Yesterday we celebrated my son's first birthday.
I decided on an Elmo theme because my son loves this cute Sesame Street character so much. I printed the invitations and envelopes on my computer using the DLTK website (this website has lots of great ideas for crafts and activities for children as well as some great clip art for a wide variety of children's television characters). Naturally the invitation I created featured Elmo on the front and inside had all the necessary info for the party including directions for the out-of-towners. To further assist friends from afar, I printed direction signs to hang on telephone poles indicating where to turn. They read "Follow Elmo to Mason's Birthday Party!" and had a picture of Elmo pointing the way. The party was held at my in-laws house in northern Westchester. I decorated the large living room with blue, green, and red streamers all hung from the chandelier to the four corners of the room. From the center I hung a bouquet of red, blue, and green balloons. I bought some plates, napkins, and tablecloths featuring Elmo from the local party supply store and used these to decorate the room as well. I ordered some helium balloons with Elmo and the other Sesame Street characters and tied them in bunches to weights I made using coins wrapped in red tissue paper. Most of the guests were adults and only a handful of children. So for entertainment I created some games that both could participate in. I baked some chocolate chip cookies and put these in a glass jar. I printed a picture of cookie monter's face (from the DLTK website!) cut it out, and glued it onto the lid of the jar. I asked everyone to guess how many cookies were in the jar - whoever guessed closest without going over won the jar of cookies. For Oscar the Grouch, I used five empty formula cans to make "trash cans". I glued a picture of Oscar's head onto the lid of each one and on the side I labeled them 1 to 5. I punched small holes in the lids so guests could smell what was inside. They had to guess what was inside each trash can in order to win a prize. Inside each I put a smelly food such as garlic, onions, peanut butter, cloves, and vinegar. For Big Bird, guests went on an egg hunt in the back yard. I used the colorful plastic eggs used at Easter time and filled them with little gifts such as stickers, candy, bouncy balls, etc. For Bert and Ernie we played "Best Buddies Bonanza" in which guests tried to name the other half of some well-known duo. I tried to use people and characters known to all ages such as Barbie and Ken, Bonnie and Clyde, and Simon and Garfunkle. For Elmo, I made a piņata of Elmo's head and filled it with candy. First I put layers paper mache over a punching balloon. Once dry, I popped the balloon and covered it with red tissue paper. I painted a black mouth and painted two styrofoam balls white with black dots for the eyes and painted a styrofoam oval orange for the nose. Both the kids and grownups had a great time taking a swing at Elmo! I baked a banana flavored cake shaped like Elmo using a Wilton cake pan. I decorated it to look like Elmo wearing a party hat and holding an ice cream cone and a gift box. I wrote my son's name in icing on the gift box. For party favors I gave each guest a bag filled with colored chocolates I made shaped like various Sesame Street characters. Each bag had a tag that read "Thanks for coming to Mason's 1st Birthday Party!" For thank-you notes I plan on making cards using pictures I took at the party with my digital camera. I will send each guest a personalized thank you using a picture of them with the birthday boy.
