Need Ideas for Games to Play at 2Yo B-day Party

A new twist to music chairs..

Lay hula hoops on the ground to form a circle and have kids walk around them while music plays. And when music stops, kids need to jump inside of one of the hula hoops and sit Indian style. I thought it was something different, but still fun. A new idea is to have an "EVERYONE IS A WINNER" game. When someone is "out" have the child pick a small prize out of box. (stickers, lollipop, small novelties)

Similar game:

"Hot potato". Pass the (item tailored to the theme of the party). Pass a theme item around in a circle while music plays. When music stops, whomever is holding item, they are "out" butbhave child pick something from the "EVERYONE IS A WINNER" box. Last person holding item picks 2 prizes from box.

Face painting is always fun. I face paint at all of my kids' birthday parties.

I also like simple foam crafts for the kids. There are plenty of types at Oriental Trading website.

Toss bean bags into a laundry basket for fun.

Simple outdoor games:

Mother may I? Red light/green light. Simon says. Tag. Hide-n-seek. Etc.

Ah yes...birthday parties...
2-6 years old?
Some of my kids favs:

pudding "finger painting" - make a couple kinds of pudding. Give each child their own plate and let them create a master piece, then they get to lick their fingers and their plate! Of course - each child will get their own pudding to dip their fingers in.
water sidewalk/house painting (just get paint brushes at the dollar store and cups of water and let them paint away)

"Obstacle course" set up markers - we always made masking tape shapes on the grass - and have them have to do one silly thing (hop on one foot - tap their head and rub their tummy etc) at each shape. I set it up like Musical chairs -

Get silly, but remember, they have short attention spans, don't try to plan a whole bunch of stuff. They just want to play. You will just have to guide them to safe play.

AND PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT GIVE OUT Loot/Junk bags. Parents do not want, nor should they expect a “take-a-way-gift” for their child.

At our birthday parties we always did a craft that they could take home with them. I suggest the same thing here. Kids should not be trained to expect a gift when they give one or attend a party. I think it is a silly custom.

My girls are 13 and 10, we have NEVER done the “loot bag” thing. We do take pictures at the party of each guest with the birthday girl and then send them a thank you IN THE MAIL addressed to them. Kids LOVE getting mail and it is a far better thank you than a bag full of candy.

B.
Family Wellness Coach

I agree with April. At my son's 2nd party last year (summer birthday - very hot!) we had a sand and water table, a kiddie pool, and a playhouse. Those three things, stationed by parents of course, kept everyone happy inbetween other birthday activities (food, presents, etc.).

Hope that helps! Enjoy your son's special day!
~A.

When my youngest daughter turned 2, we had an old-fashioned party - musical chairs (a huge hit with the kids), pin the tail on the donkey, and bean bag toss. Plus lots of free play. Of all the parties I've given my girls (and it's been a lot) that 2 year old party is still my favorite. Happy birthday to your little boy!

My son turned 2 at the end of May and I also felt like I needed some organization to his party instead of a free for all for 2 hours. But, I knew games were probably a stretch. His party was a "train party", so I took a huge piece of butcher papaer and drew the outline of a steam engine. I hung it up on our garage door.

First, I sat the kids down (about 8 of them) at a table and gave them "dot dot markers" and small coloring sheets designed for the markers. After about 5-10 minutes, they had the hang of the markers and I took them over to the garage door. They used the dot dot paint markers and some regular markers to color the train. I have pictures on my blog here:
http://aidricz.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

i didnt play games at my daughters birthday. i had about the same age range. i had her 2nd birthday at a park so the kids could play. i think at 2 they dont understand the game thing. also people with older children who will be attending shouldnt expect you to provide games because your child is ony 2. if your not going to be at a park but at home. just bring out the toys and le the kids goto town. i also made the favor bags able to go from the age of 2-6. i got star glasses, bendy straws, bubbles, a couple noise makers, and a balloon. i would just keep it simple.

This only works if you tell the parents in advance to bring a change of clothes, lol, but it was lots of fun and the pictures were priceless.

We have a cinder block wall around our backyard. So we got water-based (make sure it says "non-toxic") paints, paintbrushes and small cups to put the paint in, and let the kids go at the wall (if you don't have a wall I bet the sidewalk would work just fine).

