I have two daughters currently aged 11 and 13. That means that so far we've held 24 birthday parties (but only 6 so far for kids between 10 and 13). We are always trying to come up with new games for the parties and so I thought I'd share some of them here.

I'll add to this as we come up with more!

Guess who

Get some stickers and write the names of famous people on them. They don't have to be very famous, just people the kids will know. Now stick one sticker on the back of each child, then each child takes it in turn to ask questions so that they can guess who they have on their back. Questions can be things like "Am I a girl or a boy?", "Am I a singer?", etc

Watch out for cheating with kids trying to look into mirrors and windows!

Movie quiz

If part of the party will involve watching a movie, and you want to keep them engrossed, have a short quiz after the movie with some small prizes. For example, if you have watched Pirates of the Caribbean, a question could be "What is the name of Captain Jack Sparrow's ship?"

Treasure hunt

This one takes a little organizing but will keep them entertained. You'll need to come up with some clues and print out a clue list. Print the clue list in various orders (so that all kids don't start off with the same clue). Pair the kids into teams. Each clue will lead to an answer that they will have to fill in on a sheet, or perhaps will give them a letter that at the end they will have to unscramble into a word.

For added excitment, make this a race against the clock.

Act out an advert

This is like Charades but they have to act out in mime their favorite advert. Split the kids into two teams and award points for the correct answer guessed by either team for each advert.

Mirrorless makeup

If you don't mind them playing with make up, then get each child to do their own make up but without the benefit of a mirror and using their left (or right, if they are left handed) hand only. Results can be hilarious.

Alternatively - blindfold one person and get them to do the make up for a second person - even funnier!

Line by line storytelling

Divide the kids into teams and give each team a storyline (shopping, school, going on vacation, etc). Each team comes up with 10 sentences relating to a story of that type (they don't have to run together as a story). Then get the kids to write the sentences out on separate pieces of paper. Put all the pieces into a bag and then, get the kids in turn to come up an draw out a sentence. They need to read the sentence but do it as a storyteller with feeling, emotion and drama.

Here's a good one for Halloween - instead of dunking for apples in a basin of water, put coins into the bottom of a few inches of water in a basin and add red food dye to the water to turn it blood red. Let the kids put a spoon in their mouths and put their hands behind their backs while they try to lift the coins out of the 'blood' with the spoon.

Or simply let them bob for apples in the red water!

Divide into two groups and for each group put a basket of dress-up clothes (hats, scarfs, gloves, etc) at the far end of the room or garden.

Each team picks a person to be the mannequin, and when the race starts, it is relay-style with each team member running to the dress-up basket in turn and grabbing an item of clothing.

This must then be dressed onto the person playing the mannequin before the new person can run to the basket an get an item of clothing. First team to completely dress the mannequin wins.