ideas for 2 yrs old birthday party

I have about 5 weeks till the kids' birthday & for me, that's kinda late in getting the planning started. I've narrowed down my guest list to as little as possible, but I still have 37 people.....too many for our house. So b/c our weather has been unpredictable lately (it's snowing today!) we were thinking of finding a park with a covered area & some playgrounds.

I want to keep my costs down so we can afford some of the gifts I have in mind for the kids, so I don't know if we'll be doing the whole theme thing again. I mean, as far as buying matching plates, hats, napkins, etc. I still would like to have a theme, but maybe just in the other decorations like balloons. The pinata last year was a big hit. Both the kids are really into Elmo right now, but dh didn't really like that idea for some reason. Right now, I can't think of any other ideas.

Last year a big part of the cost was we did a big BBQ for over 50 people......would it be tacky to just do cake? Any other suggestions?

 

If you want to keep the cost down for this year bday party. I would just go w/whatever theme and then just get solid (plates, cups, and knives, fork and spoon) and then do variety of color balloons. If you're not inviting the entire clan like you did for their 1st bday I would recommend those mini cupcakes for everyone including the adult. It is so much easier to take the mini cupcake for bite size.

We have twins g/b here too. We have decided to go w/theme "Candy Land". We will buy those small pails and then stuff them with lolliop and etc. Sometimes you can find those cute lolliop at party store (they sell long straw kind). Go to Michael store and get the foam to stuff in the bottom of the pail. You can get those pastel color pails at Target by the garden or by the $1 dollar aisle. You can do the mini version or the regular size.

I brought those pastel M&Ms too (I'm saving it for their birthday because you can't get it that time of the year -- Sept. 30th).

But we already collect our theme (Super Woman and Super Man) for their 3rd birthday as it was hard to find them. I got the Super Woman at Walmart and then at the party store they finally came out w/Super Man.

You can also go with Tinkerbell/Peter Pan or Pirate theme.

We did our 1st birthday with "Mickey and Minnie Mouse" theme.

I hope this help w/ideas!
Diana w/Rianna and Justin

 

Our 2nd bday was Elmo with friends and Thomas with family. I also don't get the matching plates, etc. but do get balloons, invites, etc. for the theme. Our children's museum was having a Sesame Street exhibit, so we had the party there.

 

We did Sesame Street for their first, Winnie the Pooh for their second and Dora and Diego for their third.

I would just get the invites and balloons, maybe some decorations in the theme. For cups/plates/napkins, get a solid color like royal blue that you can use again.

For food, we've just done pizzas the last two years. And usually all my family members will bring something like an appetizer or something.

 

We just had my 3 year old's birthday party, and I found most of the stuff at the dollar store--they had a huge selection of plates/napkins/decorations/party favors. For all the decorations and favors I think I spent around 13 dollars. Not too shabby. You can get great ideas from this website. Have fun planning!

Reyna

 

We did LEGO theme (kindda....just LEGO cakes and primary colors). we just had a family party, with some adult friends. I made home made LEGO/DUPLO cakes, by cutting 2, 4 and 6 sized blocks from 2 large sheet cakes. I cut large Marshmellows in half, iced the cakes and the marshmellows in red, green and yellow. At that age, I didn't want to do a commercialized THEME per say...make your own up and save your $$!! It was great for my ds and dd...because they both recognized blocks.

 

Here are some ideas and like pp said, Dollar Store and Dollar General have tons of stuff.

Dalmation (black and white)
Under the Sea (blue and white or whatever colors you want)
Dr. Seuss (red, white, blue, purples)
Alphabet
Beach Party
Crayon (all different colors)

 

We have 2 boys, but we did a farm animal theme for their 2nd b-day, with primary colored plates & napkins. If you just want to serve cake, have it around 2:00 so people will have already eaten lunch. Otherwise, hot dogs are always a cheap meal.

