Ideas for 2 Yr Old Birthday Party

We rented a pavilion at a local playground & invited the kids (& their parents) to come play. At age 2, the party is more for the parents than the kid (the kid can get easily overwhelmed/overstimulated). Something else we have done is invite another family over for dinner & cake, this keeps things small and easier to focus on keeping a 2 year old happy!

One of the most fun birthday parties I've seen for the little ones is to go to Build-A-Bear and let each child select their own new best friend..... If you havn't seen the store it is super fun, whether it's for a party or just for a special gift with a child..... The kids select the body and then work with a staffer who fills the body (with the child's "help) and it includes a special heart that gets inserted..... The kids can select special outfits (at a separate cost)..... You can control the cost by limiting the "bodies" (both to-be-stuffed and the human invitees) and the folks who work there are so totally cool about making a big fuss over the kids..... It's really fun.

Paws Farm in Mt Laurel is really nice. They have indoor and outdoor activities and a party room.

Hi S.,

Local fire houses sometimes do really fun parties. Or you could invite a favorite character to show up. I know some little ones or their little guests might be overwhelmed or scared with these so they might be ideas for the future.

S.,
I'm not familiar with a "gym" party. However for my son's 1st b-day party (A huge hit I must ad) we had a jungle theme party with the decorations, jungle sounds,fog machine, swamp punch, and the traveling zoo. We had it @ the neighborhood recreation center. Just a suggestion.
Shant'e

hi S.,
he is 2. a cake with mommy , daddy, grammys and grandpops and auntie and uncle .
do you remember your 2nd birthday party ?
Now ; if you want to impress the relatives .. go all out ...rent a hall and cater . make sure the Christmas Tree is set up already for the holiday season , dj with kids music, .. rent a santa and big velvet sled/ chair ...... bring gifts for all the children in the santa bag ..
formal attire ; of course...
* kick off the HOLIDAY SEASON ....
the children will love it !!!!!
home made cookies, snowman deco,
have fun ...
a grammy

Have you checked out Jellybean Jungle in Marlton, NJ? It is an indoor playground for kids 5 and under. There is also Kid Junction in Mt. Laurel. That one is for 9 and under. They are both great for kids.

Hi S.,

I am not sure where you are located but you should check out Noah's Ark Animal Workshop. I am a crew member for them in NJ and we have fun parties that come to you. But for a great idea - I recently had my son's 3rd birthday and I did a dino theme. The kids stuffed Dinos and we decorated with a volcano on the wall, palm trees, big pictures of dinos, my husband made a dinosaur shaped cupcake stand and we put cupcakes all over it. I made jungle juice (punch), dinosaur eggs with jello molds and we went on a dino hunt in the yard (but can be done in the house)!! It was a fun time for all. My son loves his stuffed dino and takes it everywhere and the kids that came to the party all got to take their dino home - it was such a great take home gift. He tells everyone that he made it!! It is very cute.

Good luck,

by "gym" party, do you mean you don't want it at Little Gym and similiar places? Or are you opposed to all party locations?
What kind of budget do you have?

I was opposed to having my daughters parties at a playcenter just because it's so expensive and ridiculous! But my friend had her son's at a place, and she said it was so nice, she didn't have to do anything but enjoy the party. My daughter's birthday is in March, so the weather is too unpredictable for an outside party, and I caved and had hers at a kiddy place (in NJ). Everyone had fun! This year her party was at a farm/nature center that has lots of indoor and outdoor activities, thankfully, since it rained! My other daughter has a summer birthday, so we reserved a pavillion (for free!) at a local state park.

Anyway, when in Nov is your son's birthday? My cousin's son's birthday is at the beginning of Nov, so she is actually having his party on halloween, and it will be a halloween themed party. you can get tons of fun party supplies at orientaltrading.com

I will think a little more and give you some more ideas later!

here is one thing I found near you... Great Valley Nature Center. it doesn't say anything about birthday parties, but I would call and ask. maybe they would do an animal presentation for you... http://www.gvnc.org/indoor.html

this looks cool and is pretty close to you... though it says you have to be 4 or older to have a party there. Just to keep in mind for the future! http://www.briarbush.org/Facilityrentals2.asp

also, November here isn't really all that cold anymore... if you have room at your house to have an indoor/outdoor party, you could rent a bounce house. My friend's mom rented one for her son's birthday, and the kids were in there for almost 7 hours!!!!! on and off of course, but mostly on! it was raining a bit that day too, but it had a roof, so it stayed mostly dry.

A November birthday is always a little tricky because you just don't know what the weather will be like.

A couple of local options are Atomic Bounce, Chucky Cheese, and Tumble Town. CC and TT are not private parties so there will be a lot of kids and people there that you won't know. AB is a private party and less expensive but with 2 yr olds they might take a while to warm up to the idea of bounce houses. It's quite a fun time at AB and I just had my daughter's bithday there. They played party games with all the kids, did the chicken dance, threw balls, jumped, laughed, built with these huge building blocks, played with ride on toys etc... and since it's indoors there was no worrying about the weather at all. Here's the website : http://www.atomicbouncerocks.com You can actually see pictures from my daughter's party on the website in the slideshow section.

Theme wise just pick something your child really enjoys :) I know my daughter's 2nd was a Sesame Street party and my sons was frogs :)

Just have fun and decide the level you want to spend and how much work you want to put into it.

You didn't say where you are from but I always thought if I had a fall party to throw it would be on a hayride at a farm. In New Jersey we have a few with picnic areas, some with animals ect...