Sesame Street -2yr- Decorate Monster Cookies

For my son Tyler's second birthday party, I decided to have a Sesame Street party theme.  My inspiration came from some really cute plates with Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Elmo on them that I found at a Dollar Tree store about three months before his birthday.  I really liked the idea of incorporating as many of the different characters as I could.  The challenge I ran into with this theme was that the party was going to be a family party.  The ages of the children attending, including cousins and my own four children, were 18, 16, 13, 12, 12, 9, 9, 7, 6, and the birthday boy 2.  My 12 year old son, especially, gave me a hard time, stating No baby games!"  OK I did my best to make it a party for a 2 year old that would still be fun for the other kids. 

I sent out Elmo invitations two weeks before the party (a deal for $1.99 for 8 invites and 8 thank you postcards at Kmart) and added stickers of different characters on the envelopes.  On the foyer table I had a yellow poster I had made that said "Happy Birthday Tyler Brought To You By The Letter T And The Number 2".  The letter T and the number 2 were from a pack of letters that were green with white stars on them and four inches large (Dollar Tree).  For the rest of the lettering I used one inch alphabet stickers in every color of the rainbow.  I added a four inch border of Sesame Street wrapping paper on each side that had all the different characters.  On the top I placed a photocopy of the Sesame Street sign.  We then stamped Tyler's handprints on the bottom with green paint. 

I had red black and blue pens sitting on the table for guests to sign a personal note to him.  Also on the table I had a large glass jar filled with rainbow colored Skittles.  I stuck number stickers on the jar and on the top a label that said "The Count's Counting Game for Sesame Street Candies" and placed a sticker of the Count on it.  I had blank 3" x 5" cards for everyone to write their guess on and I simply added more Sesame Street stickers to a brown paper bag for everyone to drop their guesses into.  In front of the jar was a little Elmo figure and then on the back of the table where it backs up to the wall it needed some height so I placed my pinata there. 

The pinata was a "P is for Party" theme one with all the characters (another great deal on clearance at Toys R Us for $4.15).  In the great room we have a small game table that is covered in glass.  I used some of the left over green letters with stars and placed them under the glass I then added a Sesame Street balloon (again with multiple characters Dollar Tree) and a Grover stuffed animal in front of the balloon weight.  This became our gift table.  I used the rest of the letters and numbers and taped them to the sliding glass door in the dining room spelling "TYLER" in the middle.  On the dining room table I placed a red tablecloth with Big Bird and Cookie Monster stuffed animals in the middle.  I then took two small plastic cups covered them in tin foil (to attempt to look like garbage cans) and placed gummi worms (Slimeys) in them and put them out on either side of the table. 

On the snack bar I had a toy that from one side looked like Elmo and from the other Cookie Monster.  The plates that had inspired the theme were on the end of the snack bar with matching Elmo napkins and blue plastic silverware.  And in the drink area we served soft drinks in Oscar the Grouch cups (Dollar Daze).  The birthday boy was dressed in a Cookie Monster shirt and had a matching pacifier (in case of any birthday meltdowns but actually didn't need it).  As everyone arrived they signed the poster wrote their guesses for the Skittles and were offered an Elmo party hat from my six year old daughter. 

After everyone arrived it was time to eat.  We served Elmo's favorite food pizza!  We had cheese and pepperoni pizzas bread sticks with different dipping sauces and a veggie tray with dip. 

When everyone was finished eating we began our first game.  I have to give big kudos to my husband because I asked him to do the clues for this game and I think he did an awesome job.  It was our own version of a "Journey To Ernie"  game.  I had bought a large Ernie gift bag and filled it with individual loot bags for each of the kids (OK not the 16 and 18 year old but all the rest).  My husband went onto pbskids.org and printed off the logo for "Journey To Ernie" and then made clue cards that he hid with the logo printed on the back of each one.  The kids took turns reading off the clues and would then tear through the house to the next clue.  (We had to have the party indoors because being the end of January it was below freezing outside.) I will give the clues and hiding places in case anyone would like to attempt their own version. 

1st clue card - "Journey to Ernie is the name of this game This is how you play Follow me from place to place - " For some breakfast You won't have to go far.  I like to eat cereal At the snack bar."  (clue card - taped to a cereal box in a kitchen cupboard)  "After brushing my teeth And washing my face I pick out my clothes From this little space."  (clue card - in one of the cubbies in Tyler's closet)  "Then off to school I go But before I leave I give my Mom a hug After tugging on her sleeve."  (clue card- up my sleeve!)  "Home from school and time for a snack Banana is my favorite .  I see there is only one left I'm going to savor it."  (clue card - inside a banana that my husband unpeeled slightly made a thin clue card slid in and taped the banana back together)  "Homework is next and when it is done I go to pbskids for something really fun."  (clue card - on our computer table)   "After dinner more work to do I have to do my laundry too Look where I wash my clothes To find your next clue."  (on this next clue card my husband only had Ernie's shirt on the back and he taped it to a hanger in our laundry room)  "I have a favorite TV show I'm sure you know its name We can play together If Zachary can find his handheld game."  (clue card - in Zachary's room on his handheld "Deal or No Deal" game)  "Time now for a bath So far you have been lucky You might get a little closer If you find my Rubber Ducky."  (clue card - taped to the bottom of a rubber ducky in our kids' bathroom)  "Time to snuggle together I'm feeling very tired You'll find me with my blankey In the box by the fire."  (Ernie gift bag - in a large cube we keep blankets in by the fireplace) 

The loot bags had Elmo on them and matched the invitations.  In each one was an Elmo matching card game (Dollar Daze) Zoe bubble necklace (Dollar Daze) 2 Elmo bouncy balls (Toys R Us - clearanced out for $.01 for a 4-pack I bought 20 balls for $.05!) a Snuffy blow-out (Tyler's favorite thing!) and a bag of chocolate chip cookies (Dollar Tree - they came in a 4-pack.  I covered the brand name with a label and wrote with blue marker "Cookie Monster Cookies" and stuck on a Cookie Monster sticker).  While the kids had been running through the house looking for the clues and then going through their goodie bags I was getting the dining room table ready for our next activity.  In the center of the table I placed a sign I made.  I had photocopied a picture of Cookie Monster gobbling down chocolate chip cookies cut it out and taped it to some red cardstock paper with double sided tape.  I then used blue alphabet stickers to write "Cookie Time" across the top and then made a little stand for it.  I had made four dozen chocolate chip cookies and placed them in front of the sign.  I put out a dozen plastic knives chocolate and vanilla frosting and all kinds of different candy sprinkles.  The kids had a great time decorating their cookies. 

I got all kinds of pictures of them stuffing (or at least attempting to stuff) their GIANT cookies in their mouths!  It was very messy so I had planned ahead and bought two tablecloths.  I just wrapped up all the mess in the tablecloth and pulled out an identical one to have out for cake and ice cream.  The next activity was the pinata.  My husband attached it to a short pole that he had and just held it above the kids.  It was a pull-string pinata so we didn't have to worry about him getting whacked.  I gave each of the kids a quart sized resealable bag that I had written their names on with different colored markers and stuck on yes you guessed it more Sesame Street character stickers (I got them on clearance at Party America eight sheets for $1.88).  I also had gotten the candy 50% off after Halloween so the pinata was quite stuffed. 

Next was opening gifts.  After all the gifts were opened and everyone thanked we had cake and ice cream.  I got the cake at Sam's Club.  I had really debated what I wanted to do for the cake and I just happened to look at the cakes when I was there to buy the Skittles and saw this beautiful large round one that had Elmo drawn on the bottom third with icing and was outlined in red frosting with little candy sprinkles in a rainbow of colors.  I had Bert Ernie Cookie Monster Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch figures left over from my twelve year old son Mitchell's first birthday cake.  The figures fit perfectly around the drawing of Elmo (and the cake was less than $10 which made it a no-brainer).  We had five different flavors of ice cream for everyone to choose from.  I served the cake and ice cream on Elmo cake plates with matching Elmo Big Bird and Cookie Monster napkins.  Tyler wore a large bib with Elmo Big Bird and Cookie Monster on it. 

At this point everyone had been hounding me to announce the winner of the Count's Counting Game.  I couldn't believe how competitive they had been with everyone declaring themselves the winner.  I had fun reading off everyone's guess before announcing the winner my 16 year old nephew John who guessed 1224 with a correct answer or 1282!  For the last activity of the night I had a bunch of different activity/coloring pages.  I had photocopied some cute coloring pages out of a Sesame Street birthday coloring book of Zoe Bert and Ernie Grover and Cookie Monster and the Count.  I also printed off coloring sheets from pbskids.org with Cookie Monster and the letter T and Elmo and number 2. 

On PartySuppliesHut.com I was able to print a Sesame Street Word Scramble page Sesame Street Word Search page and a Sesame Street Word Find page.  I made multiple copies of all these sheets and placed them on the dining room table with five boxes of crayons.  I wasn't sure if the kids were going to be interested in the sheets or not but all of them except the two twelve year olds had fun doing them and most importantly Tyler loves to color! 

So in the end I think I did OK putting together a Sesame Street party for a two year old that was also enjoyable for big kids.  I would love to hear other people's success stories with how they dealt with this issue!"