PLEASE HELP! 2 Yr Old Birthday Party

[CJOVANALST]

I need help! My DD will be 2 years old October 8th and we have no idea what to do for her birthday. We feel very limited because we don't want to rent a place out for $50-$100, but our house is 750 sq ft. And we can't plan to have it outside because the weather in Indiana is extremely unpredictable in October (it could be snowing!). The main issue is that we would have around 35 people coming, adults and children. This is ALL family and one family friend. We considered splitting DH family and my family into two parties but that puts us at 19 people for one and 16 people for the other. Still a lot of people crammed into a tiny house.

SO, the big question... would it be bad etiquette to have an open-house style party at our home and set a specific time for cake cutting? And if this is acceptable, how would you word it to make it clear?

I am also open to any other ideas. Please help!

[jenrose]

Hmmmm.....you do have quite the delema. I don't know how you would swing that open house style either since you would still have that many people crammed into your house trying to eat cake.

What my SIL did for one of her son's birthday parties was they had it at a pizza place. Many pizza places have a seperate party room and usually don't charge for rental. Then everyone buys their own pizza or you can buy a bunch depending on your budget etc. We all paid for our own at her party. And you have a room to do your cake and someone else does all the cleaning up. That would take out the renal problem if you have a local pizza place that has a party room.

Do you have a large backyard? If you get those easy up canopys you could put a couple in the backyard to add some space. Then if it gets to crammed in your house people would at least have a dry area to escape to. Even if it is cold, any smokers would want to head outside at somepoint anyways.

[mamawhit322]

I agree with the pizza place party thing idea. Do you have a CiCi's Pizza near you? It's a cheap pizza buffet- they don't charge rental fees and they have a little arcade for kids.

I don't know what we're going to do for DS's second birthday this year. His is at the end of November and there are going to be "big kids" there. What can I do for big kids??? lol

[beth119]

What about your parents or inlaws house? Or another relative?

If you did all the setting up and cleaning up, could you host it there?