2nd birthday party ideas!

Krystal is 2 in May, and i would really like to have a party at home for her. the thing is, im not sure how successful this will be, thats where i need help!

we will have 5x 2(or almost 2)year olds - incl. Krystal, 2x just 1 year olds and probably Krystals cousin who is 7.

as may is a cold month, outside isnt really an option (though i wish it was!!)

should i just put some toys out (perhaps hiding a few - as to not have a house full of toys strewn across the place!) put Hi-5 on for some entertainment. have a few sandwhiches and kiddie appropriate snacks - which i will offer around to them.
have some tea/coffee and sandwhiches for the mums in the kitchen (i have a large living/dining area, which will be plenty of room for all the kids and mums)

should i bother with games? maybe i can get the bubble machine out for a few bubbles, encourage dancing... just let them be?

id love to hear from other mums who've had a 2nd party @ home.. its just hard to judge what the attention span will be.. as its still 3 months away!

thanks ladies

If you can afford it, I went to a first b'day party on Sunday and they had a female clown,non scary that painted their faces and made balloon animals. The older kids got more out of it than the one year olds.

I think you've got some good ideas - keep it simple. I would suggest balloons - blow them up and let them play!! They probably wouldn't nomrlaly have them so it will be a novelty and it means you don'[t have to put too many toys out (you do't want them wrecked). Games like Duck Duck Goose - catching and running are good but maybe hard if you're not outside. Dancing is a great idea too. have fun!

definately keep it simple. For Sammy's 2nd birthday last August, we got a dump truck to deliver a big load of sand and let them all dig away with spades, buckets and mess! We had a bob the builder theme and it was great fun! For my girls second birthdays, one we hired a frog thing that had balloons that would spin around in it, another we went to a local macdonalds and let the kids play there and for another we played more typical dancy, pass the parcel games. Goodluck..itll be so much fun!

Jo

You could play games like - whats the time mr wolf, musical bobs etc.

You could buy some face paint and do it yourself. Hey 2yo's dont care what they look like they just love the idea of it iykwim.

I think keep it simple that way its a little less stress free.

Its only a month til my DD1 is 2 and i still have no idea what we will do for hers :(

Oh KRYSTAL BALL I know how you feel ... My daughter turns 2 on the 6th of May & for her 1st birthday as we had a massive party we had it in a hall ... And we were so glad we did as it was raining & freezing cold :doh: Our house is small & to make it worse our lounge room is tiny. Though having it outside is just not an option weather wise.

DP reckons we are going to have it this yr in our sort of large garage BUT I still reckon it's too cold for that.
Like what if it's raining & people want to go to the loo inside the house, augh !! :wall:

Oh, KRYSTAL BALL I so envy U, at least U have the option to have it inside the house ;)

ALL THE BEST IN PARTY PLANNING:dance:

I love this age. I think the key is to keep it quite simple. My DS is now 21/2 and I've been to loads of 2nd birthday parties - some really elaborate and others quite simple. I think the most successful of them was one I went to a couple of weeks back. It had not many adults (only one parent per child) so the ratio of kids was really high. This meant it was all about the birthday girl and her friends - which was really really nice, (unlike my DS's party where we had about 40 people - with only about 7 kiddies... he ha!)

They had only two structured party games - pass the parcel with every child winning something little, and pin the tail on the donkey but without using the blindfold. Actually their game was an equivalent to pinning the tail on the donkey, it was pin the horn on Dora's unicorn.

The parents also hired a couple of pieces of indoor play equipment from a toy library (it was raining for this party so no outside activities possible), and these went down a treat. They were a little cubby and a two headed crocodile sea-saw thing.

They also hired (from the toy library) a little kiddie size table with chairs for all the kids and had it all decorated with a Dora party theme. They had loads of bubbles and balloons bouncing around the house.

The party went for three hours (10am to 1pm) so the kids spent their time playing with some of the birthday girls toys, the hired stuff, eating and playing the party games. Time seemed to fly. Was definitely one of the best we've been to for this age group.

thank you for the ideas!

ive also decided on a butterfly theme (not sure what to do for the boys though? maybe beetles? oh i like that idea "butterfly and beetle party".. lol) i want to make/but some sort of butterfly wings - not sure about the beetles yet... any ideas?

i will decorate with butterflies and other related things. balloons are a great idea! i know how much fun they have just chasing them around!

other than that, i think they will be too little to notice anything else! (or lack of...;) ) i just want them to play and have fun!

i guess ill have a go at a butterfly cake!! should be easy enough!

keep the ideas coming ladies! anything beetle & butterfly!

Bumble bee's are fine for boys too ;)

face painting is a great idea.....my 2 yr old loves getting her face painted! Balloons are also good, just when they pop kids can get a bit freaked out. Plus if they do pop make sure u find all the peices incase one of the smaller ones pick it up & stick it in their mouth.

Definatly try not to put to many toys out. At DD's 1st bday, all the kids absolutly trashed my house. they drew all over our couch & the floor....it was a MESS lol!!(kids gotta love em hehe).

Keep it simple.....kids dont really care as long as theres cake & ppl to play with.
U could maybe do lizards for the boys?? They could have tails?
Im having thomas the tank engine as bit of a theme for DS's 1st bday in a couple of weeks. :D

Good luck with it, im sure ur dd & all the kids will have a blast!! Kids parties are so much fun hehe:p

At two I don't think little boys would be worried about being butterflies!! We're doing a faery / butterfly theme for our baby girl's room & Alexzander just loves looking at the butterflies. He even picked one of them out for himself & carries it round half the day talking to it & making it fly!

thanks ladies :)

i never thought that butterflies would be ok for boys... i guess they are! i do like the bumble bee idea Cailin.. ill keep that in mind - i'll see what i can find, then make my choice :)

I did a lady beetle theme for my daughters firt birthday and had beetle invites complete with googly eyes and antanae.. I had bright green tablecloths & napkins (grass) and orange, yellow and pink balloons (bright flowers) which I actually twisted into flower shapes.. I cut smallish circles out of red cardboard and drew on spots with a marker to look like lady beetles then I blu-tacked them over the walls and down the corridor at almost kiddie height in a trail.. Also I found wind-up lady beetles at the party shop (which I also saw at spotlight) which entertained some of the kids for a while..

I would keep it simple, balloons and music with a few toys - you can always gauge how the party is going and bring more stuff out should you need it, although one large toy (like a plastic cubyhouse - you can get cheap ones at bunnings) which you can bring indoors will keep more then one child amused at a time (you don't want kids having "sharing" issues on the day) - you could put some little plastic tea sets inside the cubyhouse with some dolls and you will be suprised how little boys can really go for that type of pretend play.. or at least opening and closing teh door/windows

If the kids start to gat narky then bring out little "lolly bags" or little bags with something small for each child and that will get their attention for a while as they open up *their* little gift (like the wind-up beetle, streachy balls, plastic insects/snakes etc that you can get at the dollar shop or kmart)

I don't really have any ideas but I'm keen to read all these ideas and more for my DS's 2nd birthday party! :) Some great stuff here already!!