Library Birthday Party – Birthday Ideas for Toddlers

Our library birthday party is in the books! Now, I’m ready to share our birthday ideas for toddlers with you today. I’m packing this post full of lots of bookworm-y fun 2 year old birthday party ideas!

And it was a bit bittersweet. Given that our new bundle of joy will have a birthday only weeks apart from Scooter Britches, this is probably the last year that SB will have a party all to herself for a while. I figure next year it will be more practical for everyone that our two girls start having joint birthday parties. And by practical for everyone, I pretty much mean practical for me.

My fall schedule will now include: dad’s birthday, mom’s birthday, SB’s birthday, Halloween, wedding anniversary, new baby’s birthday, and Thanksgiving. Oh, and let’s not forget Razorback football. Yep. Practicality will likely overcome my love for celebrations.

But I digress. Let’s get back to the real topic of this post: toddler’s birthday party ideas.

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Why Have a Book Themed Party?

SB has been a bookworm from early on. Spanish books, English books, picture books. The kid loves books. As much as I love this, I must shamefully admit that there have been a few nights when I hid as many books as I could when she wasn’t looking. This was due to sheer exhaustion from her book binges. There were nights she brought us 20 books in a row. I kid you not. It was more than I – a lifelong bookworm – could handle.

Last year, I chose the Cheerios theme for her Cheerios birthday party to honor her obsession with those heart-healthy rings of grain. This year, the worm won.

I hate worms. But…

A worm accessorized with a fondness for the written word and a pair of oversized glasses? Suddenly, I’m smitten.

Let me say that I am super bummed about my bookworm party pictures. And I can’t even blame the camera blur on the ten energetic children. My camera is stuck on a strange setting in which the focus points are all wacky. Off to the camera shop we will go. But too little too late as far as the party is concerned. I have a lot of disappointing pictures from the day.

Invitations for a Book Themed Birthday Party

I created the invitations from a online template for a library check-out card. I used my Microsoft PowerPoint program to customize the template. The cards turned out to be a tad smaller than I hoped, but they are still really cute. I had planned to make the library card pockets out of scrapbook paper, but then I stumbled upon these cute little pre-made pockets at Hobby Lobby. There are also these colorful library pockets with checkout cards.

Reserving a Library for a Book Themed Birthday Party

I reserved a meeting room in one of our local libraries way back in May. At first, I thought I was a lunatic mom for making October birthday plans so far in advance…until I called the library and was told it only had one reservation opening available for the entire month of October. Guess I called just in time. This library birthday party could have easily been held in our home for a more cozy vibe, but I thought hosting the party in a library gave the bookworm theme a festive kick.

One word of caution – several libraries I called did have meeting rooms but they do not allow food. This doesn’t work for a birthday party, obviously.

Bookworm Cupcakes – Toddler’s Birthday Party Ideas

No doubt, a fun library birthday cake idea is a cute bookworm made of cupcakes! A local bakery, Sugar Dumplins’, did a fantastic job on creating a bookworm out of cupcakes.

Book Themed Party Food

As I said, I checked out the books from the library in advance (so I could plan for food), and other books we already had at home. I am linking up some book ideas with food suggestions in case you need some additional inspiration! This is the same list I share in my bring a book baby shower post.

Selecting Children’s Books and Pairing Party Food with Children’s Books

Select picture books about food that will allow for pairing easy foods. Here are some favorites children’s books about fruit and other foods.

Pairing Children’s Books about Fruit with Party Food

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood (displayed alongside fresh strawberries, strawberry pretzel salad, strawberry fruit dip)

Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss (displayed next to caramel apple nachos, caramel apple dip, any easy appetizer with apples)

Children’s Books to Pair with Vegetables

Rainbow Stew by Cathryn Falwell (paired with a vegetable tray)

T. Veg: The Story of Carrot-Crunching Dinosaur by Smriti Prasadam-Halls (displayed alongside a veggie tray or crunchy salad)

Pairing Breakfast Foods with Picture Books

These would be great for a breakfast baby shower!

If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff (put with pancakes)

Mission Defrostable: Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast by Josh Funk (paired with pancakes)

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss (paired with any egg dish – mini egg quiches, egg cups, etc.)

Who Hatches the Egg? by Tish Rabe (paired with any egg dish – mini egg quiches, egg cups, etc.)

Sweet Treats to Pair with Children’s Picture Books

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff (paired with chocolate chip cookies)

The Wonky Donky by Craig Smith (put next to cupcakes decorated like donkeys as seen in the image above)

If You Give a Dog a Donut by Laura Numeroff (displayed with a platter of donuts)

Donut Give Up by Rose Rossner (paired with donuts)

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle (paired with any fun recipe that incorporates Teddy Grahams or recipes that can use Teddy Grahams as toppers)

Other Party Foods and Children’s Books

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett (paired with slow cooker meatballs)

The Moose Who Loves Noodles by Rachel Dutton (put next to an angel hair pasta salad or other easy-to-serve pasta)

The Pigeon finds a Hot Dog by Mo Willems (displayed with a hot dog bar or with pigs in a blanket)

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin (paired with spicy salsa, taco dip, or with any taco inspired dish or alongside a taco bar)

Chicks and Salsa by Aaron Reynolds (paired with salsas)

Pandas Don’t Like Popcorn by Sunny Mai (teamed with white chocolate popcorn or displayed at a popcorn bar)

