For my son's 1st birthday party, we chose the Sesame Street 1st birthday theme. Jaden loves Elmo and the entire SS gang. I think he likes Big Birds voice and the way Elmo looks. For invitations, I had them custom made. On the front of the inviation was the whole SS gang (Big Bird, Elmo, Ernie, Bert, Grover and Oscar) with a picture (that I snapped and sent to the company that did the invitations) of my son holding the number 1. On the inside top card of the invitation, was my son holding Elmo's hand with Elmo saying "The word is out...come have some fun, Elmo's friend Jaden is turning One". The bottom card listed the details of the party with a picture of Big Bird next to the text. I decided to have Jadens 1st party at a local park since his birthday was in the middle of June (not too hot and not too cold)and we planned on having about 30 to 40 guests so the park was a good choice to hold about 30 or so people which did come. The weather was absolutely perfect on that day; nice breeze and the sun shining which was a plus. For the menu, it was basically BBQ food. We put some hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill (provided at the park). Myself and a few friends of mine prepared dishes like baked beans with pineapples, pasta salad, macaroni salad, mac & cheese, deviled eggs, banana pudding, and fried chicken. I made pb&j sandwiched for the kids, which I used letter and numbered shaped cookie cutters to cut the sandwiches in (since SS emphasizes letter and number learning). I made cupcakes with Elmos face on them. I died the vanilla icing red to color Elmos face; eyes=diced vanilla wafer cookies with vanilla icing spread on them and then placed mini brown M&M's for pupil of eye in the center of the frosted cookie; nose=orange skittle; mouth=black decorative gel and I placed the cupcakes in Elmo print cupcake liners which were brought from a local party store. The cake was brought from a local bakery which was decorated with "Happy Birthday Jaden" on top, in the center of the cake was a picture of Jaden I gave to the bakery to put on the cake and at the very bottom of the cake read "Brought to you by the letter J and the number 1" Besides the playground set at the park, we kept the kids busy with coloring pages of letters and numbers that I printed out from the SS website and crayons on each table under the pavilion.  Also played pin the nose on Elmo and busted 2 pinatas (the number 1 shaped pinanta for the bigger kids and Elmo pull-string pinanta for the smaller kids). We played 1 adult game which was Jaden trivia. I asked questions about Jadens weight and height at birth, his full name correct spelling, when did he get his 1st tooth, when did he 1st start baby food, how long did I breast-feed him, etc. The prize for that winner was a Bath & Body Works Gift Set (I figured only women would be playing anyway). Decorations were the SS 1st birthday decor. There were 8 tables, 4 had SS table covers and the other 4 had blue, yellow, red, and green (primary colors). I used yellow plates, blue cups, orange forks, red spoons, green knives. On the cake table were Big Bird face plates and Elmo face plates, as well as cookie monster napkins and oscar the grouch cups. I used SS 1st bday print streamers, Elmo face balloon, SS school bus with SS gang on the bus balloon, Big Bird full body balloon, and other SS related mylar balloons with primary color latex balloons around the pavilion. After we ate, a surprise pulled up in a red Explorer...ELMO with assistant. Elmo & assistant played some music and danced with the kids and also took pics with the kids. Then they did face-painting on each child and sang happy birthday and slowly exited the party. Once Elmo and friend left, we cut and ate the cake, ate little dixie cup vanilla & choc. ice cream and handed out the party bags. The majority of the party bags consisted of candy from the pinantas, Elmo whistles, Elmo Notepad, crayons, Elmo bouce balls, SS door knob hangers (printed from DLTK website), mini slinkeys, mini bubbles, crazy straws, Elmo memory cards, and mini flutes. Then we had some baby bags which consisted of bibs, biter biscuits, SS sunglasses, teething rings, Gerber juice bottles, and some candy for parents. This party was a blast and well-worth it, you only turn 1 ONCE so hey why not make it a memory that will last. I think all of the kids really had a great time. Hopefully this will help you create a fun-filled party.