Need Some Party Games/activities for 2 Year Old' S Birthday

I agree with the last response - keep it simple! My son turned 2 in April, and we had a party at our house. He had 4 little friends over, and then a bunch of adults. We went outside and used a bubble machine, and the kids just loved that. It got them running around acting crazy (great picture opportunity!). We also played a bean bag toss game.
Other than that, the kids kept themselves pretty busy eating, playing with toys around the house, and then playing with some of the new birthday toys. Since you are having a park party, I'm sure they will spend lots of time at the playground.
Have a great party!

Here are a few ideas......

Pinata (kids love the pinata)
snow cone machine (if it will be a hot day)
Bubbles

Remember that 2 year olds usually have a very short attention span. Try not to get activities that take too much instruction or take to long to play. Most likely they will play for 10 minutes if you are lucky and move on to something else. If you have little boys they love baseball and soccer. As for the girls dress up and coloring is the best bet.

For a 2 year old birthday party, I would keep it simple. Musical chairs was my first thought, but I would rig it so that everyones a winner.

2 year olds like playdough. Make it with koolaid.
1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, 3 tbs oil, 1 cup boiling water, 1 pack unsweetened koolaid. Desolve the Koolaid in boiling water. Mix all ingredients together. Make several different flavors.
Maybe get some birthday cake cookie cutters and have a birthday cake making contest. Again, rig it so that everybody wins.

Races across the grass. 2 year olds love to run.

Hope your party is great!

D.

Hi there - for my 2 yr olds party we set up an "art table" with butcher paper taped down to cover the whole table and a variety of crayons, markers and stickers. We also bought cheap sandbuckets/shovel combos ($1.00 each at target) and everyone got to decorate a bucket w/stickers and write their name on it w/permanent marker (since ours was also at a park and there is sand there). Kids love sand toys tho so even if there is no sand at your park I am sure it would be a cool "party favor" Have fun!! :)

Hello, My daughter turned 2 in Jan and we did a Carnival Party. I made the back yard in to a small carnival. I made the invite and all the games. I got tickets from the party store to give out to the kids when they WON the game and at the end of the party they got to cash in thier tickets for prizes of there choice. I got the idea from www.marthastewart.com She has lots of cool ideas. Hope this helps.

Hi J.~

My son just had his 2nd bday earlier this month and his theme was "beach fun." As an activity for the parents and child, while waiting for the rest of the guests, I had them decorate a beach pail ($1 at Michaels) with foam stickers. This was their party favor and they put in individual bags of fish crackers and bubbles in a crab container (from Party America). It kept the kids busy, even though we had toys and play structure in the backyard. So if you have a theme, it's easy to generate ideas and games to correlate. You can also pre-cut a birthday crown (like at Burger King) and each child can decorate it with stickers. Don't be afraid to get the parents involved, and let's face it, not everyone will get there on time. Also, you can entertain the kids and adults at the same time!

Best of luck! :)
~R.

J....

My daughter was going to have her 3rd bday at a park, but the weather didn't work out. I only had 3 games for them to play, but the prizes for each game were more than enough entertainment. I printed out a bunch of coloring pages (you can do so from the disney website) and put them and tons of crayons for the kids to color while the other guests were arriving. Then once everyone was there were played a version of musical chairs with the pictures. Taped them to the ground and had the kids walk, who ever stopped on the birthday girls picture (we outlined it in crepe paper) was the winner! We could rig it so that everyone won... they all got bubbles and then played with them for a while. Then we did kiss the frog prince (it was a princess themed party) and who ever was the closest (an so on) got to pick first.. they won kites.. so we went out and flew kites. Then we did a scavenger hunt. while the kids were looking we set out balls for each of the kids in a big grassy area. That was the last thing that they had to find on their list. So then they were able to pick a ball and run around and play with it... Bubble wands = 1.00 kites 1.00 and balls .88 all at walmart. They had so much fun and great toys to take home. The bubbles were mostly gone by time the party was over. We had small goody bags with thank you's written on them with some snacks and a sucker in it... then did a pinata at the very end. It was a great party and everyone had fun. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions.

