Ideas for 2 Year Old Birthday?

It depends on how much you want to spend, but we did a clown for my little girl's first birthday because we had some older children coming, and it worked out well. The clown did balloon animals, story telling, tricks and face painting. The kids loved her-- her name was Handy the clown. You can do a search for her online. Also, we had a station of foam door hangers that the kids could decorate with foam letters and stickers that we got from Michael's craft store. They have other foam things you can decorate as well. It kept them busy and happy for a lot longer than I had even hoped. We also did bubbles with automatic bubble makers which the kids loved. Good luck!

I called the local fire station (we lived outside of St. Louis at the time) and asked if they could bring a firetruck by our house for my daughter's 2nd birthday party. Although my daughter was terrified of strange men (I know), she talked about the fire truck years after! That day, a crew of 3-4 firemen came out, gave all the kids a firemen's hat, did a demonstration about their truck, equipment and uniform, and gave the kids a tour through the truck. We had kids under a yr through kindergarten and it seemed like they all loved it. Plus the demonstration ate up a bunch of time of having me to entertain the kids.

I don't have any Ideas but have 22 month old twin grnad babys and was starting to think the same thing. and would like to see your responces. good luck hope you find great Ideas

Hi! I am the preschool teacher of 2 year olds. One thing I have found out since switching from 3 year olds to 2 year olds, their attention span is much shorter! They say an average 3 year old's attention span is 15 minutes, I'd plan on 10 or less. Plan on one adult for every 2 kids at the least, one on one would be best. Keep everything simple, and know what you are going to do next, no "let's see, we could . . .", you'll lose them! Have everything you need, and that includes cake or snacks. My best advice would be don't plan on much. Keep it simple (such as playing/gym type play), not overly planned, and don't make the party too long, 2 hours would be a lot! Also, remember nap time, some will get very tired and grouchy in the afternoon.

we had my older son's 2nd b'day party at "my gym" in ballwin. they have the BEST kids parties for toddlers! LOVE THEM! they're located at the intersection of manchester and clarkson road in the plaza w/kmart and chuck e cheese. a bit pricey (mabye $250?) but worth every single cent.

something simple at home is actually easier than trying to coordinate parents/children in public. My oldest child is 21, & I keep a folder of party ideas/plans....which not only have I used through the years for both of my sons, but also for my in-home childcare & family parties/reunions.

So here's one of my fav resources: Family Fun magazine/ website. Check their archives.

That said, here's a small list of ideas:
simple games...pin-the-tail,

drop the ball in the bucket OR toss the ball into the bucket,

stack the (small-size) boxes to make a tower-using team work,

put a dab of vaseline on the tip of their noses & then a cottonball & have a race to the end of the other side of the room (sounds messy, but it's not),

dance-a-thon...sounds goofy, but it's a blast to watch the kids (& adults) try to dance!

lay a jumprope on the floor & have the kids jump over it. For the older ones, challenge them to close their eyes!

Now for the "gimmick" to keep these kids in line (waiting for the activity), have the the kids sing a song...."Boom, boom ain't it great to be crazy?" or "3 Cheers for (child's name) our friend--instead of the red/white/blue--"....you can make up any chant or song for the kids to sing, even the ABC song! This requires little work/effort, just hand out the song/chant to each parent & have ALL of the parents help with the party. (another really noisy idea is to give the kids noisemakers to use while standing in line).

As a side note, one of my fav party favors is an after-the-party "handful" of photos! Simply choose 2-3 photos of each child & send them to each family....it's something to be treasured by all! Good luck, keep it simple, & you'll have a BLAST!

I haven't done it but I've heard Gymboree does a FANTASTIC job with birthday parties! You might want to check them out. Here's the website http://www.gymboreeclasses.com/b2c/customer/home.jsp You just show up and THEY do all the work...sounds like a deal to me! :)

My mom was a room mother when I was a kid & was always in charge of activities. This idea might be a little advanced (maybe it can be modified to fit the attention span for that age group) My favorite game my mom made for us was a trivia game where we (me my classmates) were the game pieces. You just make up a bunch of trivia questions with a few 'go ahead 2 spaces' 7 a few 'loose a turns' thrown in for good measure. The questions should be things they get excited about like 'name the colors of all the power ranger' and if they get that one right have a bonus one that they can get an extra space or two for free like 'what animals belong to what color ranger'. My mom also made a giant board that we taped to the carpet made from butcher's paper that had giant squares marked off on it. Because most toddlers have the respective attention span of a Beta fish, keep the board simple like one row for each kid & one adult @ the end of each row that can ask the questions & make it like a race with only 3 or 4 spaces for each kid to cover so you won't lose them. Have a stack of 'boy questions' & a stack of 'girl questions' maybe give a time limit to answer before you move on to the next question. This idea, of course, would be better suited to a very small group of kids to prevent chaos. I just remember this being a really fun idea when I was young. That's just the basic idea so have some fun with it and make it your own. The cool thing about a game like this is it can be advanced & changed as he gets older. Have fun!

My daughter is turning two in a few weeks and at her party i was planning to put out a few little stations of things to do. Some crayons and coloring books at one spot, some bubbles in another spot or various size balls to play with, and some sidewalk chalk since we'll be having the party in our pole barn (heated of coarse since it's in November) and the kiddo's can color right on the floor! Don't know if any of these will work for you but good luck and have fun!

Try a place like Tunnel Town, there is one in Lees Summit. My mom is a cake decorator too, if you need one?

Contact your local gymnastics center and see if they allow birthday parties for toddlers. We have had the most fun at they gymnastics center. I don't know where you live, but there are jumping rooms in the larger cities. Where the kids go into different chambers and jump until their hearts are content. I think in St. Louis it is called bounceU or Ubounce or jumpU or Ujump. check these out it is truely a blast. good luck

Good Morning K., Gee you have a lot of great ideas already.. ') Here I was going to suggest Mic D' with the inside play yard. Our Gr kids love it. I took 4 of the 5
(9,8,4,3,)last weekend after a movie. Let them eat when ever they decided too and just let them play. No fights or arguments they had a blast. Told them after an hour they had 5 minutes left and no arguments then either. They were ready to go to Nana's house for sleep over.

Thing is 2 & 3 Yr olds are so easy to entertain. They love everything.

God Bless and Happy Early Birthday Little One.
K. Nana of 5