hi all,
i thought i'd ask you trusty EBers for some help...
my DD is having her 2nd birthday party on sunday,
it's going to me mostly family, as we have alot of little cousins, they range from 1 to about 11.
i need some idea's on some games that we can play that will not bore the big kids too much but the little ones can still participate in.
the only game i have got so far is pass the parcell...
and i think i may need a few more

TIA
belinda

What about a pinata or two - one for the littlies and one for the older kids?

The only other games I can think of are pin the tail on the donkey, queenie queenie, countries (or substitute with colour names?) or simon says (last person standing wins a prize).

If I think of any others I'll let you know.

How about relay races, with the smaller and larger children equally distributed between teams? Or a treasure hunt where you have to be a certain age to open various clues?

Craft activities can work well across ages.

Pinatas are great. Some other ideas I had were:

Hide and Seek or Sardines
Stuck in the mud
Poison ball
Painting plaster molds
Musical chairs
Musical statues
Bobbing for apples
Doughnuts hanging on the line (have to try to eat with no hands)
- The game where you dance to the music and have to stand on your own piece of newspaper when the music stops and then you fold it in half after each time. You are 'out' if you touch the ground and the winner is the one who lasts the longest (by standing on the smallest piece of folded newspaper).
- The chocolate game - (You get an outfit together of largish dress-up and get the kids to sit in a circle around them. You also place a block of chocolate and a knife and fork with the dress-ups. The kids take turns around the circle rolling a die and whoever gets a 6 gets to get up and go into the centre of the circle. They then have to get all the dress-ups on and try to eat the chocolate one piece at a time with the knife and fork. While they are trying the other kids keep passing the die around the circle and if anyone else gets a 6 then it is their turn and the kid in the centre has to stop and sit down again. To make it even you can get the older kids to include a pair of mitten or thick gloves in their outfit.)

Hope that some of them are helpful...

I went to another EBers 2nd birthday a couple of years back and they had a frog theme. One of the games was hopping or jumping across "lilypads" which were cardboard circles. There was also frog hunt (for freddos) and other frog related games.

I went to a kid's party recently where one of the games involved throwing water balloons at a target (in this case, the birthday girl's aunt!). All ages seemed to enjoy it.

Regarding the pinata - you may want to make a "pull pinata" for the littlies so they aren't whacking each other with sticks. My brother made one for his daughter's 3rd birthday last year. You have ribbons hanging down from the pinata, and each child takes a turn at pulling one off. But only one opens the trapdoor. If you Google it you will find heaps of links re. how to make one.

Balloon Burst - Activity
Blow up lots of big sized balloons and before putting a knot in them, push a small wrapped candy inside (small tootsie rolls, individually wrapped lifesavers, dum-dum lollipops work well, or pieces of paper that name prizes). Spread all the balloons around the floor at the party and let guests go wild sitting on them and popping them. Obviously once popped, they can have the treat that's inside. This can be great fun for young children.

Objective: Kids follow their string or yarn to a prize.



Needed: Long, long pieces of string or yarn for each player Block of wood or toilet paper roll for each player


Rules: Great for birthday parties where you want to give each guest a prize. For each child you will need a small block of wood or toilet paper roll wrapped with a very long (several yards) piece of yarn. Make sure each child has a different color yarn. Just before the party unwrap the yarn by winding it back and forth, over and under and through the furniture in party room. At the end of each piece of yarn tie a prize. As the guests arrive give them their block and let them wind up the yarn as they follow the string to the prize.

An old shirt Candies Needle and thread


Rules: Find a brave adult volunteer for this game. Before the party, take an old shirt and attach wrapped candies to the back of it with a needle and thread. Thread the needle through the end of each candy wrapped and then through the shirt. You'll need a separate thread for each candy, because the idea is that the brave adult is going to be chased by lots of kids who will try to grab candies from the back of the shirt. Don't be tempted to use staples: there could be lots of bloodied little fingers. You'll want enough candies to have at least 4 or 5 per child. Make sure that you set up boundaries and that the adult doesn't run too fast.

hi all,
thank you for all the replies you have been very helpfull.
i'm off to buy some lollies and prizes now.

thanks again
bel

hi all,
well we had ella's party on the weekend and luckly had nice weather so i could take all the kiddlets to the park across the road.
we played pass the parcell and i made a maze of string around the park that the kiddlets had to follow.
i brought a pull pinata but we ran out of time to play it as most of the kids just wanted to play at the park.
ella had lots of fun and was going around telling everyone that it was her birthday.
my nana ended up making a cake coz she couldn't come and wanted to do something so i couldn't try my idea out.
so instead i made some chocolate butterfly's and put them on the cake (hope the pic works)

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h252/belnella/bel399.jpg

well i'd better get back to cleaning up so will talk again soon

bel