If it's the heat of summer and you're looking for a wet & wild party idea for your teen or pre-teen, why not have a water theme park party?

On the invitations, remind the guests to bring their bathing suits and definitely a change of clothes. You can hook up all sorts of water sprayers to your garden hoses and have an obstacle course. The slippery slides are still available so your guests can shoot across the lawn to the continual flow of water. You can also purchase these fabulous water slides that blow up in the backyard and you can slide down all day long. At this type of party, the action never stops! You can also play a paintball style game with the water squirters and this is a definite favorite with the active teens with energy to spare!

This party does require outdoor supervision to make sure that the games stay friendly and don't turn into an all-out water battle! And you will find that your guests will be ravenous for snacks and other party fare, so have a big lunch or dinner ready plus the goodies and cake. Assuming it's summer, BBQ is always fun, with burgers and hot dogs.

If water conservation is a concern, and in this day and age we all need to be sensitive to it, you can alternate the water games with some other activites to ensure you are not being environmentally-unfriendly.

Choose a movie your kids will enjoy after the meal because no doubt they will be tired from their very active day. Goodie bags are also fun to create for this type of party - any number of knick-knacks at the dollar store will use water, such as ring water-squirters.