More Cheese Please! by Tiffany Strelitz-Haber (paired with simple cheese and crackers tray, dried beef cheese ball, or cheese dip)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (paired with anything that can be arranged in a long horizontal format – like the horizontal sandwich stack with a bell pepper face seen above or like a caterpillar cupcake cake) LIttle Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philomen Sturges (displayed alongside pizza rolls or pizza)

Wheels by Sally Sutton (paired with Mexican pinwheels or cranberry pinwheels)

The Wheels on the Bus by Jerry Smath (also paired with pinwheels)

Food to Pair with Animal Books to Display on a Book Baby Shower Table

T is for Tiger by Laura Watkins (displayed next to a bowl of animal crackers or a dish that incorporates animal crackers)

The View at the Zoo by Kathleen Long Bostrom (also displayed with a dish involving animal crackers or an animal shape)

Decorations for a Birthday Party at the Library

A flea market offered a great selection of old Golden Books, which I used to create the wall art. I apologize for these book fatalities to all of you bibliophiles out there, but how cute are these buntings? If you don’t wish to make your own, you can buy a story book cover banner or this cute “Once Upon a Time” banner. Those banners or this “I Love Books” book garland would be cute hanging in a reading area at home after the party. I love that they have a multi-use function.

I made the big 2 out of cut pieces of pages from the Golden books. These are just toddler’s birthday party ideas. Any number for any birthday would work – even for adults!

 

Another word of caution – it is best to check with the library about the rules for the party room before reserving. Some meeting rooms allow you to hang decorations on the walls, and some do not.

An Inflatable Bookworm

The party element that seemed to pack the biggest punch for the library birthday was the inflatable bookworm from Oriental Trading that cost around $12. (Unfortunately, the bookworm seems to no longer be available on Oriental Trading or anywhere else online.) I bought it to use as a photo prop, but it became a play toy for many of the kids. They all gravitated to that thing, which seemed to irk a very possessive and greedy birthday girl who did not want to share.

Unfortunately, due to lots of hands-on attention from the kiddos, Mr. Bookworm sustained an injury but seems to still be in good spirits, otherwise. Now that the party is over, he has found a new home in the reading nook in SB’s room, as did the bunting shown above.

Birthday Party Outfit for a Bookworm Themed Party

Again, this is not the greatest picture. You may not can see the shirt very well. It has a large turquoise bookworm with a book and glasses and the number two.

Story Time During a Library Birthday Party – 2 Year Old Birthday Party Ideas

What’s a library event without story time? A friend of ours has a Dr. Seuss costume that I thought The Hubs would wear with pride as he led the kids through a story. I got a big fat no on that one. I thought he might at least wear the hat, but then I forgot to retrieve the hat from my friend’s classroom before the party.

Sadly, a stray balloon captured the attention of half the group of toddlers and story time was not nearly the success I thought it would be. Dang balloon!  As I’ve learned since becoming a mommy, things do not typically go to plan when a group of young-ins is involved. Your birthday ideas for toddlers might not always go as planned!

We had also planned to have myself or my mom read a second book in Spanish to the class, but we nixed that plan after the balloon bomb.

Book Themed Games and Activities

For additional activities, I had planned out several book themed party games and crafts. But since the kids seemed to prefer to make their own fun to my party plans, I made a last-minute decision not to introduce any of the crafts.

However, I wasn’t going to let my “Pin the Bow Tie on the Bookworm” activity go without a whirl. After all, this had been my own idea – no help from Pinterest involved! I mean, how often does an original idea brew these days? And, pin the tail games are perfect 2 year old birthday party ideas!

The process had been rather simple, thanks to the projector in my classroom and a cute clip art I found online, but it was still the most time consuming piece of the party-planning. I wasn’t going to abandon the idea like I did the others.

How to Create a Pin-The-Tail on the Bookworm Game

Using my classroom projector, I traced the bookworm onto a half yard of green felt with a piece of white chalk. I used black sharpie for sketching in the details of his body. Then, I simply cut around the chalk lines. For the bow tie, I cut a tiny piece of orange felt and placed several pieces of no-sew velcro onto the back of the bow tie. It clings perfectly to the felt.

The bookworm is about three feet tall and we had to hang it relatively low on the wall so the small kids could reach it when they spun around to attach the bow tie.

A Book Donation Station for a Library Birthday

A few months ago at Target, I came across this cute little purple book wagon on the clearance aisle. It worked perfectly as a place to collect donated books at the library party. In the invitations, we asked guests to bring a gently used book or two to donate if they desired. These books were then donated to the library to be used in some of its programs for children in the community. Even if you didn’t have a bookmobile, you could still set up a cute book donation area with a sign and a collection box or cute basket. This fun “Books” basket can be repurposed to go into a child’s reading area at home.

What better way to give back through library birthday parties than to collect books to share with others! In fact, some kids might even be fine with collecting book donations in lieu of gifts.

Party Favors for Library Birthday Parties

Party favors for library birthday parties can include colorful “reading” glasses party favors. We found ours at Target. Other book themed party favor ideas include bottles of bubbles which we wrapped with pages from the vintage Golden Books and little bags of bookworms (gummy worms). Fitting for library birthday parties, no?

All in all, our library party turned out great! And as you might have guessed, our little bookworm received more than a few new books to add to her collection. I hope you enjoyed a little peek of our birthday party at the library. For those of you planning library birthday parties, I would love to hear what you have planned for your party in the comments below!

For more 2 year old birthday party ideas (or for young children, in general), be sure to check out some of our other birthday parties: a Trolls birthday party, a Cheerios birthday party, a movie theater birthday party (with a Frozen theme), a party at the park, and a Halloween birthday party!