I Love Lucy Party -13yr- Pink Cake

I Love Lucy Party My daughter was turning 13 -- now a young lady, a little girl theme seemed inappropriate.  Since we treasure I Love Lucy reruns, this theme was really fun, but we had to use our imagination since there aren't too many ideas out there.  I made computer generated notecards with the show's heart logo and a headshot of Lucy on the front with all the party info  and more pictures inside.  (You can easily copy images of Lucy from all the many websites.)  Ours was a sleepover party, so we taped a bunch of the old episodes in the preceeding weeks before the party for the girls to watch in the wee hours of the night (after I went to bed!).  Especially helpful are the "Vitameatavegimin" and the "chocolate factory" episodes (two of my favorites!).  We made games to recreate these two shows.  First, we had the girls watch the Vitameatavegimin episode twice, so that they were all familiar with what we wanted them to do.  Then we re-created the commercial, while I taped them. 

Before the party, we simply draped a cardtable with a white cloth, set some pre-filled medicine bottles on it and hung a posterboard sign that was like the one on the Lucy show.  I bought empty medicine bottles from a pharmacy (about 50 cents each), and made my own label that read: "Vitameatavegimin" with the whole script from her commercial.  I wanted that "real" effect of when she tastes the medicine the first time, so I had 3 different surprise "potions" in my medicine bottles, and since they were orange in color, you couldn't tell which bottle contained what stuff.  (Our three choices were:  pickle juice, lemon/lime juice and karo syrup.)  We wrote the script on posterboard, so each girl just stood behind the table and read the words and followed the cues for when to taste the "medicine". 

Each girl chose only one bottle and had to use it for the entire commercial (since they would be drinking out of it at the end, I didn't want them to share).  When the girls took their first spoonful of whichever bottle they chose, the picture was priceless!  Lucy couldn't have done a better job in making such face!  Then they had to go on with the commercial, taking several more bites and getting more and more "drunk".  It was hilarious to see these 10-13 year olds acting this way.  When everyone had a turn, we replayed the film while the girls ate cake, so everyone could see them. 

Our second game was a chocolate stuffing contest, where I asked trivia questions about different Lucy shows, and for every wrong answer, they had to stuff whole chocolates into their mouths without chewing.  (Get some chefs hats from the party store to make this more fun.)  We quit this game when one or more of the girls could no longer get any more candy in their mouths.  (Of course, this was carefully supervised, so that no one choked or was in danger at any time.)
 
For decorations, we recreated the "I Love Lucy" logo on the computer, and instead made some hearts with "I Love Mandy" in the same font.    We dangled both versions all over the ceiling with curling ribbon streamers.  The tablecloth was baby pink, with black & white heart confetti all over it and some more of our homemade hearts.  Lots of pink, black and white tableware: plates, cups, napkins, forks, etc. 

The cake was a simple pink heart, with "I Love Mandy".  We served ice cream floats in tall, old fashioned glasses as well.  The girls went home with two party favors.  The first was small, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates with the valentine message covered up with our own "I Love Lucy" heart (made on the computer and glued on).  The second favor was small medicine bottles with the same label as the big ones used in our commercials, only these were filled with red candy hearts inside.   

After the party, we also sent each girl a VCR tape with both the Lucy's episode and their own version on it, so that their family could enjoy the fun as well.  It was a great memento that all the girls still love to see!  All in all, this party was fabulous the theme made my young lady feel "grown up", yet she still had fun like a kid.  I doubt that I can ever top this one!