Sesame Street 2nd Birthday Party

Of the six birthday parties I have thrown thus far, this is the first character one I have done! I saw some super cute ideas that some other ladies online were doing and who doesn't love Sesame Street? Plus, 'Melmo' is one of the few words that Baby Boy has right now so I thought we may as well go with it. Our Little Helper and I have been planning this since mid summer when we were shopping for things for his Blue Dragon birthday party. I must admit it certainly is much easier to shop and plan for a party when there are so many character items available and other people's party ideas to steal!

 This may be the only occasion in which I don't hate the ceiling in the dining room! I had Mr. W buy a couple dozen balloons in primary colors, it isn't nearly enough to fill the ceiling, but there were enough for little boys to grab and run around with.  I used some green crinkle fabric that OLH picked out this summer as a table cloth for the main table.  I like not using a disposable cloth and I have a feeling I can make some nice costume or cape out of this fabric in the future.

 

 This cute Sesame Street embroidery was done by my mom's cousin when my little sister was born. This hung in our bedroom as children, my mom let me borrow it for the party. I propped it up on an inexpensive easel I bought at Freddy's.  The small stuffed Cookie monster I bought at Target.

 My mom made chocolate chip cookies and I made sugar cookies with green sprinkles. I bought a letter F cookie cutter at The Decorette Shop as well as a set of number cutters so I'd have a number 2.

 #2 cheese and crackers, since this birthday party was brought to us by the number 2 and the letter F.

 Online I saw so many cute fruit plates arranged like Elmo in strawberries, or Grover in blue berries, but since no fruits are really in season in December I opted for a broccoli Oscar. The eyes are ramekins filled with ranch dressing with olives for the pupils. I used a few carrots for the mouth and eyebrows. Baby Boy likes nuts so I served sunflower seeds in small paper cups.

Ernie's Rubber Ducky punch. I found this idea here and was completely smitten.  How completely adorable is this?! I actually had a really hard time locating the blue drink mix. Not surprisingly, the powdered drink section is very, very limited at the grocery stores in close-in, hippie, SE Portlandia. I had to ask for help from friends via FB!  That ended up working because one of my friends suggested Grocery Outlet; who knew I'd have to cross county lines to get powdered drink mix?   But they had a huge selection with two blue options. I bought an extra packet for future use! I'm so happy with how cute it turned out.
 
 Baby Boy was enchanted with it as well.
 
I found Elmo and Cookie Monster t-shirts randomly at department stores. I never found any in OLH's size, not even online did I have much luck.  I keep practically everything, one just never knows when one can use something again. I happen to be wearing a Honker's t-shirt that Ms. Mc bought for me our freshman year of college, back when there were Sesame Street stores at the mall.  Hello! talk about holding onto the past, what crazy person would keep something in a box of archive clothing for so long? Me. And it was just the perfect thing to have for the birthday party.

We also had a big bowl of gummy worms. I used the tutorial from this blog to make the street sign labels.  (Coincidentally I remember this woman from my long ago days on the decorating and renovating board on thenest.) Mr. W found some old Sesame Street and Electric Co. postcards in his baby album and used them for decorations.

 A fish bowl of goldfish crackers. The SS confetti, paper plates and napkins, whistles for the favor bags, and award medal necklaces I bought at a party supply store. We got a few pizzas as the main course since Elmo's favorite food is pizza.  That stuffed Elmo was a gift for OLH when he was younger.

 Speaking of party favors, these SS stickers were the first thing that OLH suggested doing a SS theme party for his brother. I bought enough so I could use them on the favor bags and include a sheet of stickers in each bag. The primary colored bags I got at JoAnn's.

 Inside each is a whistle, sticker or activity book, tooth brush, and sheet of stickers.  I was serving so many sweets at the party I didn't want to add any more to the bag.

I bought some SS coloring books and had those out on the tables with a few boxes of crayons for the children to color while guests were arriving. You know how Elmo loves his crayons! I made up an Elmo head out of red poster board for a game of Pin The Nose On Elmo. The kids were a little shy this early on in the party, so we didn't have as many players as I anticipated. I had lots of left over noses.

 What all the little boys did get into was Oscar's Trash Toss. I had a few small trash cans I used for my old potting shed, that were still empty post move, and heaven knows I have a ton of crinkled newspaper from moving boxes, so this was a super simple and free game to put together. Plus little boys love to throw things, an invitation to throw things in the house is not to be passed up! Here all the big brothers are lined up while the little brothers toss. One of our friends needs to have a daughter, for real, this all boy guest list was not intentional.

 I loved the idea of the game of tossing beanbags made like chocolate chip cookies into a box cut out like Cookie Monster's face would be so cute. I considered making the bean bags, but never got around to it. Plus one tossing game at  a party is probably enough. They had lots of fun playing trains up in the attic too.

After they ate and played and we opened a few gifts it was time for cupcakes. While searching for dragon cake making supplies earlier in the year, OLH and I found these cute SS cupcake picks. I really liked that they had Zoe; the girl monsters seem so under represented in the merchandising! I considered sprinkles, but then found these primary colored 'jumbo round quins' which I thought would be simple, but very cheery. Oh, how I love the Decorette Shop!  I got the #2 candle  for the birthday boy there as well.

Baby Boy knew exactly what to do when he saw that lit candle. We had it placed too far away from him in the beginning to be able to blow it out. As a result we have an endless number of photos with puffy cheeks. So cute!

I had such a fun time putting this party together; having OLH get excited about the planning makes it even more enjoyable for me. He's my little party planner who likes everything to look very 'perfect' or 'awesome.'  I think Baby Boy had a very nice time playing with his friends, and he certainly enjoyed opening his presents and getting a yellow bus, one of his favorite things these days.