For my nephew Anthony's 2nd birthday I wanted to give him a great party. This was my 1st birthday that I was able to plan all by myself my way and it came out to be great! We were undecisive on the theme of the party, and because he LOVES Elmo I decided on doing a sesame street party. The  reason why i did not just do Elmo party is because i was able to work with a lot more using the whole sesame street gang. Fist for the invitations i made them by hand myself using construction paper. I cut out with red construction paper s face, also with construction paper Elmo's eyes and then with black construction paper his mouth. After gluing it all together to make the face i then underlined with a black marker the outline of the face and made the inside for the eye. It was pretty easy for me because i have a good hand on painting and drawing. Then i attached to the back of the elmo face a white elmo face that i printed all of the party information. I included the date, time address and in the bottom This party was bought to you by the letter A and the number 2". This party took place in my mom's front yard. She has a very big front yard that i was able to work with. The house is protected by a white gate that i used to put balloons going across all different colors.. This was one thing that attracted the guest. For decorations I used cardboard stock to make a big 3 ft elmo that i put a wood stick on the back with a V on the bottom to dig into the ground. I put elmo next to a light pole in the entrance were the guest walked in  the light pole i put green steamer around to cover it and made a sign that said "Anthony Street". The elmo like i said was next to the pole and he was waving hi and holding balloons.As the path to the main area i made some signs as the guest walked along that read "Can you tell me how to get how to get to sesame street" another that said " This party is bought to you by the letter A and the number 2" and last a sign that i made into an arrow that said "sesame street this way" as the guest walked along i had a cd playing with many sesame street and elmo songs that i made myself. I really concentrated on making this party fun for the kids so i rented kiddie tables and made 3 long tables. There was about 40 kids that attended. There was one yellow table that i made the big bird table. A red table that was made into the Bert & Ernie table and a blue table that was the cookie monster table. All  i did was buy jumbo character balloons and put them in the middle of each table on a balloon holder. This actually looked very nice and simple. I also made each kid there own personalized treat box which was waiting for them on the table. The boxes I bought from oriental trading and i used character faces that i looked up online. for example: for a yellow treat box (for a girl) i found a yellow big bird face then on photoshop added the girls name under the face printed it out on sticker paper and put it on the front of the treat box. This was such a hit with the kids having there OWN things. In the treat boxes i added many cute things for all boys and girls they all got a box of crayons that i personalized with labels that said "colorful crayons from elmo" bubbles that said "bubbly bubbles from Ernie and goldfish in a little zip lock baggie that said "goldfish from Dorothy". i also included standard things like playdoh a notepad a bracelet and lip gloss set for the girls and a car and ball for the boys. On the kiddie table i also included a coloring page for each kid with a sesame street character and the letter of there first name that i printed from sesame street workshop online. The kids really enjoyed coloring there page that was the 1st thing they did. As the guest arrived everyone was in shock with the set up and decorations. I made a table for the snacks which I made the "Zoe" table. I put the jumbo sized zoe balloon in the middle and used an orange table cloth. i made cupcakes in different colors and put it in the middle in a glass cupcake stand i have. Around the table i had bowls of chips different goldfish cookies pastries and more. On the main cake table i used the sesame street table cloth with the faces sesame street plates and napkins. I also bought a big sesame street scene in party city that was a perfect size to decorate the back of the wall. It was of big bird Bert and Ernie roller skating. On the table was the cake purchased at publix and an elmo doll next to a fish tank with Dorothy. Yes an actual gold fish that looked exactly like Dorothy. And of course balloons on each side with a jumbo size elmo balloon. There was also a gift table that was a round table i purchased an air blown elmo that has on a birthday hat and holding a gift. This was a very cute touch to the gift table. The last table was the game table. There i placed all of the games we played. The GAMES were "journey to Ernie's" which i made a cardboard big bird head that i connected to a box top to hold all of the Easter eggs for the game. The game was like an egg hunt each egg was filled with candies for the kids but the one that found Ernie inside the egg won the prize. I was able to find a perfect 2" Ernie that fit perfectly in the egg. The kids enjoyed this game so much.They played while the song journey to Ernie was playin in the background. The second game was "Rubber ducky your the one" which i made a cardboard Ernie with bubbles and duckies around and the title to the game. i put the poster sign on a long stick that was over a blue kiddie pool full of water and bubbles and small rubber duckies. The game was that the kids would stand around the pool and pick out duckies the one that picked the rubber duckie with the elmo sticker under was the winner. The background music was the actual song that Ernie sings rubber ducky you're the one�. Another game was "counts counting game" I also made a poster board for this game I drew the count and numbers floating around him with the title of the game. The game was for all the kids to guess how many cracker goldfish were in the bow. The one to come closest to the number won. The song n the background was the batty bat song.They actually enjoyed this game very much. We also played "hit the grouch" i had a jumbo grouch balloon that we put inside of a long round clothing hamper and wrapped the hamper in aluminum foil to resemble the grouch's tin garbage can. Then i balled up news paper and each kid had a chance to see from a distance who can hit the grouch and put the trash in the can. I was able to find a song that the grouch sings and that was the background music. This was a very fun game for them. After we had the typical musical chairs game pin the nose on elmo and the pinata with the rest of the sesame street music playing in the background. We decided this year do to the hitting pinata and the kids loved it! After all of the games the kids had Elmo's favorite food "pizza" and sesame street juices purchased in sams club. As the party ended everyone sung happy birthday to my nephew and kids ate cupcakes. When everyone was leaving they were handed a big cookie from the cookie monster box that I made of cookie monsters face holding a box top full of cookies in a clear bag with white and blue ribbon. I also put a round sticker the same size of the cookie that had cookie monsters face on it and a little message for guest saying "thank you for coming and celebrating my birthday see you next year when I turn 3". This party was such a big hit. Everything came out great and i was receiving compliments threw out the whole party. I can't wait until his next birthday it will be bigger and better.