I had planned this brilliant half birthday party for Hazel, who will be celebrating turning 2 last December 2009. It was to be entirely outdoors with the most brilliant activities, favors, treats, etc.
BUT it's going to be rain, thunder, and lightening on Saturday!
So, I'm mildly scrambling for ideas on how to occupy 15 or so 2-year-olds indoors.
I had planned on a gardening theme. Kids would pluck little pails hanging from our tree, write their name in permanent marker, and then decorate it with paint, markers, stamps, stickers, glitter, etc. Inside the pails would be toys like kazoos, bubbles, chalk, etc. When lunch had been served, I would bring out a troff for the kids to help me mix and shovel "dirt cake" into their pails, complete with gummi worms and maltball eggs, and they would eat directly from their pail.
I can imagine a troff of "dirt cake" managing to escape it's container and end up all over my dining room...
So, ideas? Please?
The weather stinks! I could see the kids having fun with an egg hunt in the house (fill them with fake bugs, stickers) and it's relatively unmessy but keeps to an outdoor theme. They could decorate pails when they arrive (those foam stick on shapes kids love, I'm perpetually scared of permanent markers, we've had a few incidents) you could do sticker labels with their names and then stick them on (not as waterproof though) and then fill up in their pails with plastic eggs. If decorating and then hunting are two activities, and there's food, cake and presents, I'd say that's enough (I tend to opt for less)
ReplyDeleteI'd probably abandon the trough for indoors, or you could put down a tarp in the middle of your dining room and still do it (moving your table to the front of your living room perhaps, so it's out of the way). You could also have a picnic lunch with a big blanket in the middle of the dining room-- my kids at least always love picnics even if they have to be inside.
On another note-- I have mod podge unopened. Would you use it at some point? Want to come look through my bins of house fix-up stuff and see what you want before i make a construction junction trip?
Haa haa. Thats funny. I've been using mod podge recently too...
ReplyDeleteI had a birthday party rained that got rained on once and my mom brought everything inside. It was "The princess in the pea" party so she stacked up all house pillows and couch cushions and put a marble underneath them and had all the kids test to see if they were princesses.
This blog is darling and has a really cute idea. Not only is the party "pond themed" so it could reasonably be held inside, but the felt pond is fairly cheap and you can do a lot with it. You can use the lily pads to hide things under (or a big game of memory or something). You could also have the kids try a (really safe) game of "fishing" by attaching velcro to the string and making whatever they fish for easy to "catch" because it has the other end of the velcro. http://curlybirds.blogspot.com/2010/02/big-3-pond-birthday-party.html
I love the egg hunt idea - Hazel loves them and it might be perfect for the age group. I just got some puddy eggs at Toysrus today, so will probably have them hunt for those.
ReplyDeleteI also found an AMAZING bubble machine. I coughed up the $15 and tried it tonight. It's seriously like thousands of bubbles per minute. They're 2. I imagine between the puddy, bubbles, and kazoos, we're pretty good. But I will VERY likely incorporate what has already been suggested.
Laura, that pond theme blog was adorable! Imay hang on to that for when she's 3!!!
I also think I'm going to try out my cake decorating skills after Bernie Buttons cake class and make a fairy princess cake. Wish me luck!!!
Ooh, a fairy princess cake! I have one of those batter bowls you can bake in (you turn the finished cake upside down and it looks like a princess skirt) if you'd like to borrow it. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteLike a mound or an actual rippled skirt? I have a mound... This is so fun!!!
ReplyDelete