2 year old birthday party ideas?

[Gypsymom]

There is probably a thread on this here somewhere, but with search disabled, I don't know how to look for it!

DS turns 2 in May. LO #2 will be due any time then too. I want to plan something special, but manageable. For his 1st, we had close family (12 people) to a private luncheon at my grandparent's (posh) care home. It allowed the older folks to attend and I didn't have to do anything except the cake and some balloons. We didn't do a 'friends' party at all. Not sure what would work well this year. DS loves Elmo so I'm thinking that should be the theme/cake, but really don't have any idea how to structure the whole thing. BBQ might be possible although the weather here can still be very touch and go then (I know, in May. Sheesh!).

TIA.

[NoonieP]

I posted on here about a party for my 2yr but not sure where it is (I'm hopeless when it comes to finding things on here )

Anyway, for LO's 2nd birthday we invited close family and two kids that are his age, they live across the street. I bought a Thomas the train cake, a big Thomas balloon and 10 colored helium balloons. I had out snackies that LO and his friends could eat and let them run around. I put a sign on the front door and put the balloons on the table and had a bright colored plastic table cover.

I don't think you need to go overboard for the birthday, it's not like they're going to remember it and for them, having everyone they love around them is way more fun.   I would keep it simple and short. Ours was 2 hours and LO was worn out nicely when we were done.

[birdie]

We did similiar as the PP.  We invited family and a couple of his little friends.  I am glad we had the friends there.  I made an octupus cake and bought fish decorations from the dollar store.  We served take and bake pizza.  We did pizza first, presents then cake.  DH and I gave him his gifts from us earlier in the day as we knew he would gets lots from family.  This was a great introduction to present opening as his bd was before Christmas.  So by the time the other gifts came, he was interested and skilled.  It also cut down on being overwhelmed later.

I also made a DVD slideshow of pictures of him from the last year, starting with pictures of his 1st bd, and played it on a contious loop on the TV with out sound.  This was nice so that our family could see how he has changed over the year and gave them something to look at when conversations lulled.  It also sparked great "remember when" conversations.  I also think DS had fun seeing himself on the TV.  I had a blast making it to.  I definately plan to do this for family bd parties in the future.

We also removed all of the security teathers from all of his gifts and returned them to their packaging before wrapping.  This saved so much time and he was able to dive right into the gift.

[Gypsymom]

Thanks for the tips on the timeframe and the guest list, girls! I'll see if I can convince DH to do the photo DVD thing as he's the curator of all our pics

I'm thinking of an Elmo theme since DS really likes him. I found this site on making the cake and it seems do-able: http://www.ehow.com/how_5170397_make-elmo-birthday-cake.html

We have a wee house and it's occasions like this that make we wish we had a big party house. I actually really like entertaining and don't like limiting the guest list...