First birthday party, games?

MrsIH

Hi ladies!

I'm so excited about LO's first birthday party... I think the planning has helped me get over the fact that he's about to turn ONE... ahh! :-) 

I'm wondering if I should bother with games or not.  We are having his party at a park/playground beside our house so there will be swings, a toddler size play area there.  I wouldn't mind doing a couple small games but I'm stumped as for what to do.

Bonus Q, what is a good gift for a 1 and 2 y/o?  We have a few parties to attend in the next month and a half.  

TIA :-) 

lola808

Yay, happy birthday! Party planning is so fun and festive!

We had kids of all ages, so we had some basic yard games: tug-of-war, potato sack racing, and the egg-on-the-spoon race. We also had a pin the tail on the donkey game, bowling, balls to kick around, and a sprinkler thing which sprayed water for the kids to run through -- those were good for the little ones, too. There was also a pool we used, but depending on the weather, you could set out a mini pool for water play or do water balloons.  

MrsIH

Awesome ideas, thank you

HulaLove

I'm no help to you, we just had a play date for the friend portion of Elyse's birthday and all the kids were her age so they just kind of wandered around, stole toys from each other and fell over.  

Having the party at the park might just be entertainment enough?  

Happy planning!!!   

Married2MrWright

We had Libby's at a Kindermusik studio...some "games" you could replicate are things like hokey pokey, if you're happy and you know it, etc.

As for gifts for the 1-2 year old set...I always suggest the B. Parum Pum Pum Drum (for around $20 you get 8 musical instruments for them to play with...) and books.

inamra

We had a park BBQ party and kept it casual, so no formal/set games. Instead we had bubble blowing along with an automatic bubble machine, a large inflatable pool filled with hundreds of pit balls, and several softer versions of balls (soccer/volley/football) for ppl to play with on their own. We also had a doodling station ready for kids that wanted to draw/color but forgot to put it out =P everyone loved the pool with the balls though! Have fun planning! I miss those days!

MrsIH

Yes, we'll keep it casual with a lot of free play... they are 1/2 year olds, after all  But I like the idea of "pin the tail on the monkey" since it's a monkey themed party.  That one might be good enough.  Thanks ladies!