2 year old birthday ideas lower bergen (Hoboken, Paramus: rentals, house, neighborhood)
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at 2 years old the kid probably doesn't have friends or the capacity to do much. id just do a family gathering in the house. my daughter is turning 4 and its the first birthday where she has friends and can really enjoy the jungle gym crap they do. I guess you can do some kind of arts and crafts junk for a 2 year old.
at 2 years old the kid probably doesn't have friends or the capacity to do much. id just do a family gathering in the house. my daughter is turning 4 and its the first birthday where she has friends and can really enjoy the jungle gym crap they do. I guess you can do some kind of arts and crafts junk for a 2 year old.
Agreed. Have something at your house and put the money saved into your child's 529 account. Your child will not mind one bit. In two or three years you can start having the destination parties.
Kid indoor with activities. More about kids less parents.
Most 2 yr olds easily get overwhelmed by gymboree/Chuck E Cheese type parties and have melt downs. You are much better off keeping things small, less invited guests, less activities. When my daughter was young we had wonderful b-day parties. For her first and second birthdays, we did small family only parties. She went to a small nursery school starting at 2.5 (there were 6 kids in the class held at a local church) and while she was in pre school we invited her 5 classmates to the parties. One year we did a private toddler gym/tumbling class at the local Y followed by juice and cupcakes and singing the birthday song at one of the rooms at the Y. (we decorated it for the party.) The whole party took about 1.5 hours, the kids loved it, enough activity to keep them entertained, not so much junk food to get them all hyped up on sugar, and there were no meltdowns. The next year we hired a clown for entertainment, and rented a room at the church. Again, the party was fairly short, ~2 hrs total, including the time it took for me to clean up after the party. The kids had a blast, the clown was a hit - balloon animals, hats & swords were especially enjoyed, and again the parents (mostly moms) enjoyed sitting by the side of the room talking, as well as participating in some of the activities with the clown. We also did the cupcakes and juice refreshments, no other snack food. When she got to Kindergarten we limited the guest list to just her friends from school, IIRC we invited ~10 kids, and I think we had 7 or 8 rsvp'd and attended. We did a bowling party at the local bowling alley, they supplied a slice of pizza and apple juice for the kids as well as lane bumpers and shoe rentals, and we supplied the cake. Many of her friends had similar things, one party at a local gymnastics center, one at a McDonald's with a play place, one did an art class where all the kids "made" mugs (actually painted the glaze on unfired mugs which were put into the kiln and we picked them up a week later) another had a mini golf party. Stuff like that. I vividly recall one set of parents, who I swear were out of their minds, hired a circus complete with a petting zoo, pony rides, a bouncy house, a large inflatable slide, roving clowns, men on stilts and the typical carnival food (kettle corn, cotton candy, bowls of candy, etc) in addition to a huge ice cream cake for their kids 5th birthday party. They also invited all of the kids in the class and then some. By an hour into the party the melt down's began. Then things got bad...and fast. 30+ kids, all full of junk food running around in hot weather... kids started to throw up inside the bouncy house, one kid freaked out when a llama tried to nibble on their shirt, another kid was horrified when a pony stopped to relieve himself right in front of the kid, splashing him. While parents were busy trying to clean out the bouncy house and clean up the affected kids, other kids started to dive down the slide head first, there were several bumps and bruises and at least one bloody nose from that! It is just way to much for that age kid.
I remember a well respected child psychologist suggesting that you keep parties to families until school age, then for young kids, short and small parties are best (one kid invited for every yr old the kid is, 5 yo would invite 5 kids, 6 yo would invite six kids... as to not overwhelm the kids. Very wise counsel, IMHO.
I do suggest having a friend or relative video your child's parties, so you can send copies to relatives/grand parents who cannot attend because they do not live locally, or cannot attend due to work or other commitments, and for when your child gets older, you can always take a stroll down memory lane - not to mention how wonderfully useful they can be to embarrass the child when they are teens and older ;-)
You can always try something like the turtle back zoo. It's not lower bergen but I was considering it. There is the children's museum in Paramus but I just went in there and it's kinda scary. Check it out for yourself though. Liberty Science Center usually has something for birthday parties too. Gymborees and such have party set ups too.
The second birthday party was at the house and we had pizza. The first birthday party we had it at the Beer Garden in Hoboken. That was a lot of fun!
A small family gathering with cake, ice cream and some playtime at home.
A child who is turning 2 years old does not need a big party in my opinion.
We actually did all family gatherings until my children were much older and then we usually did neighborhood and school friends. We lived in a small neighborhood and my kids went to a small private school so they generally saw all of their friends daily and were quite happy with a very simple gathering at home with everyone there.
Just do a party at your house. I know people that go nuts on kids birthday parties and spend hundreds of dollars. The kid is 2 years old...he/she won't remember any of it. If you want to go somewhere in addition to the party, just take the immediate family.
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