School Bus Cake with Teen Party Games


We had a back to school party last weekend filled with some great teen party games, and I had the cutest school bus cake made for the event. I’m slightly obsessed with theme cakes (themed anything, really) and this one was filled with adorable-ness. Here are a few pictures I took with the bus cake as my main model. She stood so still for me…

Back to School bus cake

I’m in LOVE! It was so so hard to cut into this baby, I had to have someone else do it.

apple shaped cake balls with school bus cake


I’ve got no tips on making the cake–sorry! Find someone who makes cakes, and share your vision. {Random books covered with scrapbook paper and school themed banners found in the Target dollar spot}

Now, to the party games…

I put one of my teenage students in charge of the games, because I felt all out of creativity after planning a year of monthly activities with these cute kids! She did an awesome job, and I was happy that she ran it, too!  Here are the games the kids played:

  1. Eye Contact–You play by everyone standing in a circle. Best to have an odd number. Everyone in the circle puts their head down with eyes closed, and all counts “1…2….3…heads up!” When your head comes up, you have to open your eyes and keep it in the direction of SOMEONE. If that person is looking at you, you both are out. If they are looking away, you are safe to stay. The circle whittles down to 3 people, and the last two to look at each other are out, leaving one winner.
  2. Candy Bar Game–I actually found this in a search on Pinterest, and provided the candy bars. You just need a variety of candy—no duplicates–and a set of dice. Best around a table to roll the dice. We were expecting about 20 kids and had 13, and we just so happened to have 13 candy bars. I set a timer for 15 minutes, and they went around the circle rolling the dice. If they got doubles, they got to pick a candy from the center…OR they could steal from someone. Stealing is always fun in a game, right? The last few minutes are the best, stressful and exciting, as people are hoping to end with their own personal favorite. It’s interesting to see which candy gets stolen the most! Interestingly enough, 3 kids didn’t get doubles the whole 15 minutes, and several got doubles twice, so ended up with two candies. They all shared in the end, and it might not be a bad idea depending on the age, to have a reserve candy stash for those that didn’t get one, to have one when it’s all over.
  3. Lights Out–You have to wait until it’s fully dark outside, and willing to have kids screaming and roaming your home for this. I don’t mind those, and the kids had so much fun with this game. I did not record it because it was too dark! I sat on the couch in a central room and laughed and laughed watching their shadows around me. 3 people are “it” and hide in a closet and count for 1 minute or so…enough for everyone else to scatter around the house…up or down…and find a hiding spot. If doors are closed, you can’t go inside, and most bedrooms were closed, just open area. When the 3 come out, they don’t know where anyone is, and those hiding are trying to grab them. If they get grabbed, they are out. Just the THOUGHT of them being grabbed freaks them out to the point of screaming in anticipation. If they think they know where someone is (noise or shadows) they will point in that direction and describe it, and if there is someone hiding there, they are out. The best was when the 3 that were it started to walk up the stairs, and someone came behind them and grabbed them!

Let me know if you have questions! Have you played any of these games before?

I’ve shared more party games for teens or family games on these links below: