Elmo Party -2yr- Count Says Count the Goldfish

We held an ELMO themed party for our daughter's second birthday. 

For the invitation we put a picture of her and Elmo on the front saying Elmo says It's Party Time" above the picture and "We're celebrating (Name) birthday" below.  For the inside I wrote a little poem "We did the whole princess thing when she was just turning one but now (name) is turning two and Elmo's much more fun!  We hope you'll join us for the party there will be lots for you to do We'll play and visit Elmo's World and have cake and ice cream too!  The party is at (Name) house on the eleventh of November put it on your calendar so you're sure to remember!  We'll see you at two o'clock that's when all the fun begins; and bring this invitation having just the right one wins!" 

On the inside of the invitation I printed pictures of a present with RSVP by (date) and (phone number) with a number on the gift tag each invitation had a different number on the tag...at the beginning of the party we let the birthday girl pull a number from "Elmo's pet fish Dorothy's" fish bowl and the guest with the matching number won a prize. 

On the invitation I also wrote for everyone to be sure to wear their favorite Sesame Street shirt or something RED (for Elmo)!  For myself I ordered a personalized baseball t-shirt with RED half-sleeves and my daughter's nickname and the number 2 printed on the back!  Also on the back of the invitation I printed "This invitation has been brought to you by the letter P and the number 2! (P for my daughter's first initial and 2 for her second birthday.) 

For decorations on the computer I made a 123 Sesame Street yellow and green street sign to hang on the front door and we had yellow and green balloons tied to the mailbox.  Since the party was in November I already had a scarecrow standing by the front door so I hung a sign around his neck saying "Can you tell me how to get how to get to Sesame Street" with a whole bunch of green yellow and black arrows pointing every which way.  I used blue red and yellow for the plates napkins cups tablecloth etc.  And there were red yellow and blue balloons everywhere.  I made my own "Happy Birthday" banner with pictures of my daughter with all her different Elmo dolls throughout the year on it.

For food I made a lot of Elmo's favorites...I made little skewers (with little wooden squares I painted blue red and yellow and applied Elmo and friends stickers to each) for fruit kebabs.  I made pizza rolls blue and red deviled eggs (after peeling the eggs and cutting them in half place whites in bowl of water and food coloring until they reach desired shade of red or blue) and I made an apple totem pole (three apples stacked on top of each other using toothpicks) with a picture of my daughter saying "Look who's turning 2" sticking out of the top which I used as the centerpiece for the table of food lots of finger food goldfish crackers apple slices chips etc.) 

For drinks I found Elmo punch and Big Bird apple juice at Toys R Us.  We also had a blowup Elmo (Party City) standing by the front door greeting all of our guests (which was to be used for individual pictures but I ran out of room on my flash card!) As everyone was arriving I had the guests coloring pictures from a Sesame Street coloring book for me to save in a time capsule I am doing for my daughter. 

For games I put goldfish crackers into a fish bowl (as Dorothy) for everyone to guess how many there were (I put in 333 goldfish as my daughter was born at 3:33) with this I had a sign with a picture of Count Von Count saying "The Count wants you to count how many fish have been counted out!" and there were green and purple (colors of The Count's outfit) tied around the rim of the fishbowl (small fishbowl found at Walmart for less than a dollar.)  Then there was a knock at the door and I had my daughter answer it (with all her friends behind her) where she found a big brown box…sent from Sesame Street addressed to her full of presents from everyone on Sesame Street. 

I made a big address label beforehand on the computer put it on the box full of wrapped gifts labeled from all the SS characters and had my husband sneak out the garage put the package on the front porch ring the doorbell and RUN!!  My daughter was so excited by this surprise!!  She opened her present from Ernie which was the "Lucky Ducks" game which was used for the next party game "Ernie's Duck Pond" which I had made a poster for with all the kids' names and room for points and total score.  The poster had a picture of Ernie and rubber duckies on it so it was hung for decoration as well during the party.  Each shape on the bottom of the ducks counted for 12 3 or 4 points (orange circle=1 point blue square=2 points etc) and each kid got a turn to pick three ducks and have their points totaled to see who would win with the most points. 

We also had a lot of older cousins and adults at the party so I had made up a game on the computer called "La-la-la-la (childs name) World" and I asked a lot of questions about her…favorite animal color food nickname for brother number of times on plane etc and the most with the right answers won a prize.  We also did one where the parents helped the children called "Elmo says T is for Trivia" which was clues about different characters on Sesame Street like Who has a goldfish named Dorothy or Who is afraid of the monster at the end of the book?" and I used pictures for certain words like "goldfish" and "monster" to make it more fun for the kids. 

For kids prizes I had Sesame Street crayons and coloring books (Dollar Store) Sesame Street puzzles a big thing of bubbles which I put a label on with a picture of my daughter saying "I hope you like bubbles as much as me and Ernie do!" and Elmo gift cards for Target (you push a button to hear Elmo's laugh!) 

For adults I had a calendar candle and a snowglobe (they can put their own picture in it.) all for very cheap!  Next came a phone call just for my daughter from Elmo himself (ordered online at SesameStreet.org for less than two bucks!!  Well worth it to see my daughter's expression she LOVED it!!)…I put the phone on speaker and handed it to her as all of her friends gathered around to listen…everyone at the party was surprised!!  Then we did the Elmo pinata and she opened her presents while sitting in her Elmo Giggle chair(one of her presents) with Elmo mylar balloons behind it. 

The cake was ordered white cake and frosting with RED (for Elmo's fur) strawberry filling.  The cake had red blue and yellow balloons on it with red writing and I placed a candle of Elmo Big Bird and Cookie Monster in the middle. 

Last for the goodie bags I used brown lunch bags that I had spongepainted with red blue and yellow letters I punched two holes in the top after folding the bags down and tied with yellow white and red ribbon with a tag saying "Elmo and Peyton are so happy you came!  Thank you for celebrating with us!"  Inside I had a bag of chocolate chip cookies with a sticker label saying "Yummy cookies From Cookie Monster" then there was a bag of colorful goldfish saying "Count how many red goldfish you have From Dorothy" and then there were little bottles of bubbles with a label from Ernie of course.  Then I just filled it with other little favors and a bunch of RED candy and stuff from Elmo (Hershey's mini bars wrapped in red foil found at Target red gum packs etc) and Smarties which are my daughters favorite. 

For thank you notes I sent postcards with a picture of my daughter and the blowup Elmo on one side (it was supposed to be a picture of each child with Elmo had I not run out of space on my flash card!!) and the thank you message on the other. 

All in all the games were a lot of fun for everyone and my daughter LOVED her special package and phone call from Elmo!"