i saw organic lollies that look like pastel smarties on teh Twinkle Lily website, they would be nice to decorate a cake with.

Crocodile Creek is a toy brand that makes little puzzles in a box the size of a matchbox, for about $3 each. i thought they would make a good party bag present.

i bought a big box of fat chalks too, and parcelled them up, say five per child with a ribbon around them. expensive if you buy individaul little packs, but not if you buy a bulk pack.

and the plastic animal idea, used that too, everyone got a different ocean animal.

i'm investigating how to get coloured icing without artificial colours this year, wish me luck. Last year, didn't use icing at all. bilby loves banana cake with no icing. but she's better at brushing her teeth now, might use some icing this year.

as your age group is 2 and above, i would be careful with whistles for under threes, and anything with small breakable bits e.g some jewerelly for the under threes.

Some parents use "failsafe diet" and other food methods to help with behaviour management and health issues. We all respect the "no nuts" policies, there can be very legitimate reasons why some parents restrict their child's diets. Some families go thru hell, when the child is exposed to foods/additives that "set them off".