2yo birthday party

Hi all,

Will soon be holding a party for DS's 2nd birthday. Didn't do a 1st.

I have just made a quick list of people to invite, and without even stopping to think of who I've forgotten, it's at about 60 adults and kids. Could easily blow out to 80-100, which seems a bit ridiculous!

I don't want to offend people/leave them out etc etc, but I just don't want to cater for that many people (we'll be holding it in a park and doing morning or afternoon tea). And I think it's a bit silly to have that many people for a 2yo party.

How do you all decide who to invite to things? Some of our closest friends don't have kids yet, so if I only invite child friends of DS and their parents we'll be leaving out some important people.

i keep kids birthdays to family. When they have their own friends though of course i'll invite them but yeah. Until then just immediate family. Good luck

We did the ppl that make the effort to see them during the year, this yr as DD2 didn't have a 1st we also invited DP's Aunts.
90+ ppl invited and only about 50 came (incl kids) these were immediate family, very close friends and our wonderful BB friends.

DD1s 1st b'day we had nearly 90 ppl ... Hectic.

Can you maybe tell those close friends your doing a kids only party, most ppl understand otherwise it may just be you need to invite everyone and hope some ppl can't make it.


Sent from my iPhone, more than likely while I should be doing something else!

It is so tough at that age, we really struggled and are still struggling. We did a big first birthday for each of our kids and we are now contemplating what to do for a second and third, coming up in the next few months.

DD - 3 in Feb - is starting to talk about her "friends" and so we've decided we are just inviting the kids that she is socialising with at the moment. The problem with that is that we have one friend who hasn't got kids... conveniently she is overseas at the moment so we might have been spared ;) But even that - the kids we see regularly - is still 40+ adults and kids. Because they aren't old enough to be left without their parents.

DS - 2 in July - not sure. Think we might just do quite a small thing, at home maybe. Just family basically.

What are you celebrating? If it is a bit about making it through two years with your sanity in tact (as our first birthday celebrations were!!) then by all means invite everyone who has helped you in those two years. I also totally understand not wanting to offend people!

I went to a 3yo party in Nov that would have had 100 people. Easy. This family do a "big" party for each child every 3 years. They have 3 kids, so they organise one "big" party a year, for a different child. The other years, I'm not sure what she does - just the child's close friends I guess!

You could do the party in the park for the kids (and maybe just the grandparents as well

.....and then send a message or email invite to everyone else to say we are meeting at (name of place) for a couple of drinks and a casual lunch to celebrate DD's 2nd birthday. If you would like to come and join us and share in some cake (that part is optional) then we will be there between (start and end time).

That way they are all buying their drinks and meal, if they want one or just drinks or just come for cake and you arent cartering or paying for heaps of people. If you go to a pub or RSL club that has an outdoor area (most have play areas for kids as well nowadays) you can just book a big table and see who turns up. If noone turns up well you still had a bday lunch for DD's bday and they cant be offended that they werent included in celebrations IYKWIM.

Thanks ladies - glad I'm not the only one with dilemma! Some great ideas here.

Personally I think that kids' birthday parties are for kids, so if I were you I'd only invite people with kids of a similar age to the birthday boy. There are plenty of other occasions, e.g. your own birthday, anniversaries, Christmas, etc, where you have the opportunity to invite your friends and other people important to you. So for a 2nd birthday, I'd limit the guest list to preschoolers and their parents.

Also, before I had DD I would have felt uncomfortable being invited to a kids' party if I didn't have a child of my own. The few parties that I was invited to in this situation I made an appearance to be polite, but didn't feel comfortable staying... It would be terrible if you catered to a lot of people only to have them stay for half an hour, then leave.

DS is two in May and I've already started thinking about this. His 1st b'day was a 'we survived 12 months' kinda thing so we invited everyone who's been with us along the way, mainly adults. He also had a joint 1st birthday with my mother's group. this year it'll be his 'friends' only - those he has play dates with. Or, we'll just do a family party and leave the 'friends' party til he's 3 or older, when he actually has friends and knows what it all means.

If you didn't have a 1st b'day, you might want this to be an 'all in' kinda thing (i.e. it's a party for you too), but maybe just make it small nibbles and just a couple of hours. BYO drinks too. We found a lot of people didn't come to ours so our list of about 45 ended up being just over 25.

If you want it to be just for him, then it's ok to leave out YOUR friends that don't have kids, or even your friends that have older kids, and just invite the kids his age who he actually plays with. Address the invite to the child and if anyone is offended, explain what you're doing - e.g. You can come and help supervise, but there won't be any adult food/drink and it's all two year olds and tanties, lol!!!