Birthday celebrations after primary school

[Got2getout]

Help! I’m looking for ideas.

DD is in year 7 and is due to have her 12th birthday in a few weeks.

I’ve been warning her since her last birthday that once you get to secondary school people don’t tend to have big parties for friends the same way they did when they were younger, and that it tends to shift more to one or two friends for a day out or meal etc.

DD is still really keen to do something with her friends for her birthday, but we’ve got no idea what.

She’s struggling to narrow down numbers as she has a couple of different friendship groups and hates the idea of anyone feeling left out.

I’m just struggling to know what to do with them. DD will have a go at anything, but I’m not sure that her friends are so easily pleased.

Needs to be out of the house, and keep approx 8 girls occupied for a few hours. Budget up to £200 to include activity & food.

Any ideas please? What is fun / cool at 12?

Trampoline place? Bowling? Cinema? Then a meal together?

what does she enjoy doing?

Agree with @Sirzy plus, depending on what she likes, there's also climbing walls, paddle boarding or pamper party at a salon.

My DD is 12 in December and I won’t be organising an official party of anything like that. They’re too old. I’m thinking of a sleepover with a couple of friends (and some pizza). Job done.

We do bowling, karting (this is the most popular but mad expensive) cinema and even pizza and movies at home.

When we were that age we did cinema and pizza and ice cream

Thanks for the ideas so far.

I think a sleepover would be by far the most popular route to go down, but unfortunately it’s not an option for us this year.

The cinema looks like it would fall within budget, just waiting to see what films will be out then, the options on the website are not very inspiring so far.

We did trampoline / inflatable
place last year, and although DD enjoyed it a few of her friends looked a bit bored, I think they thought they were already too old for it.

Go karting could be a good option, I’ll check the prices of the nearest places.

We had a climbing party a few years ago, so could go back to the same place as a last resort.

@Sirzy DD enjoys almost everything, it’s more the other girls that I’m worried about.

DD has a much younger sibling and is often happy to do things aimed at younger children in order to suit the youngest, but I’m not sure her friends would share her enthusiasm.

For my daughters 12th birthday we did laser quest and a sleepover..
For her 13th birthday I just booked for her to go to the cinema with her friends and paid for them to go to nandos after

What about an escape room? My daughter turns 11 this week and wants to do an escape room with her friends.

Or just sleepover with film and pizza?

Oh, maybe not. I just re read your post and 8 girls for escape room might be pricey.

I mean, I’m 34 and got excited just by the idea of laser tag.

Could you just do a movie night at your house with pizza and mocktails and then send them home? I assume they just like “hanging out” at that age.

Karaoke/bowling/cinema/Lush/pizza place/dessert bar?

She is the laser quest queen it's absolutely bizarre, she always gets in the top 5 scores of the week. I am a little bit jealous of her prowess