I chalked several picture outlines at various intervals so that they'd have something to paint in, but many kids just painted big blotchy stuff that we praised highly. (They also had fun painting themselves and each other.)

When they were done painting, we hosed them all down and changed their clothes. The wall did take some determined hosing, but it all came off, no worries.

We also had a wading pool and let them swim in that before they got into their clean clothes, lol. It was a fun day, and the pictures of painted children are just fun.

Get a bunch of bright paper and cut out a bunch of fishies. About 5 inches big or so. Laminate them it you want. Attatch a paperclip at the mouth of each one. Grab a yardstick, 3-4 feet of heavy string and a magnet and assemble a fishing pole. Let the kids "fish". what I did with this, although there are many things you can do, was attach a ticket to each fish. Each child got to fish for 3 fish. they kept the ticket on the back. The tickets all said "Prize", "cookie", or "candy bar" and there were 7 or so that had a $1 bill. each kid could only get one prize. I wanted them all to get a prize on and if they didn't I offered to let them try again but I only think it happend once. If the child got a duplicate I gave them the option to try for something diffferent. After all the kids got their fish we went over to a table for them to redeem their tickets. Prizes were coloring books, small dolls, stuffed animals, disney tumblers and the like. I hit up the clearance section of the Disney Store. Each season they do a clearance where all the red tagged stuff is an additional 40% off! It should coming up in the next few weeks. If you are close to the Ontario Mall the oulet is there for the best deals. I got a lot of really good things for a couple bucks. I did this instead of gift bags as all of their loot replaced it. Happy birthday party.

Hi! We kept my son's 2 year old party pretty simple - just a bounce house and a play-doh table with tons of tools to use. I had a pin the tail on the donkey and a pinata but we ran out of time with all the bouncing and play-doh! Really - it went by so fast! Have fun and enjoy the day!

Honestly it's pretty tough to get 2 year olds to play games. Just have a plethora of toys and balls around and they'll be happy. If you're outside, maybe get a sand table or water table.

When my son turned 2 we set out a big picnic table with crafts - Playdoh sets, markers, glitter, stamps, foam stickers, tattoos, and just set the kids loose. It worked pretty well (with some parental supervision).

A friend of mine bought plain T-shirts and had the kids decorate their own T-shirts with fabric paint. They seemed to like that as well.

We like to play "Hide the Object" --you send one person out of the room, and all the rest of the kids decide where to hide the object. (Leave some of it sticking out for younger kids.) You could even hide it on a person. Then bring the child back in, and sing a song everyone knows. As the child gets closer to the object, sing louder. As the child gets further away, sing softer; if he/she is really far away from the object, whisper the singing. It's lots of fun and involves everyone. Then when the child finds the object, clap for him, and pick a new person to go out.
Another one: We call this "Hide the Yarn" Before the party, cut up varying lengths of yarn, make at least 40 pieces or more, from 1/2" long to one or two inches long, and then have several 5" to foot-long pieces. Place the pieces of yarn in a room out in plain sight AND hide a lot of them. Then when the kids come, tell them to find the pieces. When all or most of the yarn is found, have the kids lay out their pieces of yarn across the carpet and see who got the longest length all together. They win the prize. It'a a good little game to get the party started, particularly if the kids don't all know each other well.

In my experience organized games don't work well with 2 year olds. Their attention span is not that long and they don't want to wait around and take turns playing games like pin the tail on the donkey.

When my son turned two we just had lots of different things for them to do. We had bubbles, chalk, and balls for them to play with. We did temporary tatoos and face painting. It worked out pretty well. We even did a treasure hunt. I bought a bunch of toys like play dough, small balls and things like that and laid them all in plain sight on the grass. Everyone got a "loot" bag, and then we went outside and they got to search for treasure. The kids had a lot of fun and the parents got some good picture taking moments.

Good luck with your party. If you keep it simple, you will save yourself the stress and the kids will still have a great time!

If you can get a hold of a parachute, you can do many things with that (putting balls on it to try to shake off, play ring around the rosy, have kids take turns running under it to touch the middle, etc.). Or rent a small bounce house. Or water games running through the sprinkler.