Mom Seeking Craft Ideas for 2 Yr Old Birthday Party

My niece recently had her 2nd birthday and she is the youngest in the family. We had children from 18 months to 12 years and the party was a hit. This is what my sister did:
She had aprons for all of the children and water base paint. She had a house built out of cardboard in the middle of the living room. All of the children painted the house. She also had wood letters (one for the first letter in each child's name). When the kids were tired of the house or acted like they needed some space (if you know what I mean) they were redirected to their letter to paint.
It was fun to watch and all the adults even joined.

My son has a December BDay, too. One of the things that we did for his 2nd party was we made Christmas Tree Ornaments. You can get a kit at Hobby Lobby pretty cheap. We made birthday party hat ornaments. We decorated them with stickers of the theme (that year we did a Sesame Street Theme). On the inside of the hats, I wrote "December 13, 2001, Joshua's 2nd Birthday Party" They had a lot of fun, and it gave everyone a keepsake party favor...

Years ago we had a similar party. What made it work with such a diverse range of ages of the kids was to have "stations" set up. We made a large batch of homemade playdough and set up a table with playdough (and associated playdough tools). Another table was a "crown/tiara-making" station where there were pre-cut cardboard tiaras and crowns that the children decorated with glitter pens and plastic jewels (the main party theme was princesses). There was a dress up castle, which we made out of a large cardboard box and filled with dress-up clothes and a mirror. We also had a light table with clear magnetic blocks on it and the kids earned prizes for the "biggest castle", "silliest castle", etc. I guess there were about 8 of these types of stations and really, the kids at any age level made the most of that particular station according to his own abilities. Many of the stations were adult-monitored. There was even a castle ring toss game. We also had a small bounce house which we found at Big Lots for $89. It just fit in an adjascent room and we had our regular babysitter monitor it. With cousins and friends there were about 20 kids here. But it worked since they could combine in small groups and stay busy.

I hope that helps! My daughter has a December birthday so outside parties are probably out of the question. LOL

are you looking for XMAS themed ones since the birthday is december? Small stockings, clothespin reindeer, gingerbread houses with small milk cartons (use graham crackers and frosting for the sides and roof and then have small bowls of other things for the kids to "glue" onto the house with the frosting)etc...are cute and easy. Check www.familyfun.com. THey have tons of craft ideas and Michael's is a great last resort for kits. have fun!

I found some really cute foam crowns and wand/sceptres at the Dollar Tree and we decorated them with markers and foam stickers. My boys love o help out in the kitchen, so we did a decorate your own cupcake thing, too. I made the cupcakes and a small round cake and I decorated the round cake, so that we could put candles on it, ya know. I set up a little table for the kids and put out a bunch of little bowls full of different colored white frosting ( I just dropped a little food coloring in to get the colors), some small cheese spreaders and spatulas, sprinkles, and cut up gummy worms for them to use to decorate any way they wanted - it went over really well, even with the smaller kids. They didn't want to leave the decorating table, though until I pulled out the ice cream cups! I would definitely recommend the little cuos of ice cream instead of trying to scoop it out. Hope this helps and hope you have a fun time!

Hello K.,
With such a wide range of ages, perhaps a make your stuffed animal activity would be a great choice. I have done many of these parties for boys parties (I have very cute "boy" animals- tigers, lions, monkeys, etc...). And, making a stuffed animal suites all ages (even the 9 year olds love it).

I offer both a come to you service where I lead the make your own stuffed animal workshop (prices start at $16 per child). Or you can order a "to go" party where I bring everything to you (including the easy instructions) and you lead the workshop yourself (prices start at $14 per child).

The wonderful thing about this activity is that it is 1) a hands on activity for the kids (it takes about 45 minutes to an hour), 2) entertainment for the kids as they LOVE making their own stuffed animal friends, and 3)it is a wonderful take home gift for your guests that they will cherish forever.

Please visit my website to read other mom's testimonials. It's really worth it to not have children running all over your home. ;)
http://www.NoahsArkWorkshop.com/ReginaBoyett537

I do a Kid's craft club with my mom's group and we have a wide variety of ages. I have found familyfun.com to have lots of cool ideas that appeal to a wide variety of ages. They probably even have something to fit your theme. They can usually be done with inexpensive, common craft supplies.

K.,

I got some of those foam craft sunvisors, crowns, and doorhangers from Walmart. They came with stickers that the kids could decorate them with. There was a wide range of ages at the party and all of them really seemed to enjoy it. Plus, they made great party favors.

Finger paint to playdough! That would at least keep the little ones busy. If you want something special for the older ones to do, get some of those tiny, tiny beads and safety pins. Remember "Friendship Pins" back in the 80's?

One year I bought the sheets of "foam" and I cut out neck ties from it. The kids could decorate them with stickers or whatever. Then I purchased mini clothes pins and they wore them the rest of the afternoon.

One idea: rent a bounce house and be done with it... :-)

Maybe there's a coloring page that goes with your theme. Put out bowls full of different things the kids can glue on the paper to decorate it. The little ones can dip a few things (pom-poms, wooden beads, torn construction paper pieces, etc) in a bowl of glue, the older ones can get elaborate with colored pebbles, corn kernels, etc.

Have several containers of side-walk chalk and turn them loose in the drive-way. (a supply of babywipes will help with clean-up for little faces)

One activity I have done in the past is to decorate paper crowns. You can cut out your own from posterboard or order them from Oriental Trading. THen use markers or paint pens, stickers, even stick-on jewels. When the kids are done, wrap the crown aroudn their head to measure & secure with tape or a staple.

www.marthastewart.com

At my son's daycare they did decorating sugar cookies and the little kids as well as the big kids enjoyed it. They took store bought sugar cookies and frosting and let the kids frost the cookies with wooden craft sticks. Then had out the jars of sprinkles, etc. for the kids to decorate with.

I did a birthday party for a Mamasource mom a few weeks back and she had party guests ranging from 1 to around 8 or 10. They ALL had a blast! Affordable too! $75 www.CandiSno.com

Good Luck deciding on whatever you go with, I bet the party will be a hit!

There is a great craft store in Irving called Googly Eyes. It's on Airport Freeway and MacArthur (in the shopping center with Fiesta & Blockbuster). Anyway, they have great ideas & have the stuff you'll need right there. The ladies who run it are great. Good luck!

K.

Well there are a slew of ideas out there! I just googled children's parties and founds loads of sites giving ideas. I just got finished yesterday with my own child's birthday, but we had it at MacDonalds, but that was a last resort ( long story involving ex's parents), anyways, we were going to have a good ole fashioned party at a rec center ( because we live in an apartment, not big enough ), and when I was reserching online there were a lot of sites with ideas. I found out about bounce house rentals and some were fairly inexpensive, some were 99 for a day and some were 99 for a few hours which included set up. Well I hope this helps some.

J.

What is the party's theme going to be? It's always fun to tie it into that.