For my 13th birthday I love the beach so I chose a beach party. I had it at a more private beach that a friend had a pass into, but a public beach will work too (just make sure you stake out your area early). I had my birthday the weekend before school got out so all my friends could talk about how awesome my party was at school. 31 kids were invited, 23 girls and 18 boys, this was my first big (and not 2 mention boy/girl) party I'd ever had, and a beach party is a great idea if you are like me and this is your first time hosting a big party. So all my friends arrived at 3:30, and stayed till 7:30 (sunset). When the guests drive in they had their names on a guestlist and we had a doorman to make sure we knew them and they werent party crashers, this was very fun and made the guests feel V.I.P.!! Fr the food we had a family friend who cooks and she catered with pinapple and chicken wraps and good stuff like that, along with plenty of snack food (always have food out, most people will be entertained by this for at least a little while). We also had plenty of sodas and water in a icy cooler, which proved handy when we thought one friend needed a little ice swim :))).IVITIES: for activities make sure you have lots of beach toys like frisbees, volleyballs, footballs, etc etc...anything to keep you interested and playing. We had family friends who loaned us a couple of kayaks and surfboards which made the party lots of fun, if you dont think you know anyone with this kind of stuff, ask around and you will be suprised to see what will unfold for you)INVITES: for the invites I packed up a camera and lots of pretty outfits and headed to the beach where the party would be. I had a friend take lots of pictues of me, like a photo shoot, and we put the picture on a blue canvas along with the party info, then we printed it out through a kinkos store, and had it laminated and then we put it on a keychain/lanyard thing we found at a office store, like staples. I then handed them out at school.CAKE: we simply went out to costco and bought a large rectangle cake and ice cream, this is good if you are having alot of cake craving people! PRESENTS: wow I underestimated how many presents I would get with 30 kids coming, it was nice just remember whenever you get a present you should always smile and thank them sincerely before you open the next one, and thank you cards make them feel really special.OVERALL: my party was amazingly fun and i had the best time of my life!!!! next year i will be renting out a movie theater, just 1 theater not the whole building, and my friends and i will have the whole place to ourselves, just in case u needed another idea to top the party u just threw!!!