M.O.
Yvette,
I agree with you, we don't need more toys either. Some suggestions, beyond the wonderful ideas already posted:
- what about bike decorations (my kids love the streamers, spoke pegs, stickers, horns, etc.)
- what about a "theme" for the birthday like arts n crafts, camping, gardening or swimming/beach? My kids have LOVED getting a whole slew of "toys" that have a theme because then we have a whole 'set' for the summer. We've had an art cabinet stocked for YEARS just from one 2 yr old party. I loved that we didn't get 15 different toys (read junk) with 6000 pieces to keep track of.
If you decide to go with a "theme" for the party, like gardening, you can do a make-your-own potted plant. My friend did this for her son's 5th birthday. The kids loved decorating a small pot, putting in the dirt, and planting a seed. Her "give aways" were a pair of gardening gloves, and a hand small rake and shovel for each kid, along with their potted plant. My kids still love their gardening supplies and can't wait to break them out each year. She had a "bug" cake and sent out bug invitations. It was super cute and the kids just loved it. (She did the whole potting party in her open garage, complete with folding tables and chairs for easy clean-up.
Incidentally, my kids and I just had a great Mothers Day weekend digging in our garden. They loved pulling out their bag of garden tools, digging in the dirt, finding worms, using a 'bug catcher' to hold their finds, planting new herbs, veggies and flowers with me. They screamed with delight everytime they found another worm (we had a whole family with names and everything). It's great to have the help in the garden, not having to worry where they are or what they are getting into while I'm trying to "work". We even had an outdoor picnic afterwards and talked about all we did. It's great fun and the "toys" aren't junk - it's a really useful set of tools that's teaching them something.
I hope this suggestion helps or gives you some ideas.
Let us know how it goes!
Sara