I know this has been asked previously. I'm looking for activity ideas for my 2 year old's party. We're having it at home, and there's not a lot of space. We're assuming it will be cold so no outdoor activity. We're expecting about 3 other toddlers (ages 2-3) and a 7 month old. We're holding it in our great room, which is carpeted, so probably couldn't do anything messy. Thoughts and ideas are greatly appreciated! Thank you!
My sister-in-law recently had her daughter's 3 year b'day party with all ages of kids there. She ordered zoo animal mask kits from oriental trading for all of the kids to make. They were just foam cut outs and you stuck the other pieces on with double sided tape. They have all different kinds of masks sets and most of them are less than $5 for 12 masks. It was just something a little different and all of the kids loved it.
You could set up centers like at school. One with blocks, one with cars and a track, if you don't have a track or something with a road you could get a large cardboard to draw one on, play kitchen area, video with music and dance area (one with music and dancing). Kids just want to play, I've seen too many completely structured birthday parties where they can't just play and interact.
For my son's 2nd birthday we did a Thomas the Train theme. He had recently discovered the wooden train set at a friends house. His gift from us was a track set which he got before the party and we set up on a kid size table for an activity at the party. He also got a surprise gift at the start of the party. It was a Pop-Up Thomas play tent. Again we set it up as an activity for the party. We had many kids of all ages there (mostly cousins) and they all had a good time. They have many different Play Tents that are different characters so I'm sure you could find one to go with you theme if you have one. They also have non-character ones too. For Christmas we got my 1 yr old a play circus tent with a connecting tunnel. Its been set up in my living room since then and my 1yr old and 4 yr old play with it every day.
Try playdough at a kiddie table (with a plastic cloth underneath). That will be a fun activity that keeps there hands busy! My cousin did it for her daughter's 2nd B-day and it was nice.
When my son was 2 years old we had a birthday party at my house. It was a cowboy theme. We had cowboy hats for everyone that came and a deputy badge with my son's name on it for him. He was the sherrif. For games we had pin the tail on the donkey, a horse pinata with candy and treats, we fixed sloppy joes, chips and punch for food and then had ice cream and birthday cake. I bought red bandanas to make goody bags with. I placed the treats for the goody bags in the center of the unfolded bandana and then made a "bag" by bringing the bandana around the candy and tying a not in the top of the bandana. Oh, and we played musical chairs to songs like "She'll be Comin' 'Round the Mountains When She Comes", "Old MacDonald Had A Farm", "Home on the Range", "Skip to My Lou", and others. They had more fun with the pinata than anything but they loved learning the other games. I also gave each one of them a helium filled ballon to take with them. All in all they just wanted to play with each other and not do a whole lot of structured activities. I don't know how big your great room is but if you can finagle a pinata they would have a ball.
If you want your 2 year old and his friends to enjoy the party, you could treat it like a big play date. Get bubbles, play dough, crayons, fun music and noise makers, and play a couple fun games, like simon says, ring around the rosie, etc. Let them have fun.
I would avoid balloons until they're older because in our infant CPR class I learned that the #1 thing that young kids suffocate on are balloons. Especially avoid red ones - if a child bites a balloon, it blows up and a little piece of balloon gets sucked down his/her throat, even CPR can't save them, and if it's red they can't even find it in ER using all their instruments because it blends in with the inner skin. Not to scare you, it's just that I hear of so many parents giving their babies or toddlers balloons and it concerns me.
You could purchase plain paper gift bags and stickers. Let them "decorate" their own treat bag with stickers and crayons. Then they can use the bags to "hunt" plastic eggs. Depending on your theme, they could hunt for "dinosaur eggs", or stamped papers inside the eggs of a different theme. You could play hot potato with a stuff toy and play music. The children pass the animal around to each other in a circle and you can stop the music once on each child, giving them a "prize" when it lands on them. They can put their prize in their decorated bag. Freeze dance or simon says is another fun idea for that age.
I hope some of these ideas work for you. Have fun!
C.
get a TON of balloons and blow them up - let the kids just let loose and have fun hitting them, throwing them, running through them, etc. Great fun!
just let them play in your play room or his room whatever you have
