T's Sesame Street Birthday Parties

T's 4th birthday is less than a month away! This is his first year with a party that isn't a small gathering at our house and he is very excited. Thinking about his upcoming party, I wanted to share his parties from previous years - up first his 2 and 3 year old birthdays.

The past two years T has asked for a Sesame Street birthday party (technically the first year he asked for an Elmo party and last year he asked for a Cookie Monster party). For his 2nd birthday we invited our playgroup over and had a few special activities set up along with pizza and cupcakes.

 One thing I've learned about birthdays - balloons are very important.

Here are a few of our activities (some ideas are from pinterest):

Oscar's Trash Toss

This was a HUGE hit and was played many times (and even after the party was over). We purchased the can from Home Depot and the rest we already had. We crumpled up construction paper (we used enough colors so each child could have a color to collect) and dumped it all over the living room. The kids then ran around collecting their color and putting it back in the can (tossing if they wanted). The first person to pick up all their paper won. 

Coloring with Elmo

This was an easy-peasy activity: crayons, paper, done. Recently I've added stickers to the coloring station when we have it at a party, making it more of a create a scene.

Cookie Monster Cookies

My mom and I made a batch of Real Simple's Sugar Cookies (it's my go-to recipe) and a batch of Martha's Royal Icing (another go-to). We colored the icing red, yellow and green (coloring icing is a PAIN) and placed them in Wilton candy making squeeze bottles (from Michaels). Before the party, I kept them turned upside down with the cap on in a bowl of warm water to keep the icing from hardening. Royal icing is runny, but the kids really liked it.

Big Bird's Egg Hunt

A lot of our activities were supposed to be outside, but it rained all night so we moved most indoors. This was a basic egg hunt and it worked just fine indoors. I purchased almost everything for it at the Dollar Store (and filled the eggs with stickers).

Counting with the Count

We did get the chance to do one outside activity (there wasn't room inside, so we were lucky). I connected six hula hoops from the Dollar Store with tape and then wrote numbers inside (I messed up and should have but the 1s at the bottom and a 3 at the top). The kids stood behind a line and threw bean bags (from amazon) at the hoops and tried to count up their score (obviously lost on a two year, but the throwing bean bags into a circle wasn't).

Ernie's Rubber Duckies

I ordered the birthday ducks from Oriental Trading (they are smaller than normal ducks so you can get a lot for a good price) and used a Sharpie to write the kids names (or initials) on the bottom. I placed them in a beverage tub (from Target) with water. The kids then had to find their ducks. This would have been more fun if it had been outside. It was also the most popular in the 2 and under crowd. 

The cupcakes were Martha's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes recipe with buttercream icing and Wilton Elmo Toppers. The Sesame Street sign is just a big sticker from Michaels.

The favor bags were from Target and I just added a sticker.

 For his family birthday celebration - I made an Elmo cake (pan can be found here). I'm glad I did it once, but it wasn't something I wanted to do again. (Martha's One Bowl Chocolate Cake is the base).

 For his 3rd birthday, we kept it simple - balloons, family, and cupcakes. We spent the day at the playground, we visited the toy store and ate his favorite foods. It was a much easier birthday, and I think the Cookie Monster cupcakes turned out pretty cute (marshmallow cut in half with dark chocolate eyes). 

T's first birthday was a dinosaur theme. Maureen of AndersRuff just did an amazing dinosaur themed party for her son, see it here. Mine isn't quite as involved, but I'll share the details next week.