What to do if child's outdoor park Bday party is rained out?

Question

This weekend we are having my son's second birthday party at a park. Normally I would have the party at home or rent a hall and have various games and stuff like that. However our life right now is extra hectic with remodeling our house, and myself having a very tough pregnancy. So for this reason we decided to rent the shelter house at a really wonderful park with a great playground. We figured this way I wouldn't have to do all the stuff I normally do as the kids would be entertained at the playground.

Well of course right now there is a chance of thunderstorms for that day. I know that could change but I'm still very worried. Even if it rains we will still hold the party in the small shelter house because our home is a disaster right now and we just could not hold a party here right now.

The thing is I have no clue what to do if it does rain. The kids that will be attending are all cousins aged from about five to about 12. When they were all younger it was much easier to come up games and activities to keep them occupied. Now some of them are hitting that "I'm too cool" age and they have to be practically forced to particiapte. Of course once they do they always have fun.

The shelter house is pretty small so there's not going to be much room and that's a problem. So far I was thinking of maybe some sort of craft thing or something. Other than that the only other thing I had planned was a pinata. We will of course be eating too.

So any ideas of what the heck I can do with these kids? I don't have much money to spend either on prizes and stuff like I normally would so that's making it harder for me to think of ideas too.

Answer 1

You could divide the kids into groups and have them put together acts for a talent show. They could work on their show for a bit and then you could have them perform. The adults could be the judges and your two year old could be the "head judge" who gets to pick the best act or if you want to have everyone win, have lots of catagories like most original, best use of the color blue, or other random prizes. You could have your two year old make the prizes while everyone is making up their acts (or he could be in one instead).  

Answer 2

I was going to suggest the indoor playland at a nearby fast-food place, but then I reread your details and found the age ranges, so playland is out.

Hmm. We have a lot of fun at our mall video arcade, but that does cost money. If you have a video arcade place nearby, call them up and ask if you can bring in a last-minute party. Sometimes they have a rumpus room you can use for parties, you have to reserve it in advance.

If you have a friend with a barn, why not have a barn dance? My favorite dances with my church youth group were at our friend's barn - we set up the speakers, had a friend DJ, and had a great time dancing.

Our friend could also set up a blow-up "Bounce House" inside his barn. But if you can, try setting up an obstacle course or a croquet set, or a series of lawn games inside the barn. One fun activity was a round robin tournament inside aforementioned barn, with a croquet set, a bocce court, a horseshoe court, a borrowed ping-pong table, and a pool table. We were organized into teams and sent to each station, with scorecards. The ones who had the highest scores at the end of the night won the door prizes.

We've also had fun with a dance party, where we had different stations for learning dance moves from the 60's and 70's. So we learned dances like the "mashed potato", the "skate", the "swim" and other 60's dances. We learned 70's disco moves like "Starting the lawn mower" and "combing our hair". Then we had the main dance floor open up and we put all our moves together to the music and weren't all wallflowers because from then on we could dance!

So find out if you can use a friend's barn as a plan B.

Answer 3

If you are stuck in the room, you will not be able to do the pinata right? So take the candy you would have used in it and do a candy hunt! Hide it in diffrent places and have the kids find it all and put it in to  large bowl. Then you can put it into small party bags with prizes from other games like, Bunko! or pin the tail on the donkey. As soon as the 12 year olds finf out that the other childern are getting prizes for playing the games, they will want to play too. Do you have a target or walmart you can go to? They have cheep but very neat prizes