'tween friends

My friend Carol is an excellent hostess and always has the most fun, innovative parties for her middle school aged daughters (as well as her adult friends). I am working on her for an interview, as I find her style inspirational and refreshing, and think you will, too, but until then, she's allowed me to share the details of her best party ever for 'tweens.

What I love about the following idea is that you can do as much or as little "from scratch" as you'd like, but either way, it will be a party your kids' picky friends will remember. The concept is simple: a make your own pizza party. But, since the 'tweeners are at an age where you need to encourage positive, collaborative interactions whenever possible, Carol took the concept one step further.

She divided the guests into teams, and each team got blank t-shirts, poster boards, and paper chef's hats. With these goods in hand, the teams were responsible for naming themselves, developing signage (the poster board) and team apparel. Next, the teams headed into the kitchen, where they received a slab of pizza dough and every kind of topping you can imagine, including candy. You can imagine that things got quite heated at this point, with a lot of attempted sabotage! Each team created a signature pizza with the ingredients of their choice.

At this point, the "celebrity" judges arrived--a teacher who gamely agreed to participate, and moi, who, while hardly a celebrity, would never pass up a party! The teams then had to present to us their name, signage, apparel and pizza, and convince us why they were worthy of a prize. There were several categories: teamwork, best tasting pizza, best signage/slogan. It was really gratifying to see these kids, who are at an awkward stage socially & physically, come together and present themselves and their teams. They had a blast, and because they were divided into teams, had to work with kids they might not have chosen if left to their own devices.

So, here's how to recreate this party from scratch and in parentheses I've given suggestions for an easier buy it all route if that's more your style.

Invitations: Buy small cardboard pizza rounds and hand print or glue on printed invitation. Mail. (buy pizza themed invitations and have the store print them for you)

Team necessities: Men's white t-shirts, paper chef's hats, poster board, fabric markers and sharpies (skip the chef's hats, and just stick to the rest of the items).

Pizza dough: If it can be made from scratch, Carol makes it from scratch, so the pizza dough is no exception here. You'll need one crust for each team you've got, which is a lot of kneading. (Buy Boboli or other similar pre-made crusts)

Toppings: Pizza sauce, herbs, several varieties of grated cheese, cut veggies, M & Ms, other candies, chocolate sauce. (Buy jarred pizza sauce, pre-grated cheese, pre-cut veggies, the candy of your choice and canned chocolate sauce)

Baking: If you are lucky enough to have two ovens (and even better convection ovens) you can cook at least two, if not four, pizzas at once. If not, have the teams make smaller pizzas so you can bake multiples at one time or even put your toaster oven into service.

Goody Bags: The kids have done their own, by creating a unique, memorable t-shirt for their team. What could be better?

Tonight Carol is hosting a village wide scavenger hunt, complete with parent chauffeurs and digital cameras, for her 7th grader. If it is as successful as I think it will be, I'll post the details on hosting a similar event at a later date.