2nd Birthday Party Ideas

Two is terribly awesome, so celebrate it in style with our great 2nd birthday party ideas!

Tutu Party
Is the birthday girl a prima ballerina? She’ll chasse for this graceful celebration. Have everyone wear their favorite leotard, ballet shoes, or tutu! Set up a pink treat table with a pink tablecloth and music boxes. Use white cake stands and attach pink tulle to look like tutus. Get a pink ruffled cake with ballet shoes on top and accompany it with pink wafer cookies and pretzel rods dipped in pink frosting and glitter sugar. Don’t forget the pirouette punch—pink lemonade with pink striped straws! Play pin the tutu on the ballerina or a game of ballet bingo. To get the party moving, hire a local dance teacher to come teach the girls a mini routine. Have them perform it for all the parents. For favors, put pink cotton candy tulle in mason jars.

Bicycle Built for Two Party
Take your little one for a ride with this bicycle built for two celebration! Rent a vintage tandem bicycle to park by your front door and hang a welcome sign from the handlebars. Surround the dessert table with pastel balloons and hang a tassel banner on the front of the table (it looks just like bike handle tassels)! Get a cake shaped like a bicycle and make white chocolate bike wheel cake pops. Serve salty snacks in upside down bike helmets like pretzel wheels. Play a game of pin the tassel on the handlebars and send everyone home with a baggie of wheel spoke Twizzlers.

Two to Tango Party
It takes two to tango—so dance the day away with this lively party! Create a vibrant space with a red tablecloth and black lace runner. Get a tiered red velvet cake with red fondant and tango dancers on top! Use white platters to highlight treats like chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate dipped pretzels. Hang red paper lanterns from the ceiling and instead of streamers, decorate with red boas! Create a playlist of South American Tango music and have everyone join in on the dance party! For a sweet treat, get a black dance shoe-shaped pinata—get the kind with the pull string to make it easier for this age group. Send everyone home with a single red rose.

Two at the Zoo Party
Two is a zoo! Rise to the occasion and take the party to where the animals are! Make sure your brood is a manageable size, but typically zoos will give a discount for a group. Before you go, ask the birthday boy or girl which animals they want to see the most. Set up a map to make sure you hit the most important spots! If the zoo has party space, bring an animal cake or cupcakes decorated like lions, tigers, and bears! Oh my! Create a treat table with a fun “don’t feed the animals” sign and label the snacks as “lion treats” or “snake food.” Bring some face paint along and help everyone transform into their favorite animal! Go wild!

Crew Boat Party
Two is totally crew! Sail away with your little one with this nautical celebration! Hang a ship’s wheel on your front door and give every little sailor a hat when they arrive. Order sailor hats in bulk, then use red and blue fabric paint to write everyone’s name on the front. Set the treat table with a red or blue chevron tablecloth. Decorate with buoys and wood anchors. Forgo the cake and bake blue velvet cupcakes with white wrappers. Use sticks and nautical paper cut into triangles as sails on top! Serve fruit in a watermelon boat, goldfish crackers, and sailboat-shaped cookies. Let everyone create their own sailboat! Before the party, create boat bases using popsicle sticks and glue. Help each guest pick a base, pick a sail from a variety of paper triangles, and glue them together. Fill up a kiddie pool and let each little captain see how their boat floats!

Elephant Party
Everyone will have a stompin’ time at this elephant party! Create an chic tablescape with a light gray tablecloth. Decorate with elephant figurines in white or silver, and use baby blue pedestals to hold elephant-shaped cookies and elephant cake pops with candy ears! Set up a “watering hole” with blue kool aid and fun striped straws. Serve some elephant snacks like peanut candy or peanuts (as long as no one is allergic)! Create a game of elephant corn hole by painting an elephant on the platform with his mouth as the hole. See how many peanut bean bags everyone can feed him! If you live near a zoo, see if they offer group tours of the elephant exhibit! Send everyone home with their very own elephant ears! Cut out felt ears and use a glue gun to attach them to a gray headband.

Paris Party
Bring the city of lights to you with this cosmopolitan celebration. Decorate with paper cutouts of the Eiffel Tower or Arc de Triomphe. Create a treat table with a light gray tablecloth, a ruffled pink cake with an Eiffel Tower on top, and pink pedestals with macarons and eclairs. Serve Parisian food like ham and cheese on baguettes, crepes, and croissants! Set up a Parisian photo booth with the city in the background and give everyone a beret. Use props like mustaches on sticks, sunglasses, and boas. Send everyone home with a bag of French kisses (hershey kisses in pink foil). Everyone will say merci beaucoup for two!

