2 year old 'house' party.

[Chloenewoneagain]

So, considering iv spend a fair bit on other children's Christmas presents/my DS birthday presents/his cake ect I can't afford a play centre party or anything. His birthday is 15th of December and iv decided to have a little party at home. 16 guests, 6 cousins and the rest are my godchildren, and his friends. Ages 2yr olds-10yr olds (older cousins)

Anyway my question is what can they do???

Iv planned pass the parcel, musical chairs and the birthday song and cake and do a little cold 'buffet' kinda thing. Other than that what else can they do? There's a lot more younger than older children but I have no idea. My DP says they will just play, but won't that get boring?

I might be being daft but he's my first so I don't know

Let them play. You have a few games sorted and food.
I've done and been to loads of these parties, and they always have fun.

Don't stress it. You can't get a bunch of little children to listen for very long even if you try so you're best off just letting them run riot

Your house has LOADS of toys they've never seen before - they'll be fine with those! Don't stress, let them get on with it. Enjoy.

Know any magicians? Anyone with a pet snake?

We did this for dd's 4th birthday recently. I bought some plain white paper bags from eBay and got everyone to write their name on one and decorate it. That took 15 mins or so and the bags became their party bags. We played some games - pass the parcel, musical statues etc. simon says, grandmother's footsteps. DS (7) and his friend had great fun being in charge of music. Food. Pin the tail on the gruffalo. Run round outside a bit. Then the children just played in dd/dd's rooms.

What's grandmothers footsteps? Ok I'll just let them play then, just don't want a load of bored kids but then again, DS plays with one cousin a lot at my house, and they run riot just on their own so stressing more about the mess later!

And thanks for replies. I appreciate them more than DP's tips as he's very lazy and like the 'just let them do what they want' approach with everything. I'm more of a stress head and ocd freak

I recently went to a dinosaur themed 3yo party and we did: decorating dinosaur shaped cookies (they had cookies pre-baked using dinosaur shaped cutter and had ready-made icing and sprinkles to put on them); painting little ceramic dinosaurs (again which they made using some sort of kit off amazon - a little time consuming but they said it was cheap) with fluorescent paint, using paper plates to reduce mess. You would need bibs / smocks for the kids but they can be picked up cheaply. Pizza for food, little bottles of water, and a yummy birthday cake. Cheap as chips but really enjoyable. Best thing was there was little or no sugar so it all stayed really chilled and enjoyable.

Finally all set up, probably spent about as much as I would at a play centre or something!

Got a little buffet ready to prepare on Tuesday, pass the parcel, cake bit*, musical chairs then let them run wild and hide upstairs if I get to stressed

Joking I obviously won't but I'm quite exited now :)

Oh and party bags.

Sounds like you're all set good luck.

Thanks! I'm going to need it with about 16kids haha.

Here's my list of games/songs from when mine were little:

Hokey cokey
Farmers in his dell
See the little rabbits sleeping
Old macdonald
Whats the time mr wolf
Bear in the honeypot
Three little monkeys
Wheels on the bus
Musical statues
Wind the bobbin up
Head shoulders knees and toed
Happy and you know it
One finger one thumb
All the little ducks
Incy wincy
Tommy thumb
There was an old lady
Island game (blanket required)
Duck duck goose
Mulberry bush
Tunnels

The busier you keep them the less chaos there will be ime.

Ooooh you just gave me a load of new ideas! Will defiantly be using a few too keep them even busier thanks!

Happy to help.

Make sure you put lots of enthusiasm in - the kids will follow your lead.

Also if a game isn't working for some reason, just move on to something else. Always have a few spare games.

Good Luck!

Party went brilliantly.

Knackered. Goodnight

For 3yo Ds I bought a few bags of chocolate coins and hid them round the house for a treasure hunt. Then pass the parcel, then a competition to see who could blow the biggest bubbles with bubble mixture, food, cake then home! Went fine glad I did it that way

Oh I totally missed that it's over. Well done!