Party at home for DD's 2nd bday

[BrandoraPaithwaite]

How can I make DD's little party fun for all?

The guest list: 6 children aged 1-7, 3 grandparents, 7 other adults (my friends who are the parents of the child guests), Saturday afternoon party at home in a few weeks.

My only ideas are a cake, singing happy birthday. Bit of a buffet, tea and coffee and cava flowing. Pass the parcel and party bags to take home for the kids.

Has anyone got any ideas to make it more special and fun? Some of the older kids are missing other parties to be here. I don't want it to be boring.

Ideally want to avoid loads of plastic crap and don't want anything too gendered.

My DD's interests are animals, drawing and music if that helps.

Could the children paint some pottery animals or something? The younger ones will be happy with lots of balloons but I would try to have something the older ones can do. Hard to do games with such a big age range but you could hide 10 yellow and 10 red duplo bricks around the house, split the children into two teams (with adult helper for younger ones) and have a competition to find them all?

Hide and seek is a good one. Musical statues, disco hour, make pizzas and children add toppings before being cooked, general play as a group is always welcome.

Yes balloons! Added to the list.
An activity for the kids is a great idea. Something to make or do.

Not sure about hiding the duplo bricks.. some of these kids would absolutely ransack the house to find them!

@Borodeb Like the sound of disco hour! How does that work?

Buy a cheap disco ball and do a child friendly playlist. Musical statues, dancing with a prize for the best dancer. Decorate your own party bag (stickers and crayons) pin the tail on the donkey

Honestly? It’s a party for a 2 year old - it’s not fun for adults and 2 year olds don’t care.

Have good food for the adults. Have wine. Have glow sticks for older kids - they love them regardless of whether it’s dark or not.

Disco ball and glow sticks! Yes yes thank you.

Good food and wine for the adults is a given at any gathering at my house. And the adults are all old friends and looking forward to a catch up and some are staying on for N adult party in the evening so I'm not worried about them enjoying it. It's more the older children.

Forget the glow sticks. Single use plastic.

If you’re worried about single use plastics you should probably skip the balloons which won’t biodegrade and are dangerous to animals once popped.

BrandoraPaithwaite like a few others have said, disco ball, play list, best dancer prizes, musical statues and go with the flow

Definitely not glow sticks, they've been banned in this house, SIL sent her kids to sleepover with some, one leaked and I had to change all their pyjamas and bedding and scrub their hands and faces and vacuum the bedroom as the contents are toxic and liable to cause acid burns. I wouldn't have bought them anyway because of the single use plastic. And, they'll be no fun on a bright afternoon.

Mini disco as PPS have suggested is great. What time is it Mr. Wolf? Maybe some colouring sheets to suit all ages.

Bubble machine? We had one at DS's first birthday party and kids of all ages loved it.