Im not sure how old all the kids at the party will be, but if you have any older kids, you might want to do an arts and crafts table, nothing fancy, just simple stuff. Good Luck, and i hope its fun!
A. K.

Yes, simple is best for 2 year olds...

At my son's 2 year old birthday party, we liked filling balloons & letting the kids play & kick them around; blowing bubbles, and one of the toys another kid brought which was a bulb that shoots out little styrofoam rockets---safe, cheap, and entertainment for a long time!

Maybe small water balloons - don't know if they are too young for that or not though. Pin the tail on the donkey. Pinata? Hot potato? Musical chairs?

Good luck!

Dear J.,

Prepare a 'bouquet' of balloons for each child, and give it to them for their own. My great grand daughter just loved to run with balloons when she was little, it was just so darling, then they will fall and break a balloon or two, or they will float away. the big green grassy area will be good for that. Also have a lot of adults ready to pick up the broken balloon parts - so that kids at the party and afterward will not put them into their mouths - it can choke kids.

Also, you can buy a lot of balls so they can kick and run and 'throw and play. Bubbles are good too. But it takes a lot of adults helping with the bubbles, and with the play equipment. It should be a grand party. C. N.

A two year old is not going to remember her b-day party, so try to keep it as simple as possible, or you will have a melt-down on your hands. Make sure you (or someone she loves) can give her full attention that day, and don't count on her entertaining herself. It is pretty weird for a little person to be the center of attention from all of these people that are not usually doting over her, and then to boot, mom can't give her attention because she is too busy greeting everyone and setting up the food! She may not be thrilled with this situation and have a meltdown. Keep the "social obligations" to a minimum for her (Don't require her to greet each guest, for example) and DO NOT open the presents at the party. That is too much to handle and then you or someone else may expect repeated "thank you's" when she just wants to play with gift #1 and not move on to the other 12 gifts!

OK, so to answer your question - a baby pool loaded with turkey basters, toy fish and nets to catch them, cups and pouring implements of various sizes - you get the idea. If there are enough cool things, the kids don't need to get into the pool if they don't want to, they can just reach over the side. Or, do the same thing with sand or beans (in large sterilite containers, for example). Another hit is bubbles with various bubble wands and flyswatters for all to make bubbles. Also bring all of her musical instruments on a blanket and have a little CD player playing kids songs. Keep the party to 2-3 hours (which is a long time for little people) and do the cake in the middle of the party. I don't think organized games will fly because 2 years old is such a diverse age, so some kids may understand that there are supposed to be rules and other kids won't get it, they just wanna play on the swings, way too much frustration and organization for a 2 year old!

I think parents can get so excited about having b-day parties that they don't realize how much it can overwhelm the kids. For my 3 year old, we did the same thing, party in the park, bubbles, playground, picnic food and cupcakes with 4 friends. She is still talking about how she loved that birthday party because her cupcake had BLUE frosting and everyone else's was white. Ahhh youth!! Enjoy simple parties as long as you can, because when they get to be 9, you will be required to take 10 friends to Disneyland for the party!! Have a great time!

How about Duck Duck Goose, pin the tail on the donkey (maybe use something sticky like tape instead of a push pin), I dont know if a Pinata would be too much for them (depending on the ages of all the kids), or maybe you can have the younger 1's bat it 1st then let the oler 1's have their try? What about (popping) sitting on the balloons? What about water balloons? If its gonna be all girls how about doing hair and makeup/nails as a Mommy/daughter thing? putting together little gift bags w/ tiaras, tu tu skirt, ect...??
What about boiling some eggs for eith toss & catch or using a spoon or rolling it? Of course if theyre not damaged you could either let them take it home or you could use them youself!
Dont forget to bring lots of garbage bags and baby wipes cause ALL of these games could get rather messy but lots of fun!!