 

Naomi,

Browsing online, I came across this...reading the reviews the one said they did a winterwonderland theme, I know it is spring but thought it to be cute in case someone has tots having a party in winter.
penguin bowling

 

For their 2nd bday we had a "wiggly party" w/ a Wiggles theme serving "hot potatoes" (loaded potato skins), "cold spaghetti" (pasta salad) and Anthony's sandwiches (sub sandwiches and finger sandwiches for the kids).

For their 3rd bday, we did a dora/diego fiest and catered with Anita's Mexican (taco bar, quesadillas and taquitos).

 

For the boys 1st bday we did "monkey see monkey do" and everything was yellow and brown - solid plates and cups and i made the monkey cake from martha stewart.. cute cute cute! We had it at a park "jungle gym" is what i called it to stay in theme and had it at 2:00 so it was after lunch and we didnt have to feed people. I had banana pudding, cupcakes with those little banana hard candies on top and hot chocolate because it was december. I decorated with bananas and yellow and brown balloons and stuffed monkeys from home and a few cheap ones i found. There are lots of cute ideas on martha stewart's website. For the goodie bags, i used brown lunch sacks-cheap-- and found some curious george stickers at the dollar store to decorate with. I wrote/decorated each kids name on the bags and i put cute little monkey/banana related goodies inside. I also used those fisher price links that you can get babies and put a few in each sack and labeled them "the Missing Links" i found curious george bubbles and put those in there too. On the tables i got a cheap roll of that brown wrapping paper they use for packing.. and wrapped the tables with that and let the kids draw on it with yellow chalk. I also used Evite to cut down postage and invitation costs. overall - It was a hit.

For their 2nd b-day -- I did an Art Party. This was super easy and fun! I had a friend that has a big printer at work print som gigantic coloring pages with pictures from brown Bear Brown bear. They were poster board size. I taped them to the floor inside my house, but it could be done at a park as well. I set out buckets of chalk.. because it is easiest to clean! I also covered one wall with black paper i found on a roll at a teacher supply store. I have an are table with a paper roller on it so i had that out and i got a bunch of cheap paint brushes and a few things of paint and let them make a mess. I went to a party warehouse store and bought this pack of little kid aprons in primary colors -- we used them for smocks. They were really cheap and came in packs of 12 just the right size. Outside, i had sidewalk chalk and sidewalk chalk paint and tools - crayola brand-- on sale at toys r us right now. For the food-- i did "lotsa' pasta" i made spaghetti and salad and it was fairly cheap to feed a large crowd. We got packs of crazy bread from little ceazars for 1.00. I had lots of m and m's everywhere because they were colorful. One thing i did was go to my dollar store and by a set of the toss n take sippy cups and wrote each kids name on those. In my opinion that is better than those little party cups anyway because of the lid, and cheaper than juice boxes since you can just buy a huge thing of apple juice to pour in their cups. I made mini cupcakes and sprinkled them with multi-colored sprinkles. For the cake i made an art pallette cake and used gel icing to make the "paint blobs" i stuck some paint brushes on these for effect. It was really cool. I found the picture online. I can send you pics of any of this if you need it. Crayola.com has party invitations you can email out or print off for free.. but there isn't an RSVP option, so i ended up creating one on evite again. I can send you the invitation wording i created for each one as well if you need it. For the goodie bags.. i found some yellow sand buckets on the dollar section at target and used those. Each kid got a coloring book, crayon shaped bandaids (walgreens brand) a small pack of colors, crayola shaped bubbles and some dum dum suckers and smarties candies. I also found those sticks that you blow up and bang together that they hand out at sporting games.. at the dollar store! I put a pair in each kids bucket and i also let them take home their apron. All the kids loved it. ANyway, this is becoming very long.. sorry! email me if you need any help.. i LOVE doing parties and coming up with ideas!

For their 3rd i am thinking either Cowboy, or a cooking/chef party.. we'll see!