2 yr olds birthday party - help!

[cheekychopsmum]

I need some advice about what to do for my ds's birthday. I had thought about inviting about three od his friends (will our friends children) who are all the same age. My partner also wants ot invite some other friends kids, who are younger (under 1) and older (3,3,4). I don't know whether this will be too much. The house is fairly small. Or maybe it will liven it up abit, cos I'm not sure how to entertain then for 2 hours.

Pplease give me your advice and ideas with what to do to make the party fun.

Thank you

I'd say probably go with your plan, unless your ds is exceptionally outgoing and attention-seeking. Most 2 year olds won't really enjoy a big party ime.

I wouldn't make it 2 hours long either. A couple of very simple game like musical bumps, maybe a craft activity, cake. 1 1/2 hours max.

Craft activity? I'm not very crafty.. any ideas.

An hour and half sounds a good idea.

We did 'crown making' one year. I made plain card crowns out of a strip of card with a bigger crown shaped bit at the front. The children decorated them (flat) with feathers, pom poms, glitter, stickers and pens and then I fastened them around their heads when they'd finished.
They also did T-shirts with fabric pens. The T-shirts were £1 from Tesco. Then they took the crowns and T-shirts home with a slice of cake instead of a party bag.

I would not recommend inviting the other c children unless your DS knows them very well already. At that age, they are only just beginning to learn to socialize and having a bunch of kids who don't know each other doesn't sound great IMO.
I know how it is, though - it can be very, very difficult not to invite children of friends.

For a 2yo party, I invite my friends with their small children. We chat, they play.

I "decorate" the house by having a load of balloons floating around.

We do a cake with candles, sing Happy Birthday, and make sure we take a photo of the child spitting on the cake blowing out the candles, so we can show it in later life to prove they did have a party.

Send them home with one of said balloons and a bit of cake.

I'm contemplating doing party games for ds1's 5th party this year but I have a feeling that he and his friends will just want to play with all the toys as usual!

x-posted with Summersoon. I guess my ds2's friends are the children of my friends, cos he is 23mo and that is who he sees. So if I invite my friends around with their children, then the children do all know each other.

He know's all the children, I was just worried that a) too many small children in a small space (cos both sets of parents and family also there) and b) the older children may take over and be a bit rowdy!

I would have as few as possible-he will enjoy it more.