JFF....Need Ideas for 2Nd Birthday Party.

I love planning parties and decorating! You should have a tutu and ties party. You have her dressed with a tutu and all the little girls that are going can wear them too the boys can wear ties. You can have a sweets table and "tea" but you can make hot chocolate for the kids. You can have tule drapped all over you can also have ballerina shoe paintings for decorations you can have a banner that says "2two" you can have it bright colors and with the number 2 everywhere. You can also have ties haging everywhere and for table centerpieces you can put a small colorful bucket with a giant lollipop in it. Cupcakes are so cute and kids love them.

Sounds awesome. Can we come too???? Please??!?
PS my daughter is 2 and a half. For holidays and birthdays, I personally don't buy her much because she gets SO much now. Figure that will die down as she gets older, but for now she can't wear all the clothes she has or play with all her toys.

You can have an egg hunt, relay races for the kids... hire a face painter or something, just have some time of game or activity for the kids in attendance.

I'm with Dianna O. I might have to use that idea myself! I skipped 1yr & 2yr parties. I'm doing a 3yr party in Oct. My lil one's bday is close to Halloween so we're doing a Halloween party. You should def do a 2two Easter theme. It gives more kids a reason to come! Parents are starting to plan Easter fun for their kids now, so get the invites out soon.. Oh and as far as gifts, give her more of what she likes. I love giving trains no matter what, you can't go wrong! Girls like them too. Good luck!

This is a family reunion, not a birthday party for a 2 year old. Take it easy on yourself!

This "mom/party" thing is absolutely out of hand. People are breaking the bank and going crazy for three hours of overstimulation that the toddler does not need and will not understand. As your child gets older, you will feel pressure to invite 25 children (plus their parents and siblings) to an expensive free-for-all with a pony, a clown, a bouncy house, $10 goody bags, and renting out a state park to accommodate all the guests. You will absolutely HATE having to write 25 thank you notes and then spend every weekend at someone else's birthday party for which you bought a $30 present. ("If they came to our party, I must go to theirs.") The birthday child either has a massive gift-fest and spends the day opening a treasure trove of presents, forgetting to say 'thank you' about halfway through and having no idea how to handle duplicate gifts, and the other kids sit there bored to tears watching all the things they are NOT getting. So the host family feels the obligation to give an expensive party favor. And so it escalates. People are going into debt doing this sort of thing, but at least they are too exhausted to notice!

A two-year-old does not enjoy this sort of thing. Neither does a five-year-old. It's really about getting the whole family together and having a big reunion with lots of freedom to chat in this corner, connect with Cousin Susie in that corner, and so on. That said, a self-service buffet sounds easiest with some of those chafing dishes from the box store (keeping the kids away from the Sterno) so that the food stays hot and people can nosh over a period of time.

Your child will not know what you got her because a) she's 2 and won't remember, and b) you are, as you said, having 50 people who will get her everything else. Don't worry about it.

We never did anything on this scale, and our son has grown up happy and not feeling deprived!