Since you are doing balloons anyway, here is a thought.  You could do the tumblers or bag, or whatever and fill them with things like popcorn, cookies, and maybe some candy and attach the balloon.  All the kids loved the treat bag balloons.  They really are pretty easy to please.

If you want to go the non food route, it's close enough to spring to use squirters, those little windmills, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and punch balloons.

Also, I think right now Kohl's has Dr. Seuss books and matching stuffed animals for $5 each.  Depending on how much you wanted to spend you could do that.

I love the chocolate lolly idea... Not to push that on you further, but I would not get 2 molds. One is plenty. Those wouldn't be too time consuming, since there aren't too many colors, or a tons of detail. Annnnd, you can get Wilton melts already colored (red and blue are extremely easy to find) so you wouldn't have to invest in the gel coloring. So, really, you aren't looking at too much expense, especially if you have a Joann Fabrics around and wait until they have a 40% off coupon - you can stock up on the melting chocolates (the white goes on sale frequently at Walmart, too)... Anyways, I think they would be super cute, and I hate to see money wasted on favors that don't get used. But, who doesn't love chocolate?!? (And those that are too young, their parents will eat them, or you can stir the extras into coffee or hot chocolate.)