Two Cute Party
Little girls are sugar and spice and everything nice! Celebrate with this Two Cute bash! Decorate with a pastel scheme by starting with a light pink tablecloth and pink and white balloons. Hang pastel pendants along the front of the table. Use pink painted mason jars for flowers and spell out the birthday girl’s name with big cardboard letters painted with glitter paint. Get a pink ombre cake, pink jellybeans, and pink iced cookies for something sweet. For spice, serve gingersnap cookies, carrot cake pops, and ginger ale! Make sure everyone is looking their cutest with a hair bow station! Get a few rolls of pretty ribbon, hair clips, and a glue gun. Have each guest pick her ribbon and glue it to the clip. Make sure it’s cooled then style it in their hair!

Bubble Party
What kid doesn’t love bubbles? Blow them away with this bubbly bash. Use bright blue and teal to decorate your space. Tape balloons to the wall from the ground to the ceiling to look just like big bubbles. Set a blue cake covered in sugar bubbles atop a white pedastal and chevron table runner. Serve bright colored “bubble” cake pops and create a bubbly drink with blue juice mixed with seltzer. Fill a jar with bubble gum balls and have each guest guess how many are inside—the closest guess wins it all! Take the party outside for bubble fun with bubble guns and jumbo bubble wands. Set up a bubble refill station by putting bubble liquid in a drink dispenser for easy refueling. Create a bubble pit by filling a kiddie pool with clear beach balls (check online to buy in bulk). Send everyone home with a bottle of bubbles and fun shaped wands!

Tea for Two Party
It’s time to par-TEA! Have all the invitees wear their favorite party dress. As everyone arrives, create personalized tea party hats with a hat station. Provide straw hats, flowers, ribbons, and a glue gun—have the adults help out with the construction! Once everyone is stylin’ in their new hat, start the tea party off with warm tea and iced tea in fun colored tea pots. Don’t forget, pinkies up! Decorate the table with paper doilies and tie strips of tulle into bows on the back of each chair. Set up dainty snacks like mini sandwiches and fruit pizzas on tiered platters. Fancy girls can have fun too! Hold a balancing contest where each guest walks around and balances a plastic tea cup on her head. Or play a game of hot tea cup (hot potato) and pass a tea cup around until there’s a winner! Put together baggies of tea bag-shaped shortbread cookies as a parting gift.

Barnyard Party
Everyone will say e-i-e-i-OH for this barnyard bash! Transform your space into a farm with a green tablecloth and burlap runner. Set hay bales on each side of the food table and use strands of burlap as streamers for a backdrop. Get a big red barn cake, and surround it with cupcakes decorated like cows, pigs, and chickens. Let everyone pig out on brownie cow pies, rooster-shaped cake pops, and pigs in a blanket. Take this party to the next level and set up your own barnyard in the back yard! Bring in a cow, sheep, chickens, or any of the birthday boy or girl’s favorite animals. Have the animal handler give the kids a lesson on each animal, and then set up a photo booth with props like bandanas and cowboy hats so everyone can take a snapshot of their wild day! For favors, create a barnyard of stuffed farm animals using a cardboard white picket fence—let each guest pick their favorite friend to take home.

Finding Nemo Party
Just keep swimming and just keep partying! Bring your child’s favorite fish to life with this Finding Nemo celebration! Create an under the sea tablescape with a sea blue tablecloth and coral and conch shells for decoration. Twist green streamers and tape them to the wall behind the table to look just like seaweed! Get a fantastic Finding Nemo 2-tiered cake decorated with an ocean and a Nemo on top. Or, bake orange cupcakes with orange frosting and use pieces of orange fondant for fins and frosting for eyes and stripes. Serve fruit salad in a shark watermelon bowl—just cut a hole for a mouth and carve in jagged teeth. Or the kids will love starfish-shaped PB&J sandwiches with goldfish crackers and seashell pasta salad! Play a game of pin the fin on Nemo and create handprint Nemos for everyone to take home—dip each guest’s hand in orange paint and print it on a piece of paper. Help them use white and black paint markers to draw on eyes, stripes, and their name! Everyone will leave this party hunky Dory!