show theme for her tween Monica’s birthday. “We planned the party a year in advance  collecting old sunglasses, hats, tiara, feather boas and scarves from friends turning them into funky fashion accessories.

A tattoo artist hired for the evening added touches of drama to the make-up and the costumes that the girls and boys picked out from the pile. We had a makeshift ramp, some recorded music and a photographer who took polaroid pictures that we put in a frame and gave to each kid as a party favour,” says Pamela.