Activities for a 2 Yr Old B-day Party

M.,

While your children might be a bit young for this, I want to tell you about the birthday party activity I offer so that you might consider it in future years. It's a traveling stuff-n-fluff, make-your-own animal workshop. I come to you (your home or other party location) with all the animals and materials for the children to bring their plush animals to life! It's a hands-on activity generally designed for ages 3-13 (although I have done the workshop for children as young as 18 months...the parents end up doing most of the stuffing :-) You can learn more about my Noah's Ark Animal Workshop at my website www.planetfluff.net. Please contact me if you have any questions. Good luck!

L.

For our 2 yr old party, we used punching balloons. The kids loved them, it was a process for choosing their color, then blowing them up and then playing with them... Kept them busy for a while. And, they are a built in party favor. You can get them at variety stores, or Target.

Also, if you want to get a bit more complicated, something we did for our 3 yr. party was use brown paper bags, and had crayons, stamps and markers, and each child got to decorate their own paper bag. Then, it is used as a goody bag- don't have to put too much in there, maybe some crayons, or mini playdough.

good luck!

Hi M.:
My twins are almost 7 so I'm doing my best to make these suggestions age-appropriate but I apologize in advance if any of these ideas aren't right for 2YO's (mommy-brain at work)

-Pop-up play tunnels/tents (IKEA sells some, and you can often find cute ones that look like school buses or fire engines at places like Ross or Marshalls).
-Have adults blow bubbles and let the little ones try to catch/pop them
-umm, trying to remember if 2YO's can be trusted with finger paint - if so, put a big piece of butcher paper on a flat surface and let them at it with the paints. I've even heard of school projects where kids "paint" with decorator frosting so that's a possibility if you're worried about little ones eating the art supplies. Ditto with yarn and large dried macaroni for stringing on to necklaces.
-if you have a few large cardboard boxes, let the kids decorate them with sidewalk chalk and pretend they're tents, cars, etc.
-maybe grownups could help the kids string cheerios into necklaces? or would that be too frustrating for little fingers?

Hope that helps!

edited to add: Bubble wrap! If you have any large pieces of this sitting around unused, roll it out like a rug and let the kids jump up and down on it (a friend of mine who had a "bug" theme for her son's b-day put little bug stickers on the bubble wrap and made it a "stomp the bugs" activity and it was a big hit.

My oldest daughter turned 2 in August. We had it at the park. Had a bubble machine, we got ours at Target, pinata, sidewalk chalk and balls. Good luck.

We went to a 2 year old party at a park and the party favor was a ball for every child. The children played with the balls, throwing, kicking, running around chasing it. A great time was had by all. It was great because you didn't end up with a bunch of cheap party favors or sweets you rather not have your toddler eat and it was something new for everyone keeping them entertained. Try to get different colors and maybe write the childrens names on it. Have fun.

You can get a small parachute at Gymboree and put balls on it and have the kids pretend it's pop corn. They usually get pretty excited about the balls flying around. Any size works so this would go along with the favors being a ball the kids get to take home.

Have a parade! You can make shakers with toilet paper tubes and rice or beans inside. There are lots of places to get inexpensive kazoos or blowers (party stores or Target). You can have some old shoe box drums etc. You can make "tamborines" with paper plates and bells. Let the kids decorate the plates, then adults can help attach the bells. Make some fun hats, paper bag vests - the kids can decorate those too.
Choose a couple of crafts for the kids to do, then have them march around the park making music. This activity can be as long or short as the kids attention spans, and actively involves parents too. HAVE FUN!