Daughters 13Th B-day

My daughter just went to an OOOO LALA party at her best friend's.
She had to get dressed up real pretty. They were served a French dinner, with Brie Cheese, Chicken Cordon Bleu, and Pommes Frites (french fries), and croissants(crescent rolls), cake a la mode. THey also had little canvases that they painted with water colors or markers for the craft. The birthday girl is 12. She found this party in the American Girl Magazine.
The mom filled little pink bags with white poodles glued on them and Eiffel Tower stickers with fancy notepads and pens.

You could also do it at a hotel. Have her only invite just 2-3 close friends and find some place with an indoor pool (or water park), arcade, etc. Let them rent (a pre-approved, of course) movie on pay per view and bring some popcorn and candies plus the cake. You could also bring board games, Mad Libs, and nail polish so the girls can do eachothers toes. You might even be able to find some deals on websites like travelocity, etc. right in your own town!

Take her and a few close friends out to dinner. Make it a nice restaurant and have them dress up.

I like the idea of lunch or dinner at a nice restaurant and dressing up. If you have the money, doing manicures beforehand would make it fun and make them feel grown up.
You could see if the restaurant would create a signature drink for your daughter too - something non-alcoholic, of course, but with a cocktail sort of feel to it (virgin martinis or something like that).

I agree, take them to a super nice restaurant and treat them all like young ladies.. Take a ton of photos..

Take her and two or three friends out to lunch and for pedicures.
Or take them to lunch and a movie.
You could take them shopping at the mall.
Not sure if money is an issue but if not, you could go to a short (1 hour max)
cooking class.
Get disposable cameras and have everyone take pictures of each other at a park (or you could bring your digital camera).
If you have a movie camera, you could have them "film a short movie" to be done at home or a park.
You could take them to see a play at a local theatre (matinees are less expensive).
You could enlist some of your friends/family members to come over to help administer pedicures, manicures, apply makeup for the girls (less expensive this way).
If you have a Petroglyph type store in your area, you can take them to paint pottery.

For my daughter's 13th, I did a treasure hunt at a mall. I set up notes in advance, sending her from one store to the next, and at the end she got the treasure. She had all her friends go with her. At each store they were told they had to do something, like sing a song, stand on the counter and kiss the moose, hugging the shirtless male model at one of the stores: that kind of thing. I followed along taking pictures. I had to talk the people at each store into letting me do it, and everyone was really nice about helping out.

I think your daughter deserves something really nice for this birthday, because of what she's going through. Good luck making a nice occasion for her.

What about a nice tea party?
For my 13yos birthday we are doing a tea party with all the ladies/girls she knows. It will be a "dress up party" and the guests will be asked to dress for a traditional afternoon tea..
We are going to ask some of the ladies to talk about maturing into a young lady.
There will also be some fun little tea party games.
She is very excited.
I am looking in thrift stores for nice tea cups that guests will use and be able to take home as party favors.

Tori already said what I was going to offer. My friend Angela just did the hotel thing for her daughter. They had a pool and a gym etc, they stayed up all night, played games, ate pizza and cake and no mess for Mom to clean up afterwards. I think 5 girls stayed over and they ate breakfast there and my daughter had a GREAT time. She was already 13 in March and I know next year she will want something similar if the money allows.

for my 13th birthday my mom rentedme a limo.. i was allowed to pick 6 friends to come with me.. we all met up at the skating rink (soo then everyone there got to see us get into the limo and that made us COOL) then then we just drove around town for a couple of hours.... the limo was stocked with soda and chips and we had a sun roof and all that jazz. no adults came with us... and the limo driver was given set orders on where we were allowed to go... at the end of the night, the driver dropped us all off at my house and then we had a slumber party... it was AWESOME! and it was my first introduction to being a "teenager" and given a small taste of freedom.. LOL...

For my daughter's 13th birthday party, I borrowed a chocolate fountain, and she had a chocolate dipping party. I got anything and everything that you could dip in chocolate and chopped it all up (ie. strawberries, pineapple, pretzels, peanuts, etc.) Her and her friends loved it. In fact one of her friends ended up doing it for her birthday as well. They just sat there eating chocolate and talking. We did it on our back porch around a table and they just sat there the whole time. I hope this helps.