I am not a fan of BIG birthday parties but this past summer the boys could no longer decide the one boy each got to invite to spend the night for their joint party. So I knew that I had to hang it up and find something "cool" for them - not just "cool" but cool in the sense that it was July in MS and I didn't want 16 boys in my house.  This is what I came up with.  I decided on a Squirt gun/Water balloon party. Each boy was told to bring his squirt gun and his dad - we really encouraged that since a lot of boys don't have fun time with just dad anymore, plus with so many boys, if their dad's were there then there might be more control. The boys ranged in age from 7 to 11. I also informed them to bring a change of clothes. I found recipes for tie-died T-shirts and to make slime. I had them doing those things in stages so that they weren't all doing it at the same time. In the mean time the boys were wasting their dads with squirt guns and water balloons.  I had two big coolers outside filled with water and soda and ordered a ton of pizza.  We went inside only to eat and open presents.  They took home the slime they made and their t-shirts which dried on the trees while they played. I heard rave reviews for weeks and now can't wait until next year.  Now that I've found this site, I will have the best party EVER.