Sesame Beginnings -1yr- Mini-Pinata Favors

For my son's 1st birthday I wanted a very colorful, bright theme but that also was baby oriented. So he really loved watching Sesame Street on T.V. and just gigled everytime my mother would sing the Elmo's song to him so I decided to use the new baby sesame beginnings 1st birthday party theme with the primary colors. I am a very creative person and I just like to make as much as I can by myself.

So I started out by making his invitations. I searched through google and found a website that sold fabrics and I found a picture of red gingham, blue gingham,and yellow gingham. I copied and pasted each block into Microsoft Powerpoint to make the background of the invitation. Then in google I found a picture of baby Elmo in a diaper sucking his finger and I copied and pasted him into the lower left corner of the invite sitting next to a big green number 1. Then I put the wording A birthday party is so much fun especially if you're able to come. We hope you'll come join in the fun as Angel David Jr. is turining ONE!" on top of were baby elmo was sitting. At the top right corner I put a picture of my son and below him I put all the other info: dateaddress etc. Then I sent them to get printed by the one hour photo lab at Walmart photo center. I made 50 invitations for only $7.00. Then I ordered 50 4x6 acrylic magnetic frames and each invitation was placed in a frame sealed in an envelope and handed out to friends and family.Everyone loved them. Every house I go to know has my son's picture invitation on their refrigerators.

Then as party favors for the boys' I made miniature pinatas using the themes dessert plates yellow party fringe and posterboard. For the girls' I made them purses using the themes cake plates red party fringe and posterboard. For the babies I ordered a Sesame Street beanie babies lot from ebay placed one in a cellophane bag with red blue or yellow shredded paper a Sesame Street washcloth and a mini happy birthday rubber ducky(oriental trading). For the adults I saved up toilet paper rolls wrapped each roll using the themes dessert napkins stuffed them with soft mints and wrapped them in clear cello paper tied curling ribbon on each side to make it look like a  hard candy and gave them out to adults.

I stuffed the mini pinatas with typicals things boys like. I put mini silly putty mini wiggle snakes mini paratroopers mini bull's eye games(from party store on ebay) redblueor yellow yo-yos (OT) that I personalized with an Elmo sticker on both sides that said " Angel David Jr. says Thanks!" a sesame street pencil(dollar section at Target) and candy. For the girls' purses I wanted to put things girls would normally carry in a purse. I put in a Lisa Frank mini make your own necklace set mini Lisa Frank notebook (Walmart) a mini gel pen a sesame street pencil S.S hair scrunchie(Dollar section at Target) candy bracelet candy necklace candy ring( OT) mini clear pastel stencil ruler stick on earrings(ebay) and candy.

To decorate My husband myself my son and close family all had shirts made with my son's picture and the sesame street babies on it. I ordered a set of sesame babies wall art from ebay that included baby elmo baby big bird baby Cookie Monster baby Bert and baby Zoe I cut them out and laminated them for the cake. I aslo used the same sesame street babies made a transperancy at Office Depot put the transperancy on an overhead taped a piece of posterboard on the wall and traced each baby about 2 1/2 feet tall onto the posterboard. Then I traced the outline of each baby using colorful markers I colored them in with crayon to give them a soft touch cut them out and sent them to get laminated at Office Depot.

Then I went to Lowes and asked for the sticks they use to mix the 5 gallon paint buckets and I hot glued one stick onto the back of each baby S.S. I put 2 babies next to the gate entrance to my backyard one on each side holding a balloon bouquet and a sign that said "Welcome to my 1st birthday!" and I used the other babies in my backyard also holding balloon bouquets. Then I used a baby C. Monster and a baby B.Bird and put one on each side of the cake table. On the wall behind the cake table I had a poster 27x41 made with my son's picture and baby elmoC.Mand B.B around him and it said "Happy 1st Birthday Angel David Jr." I put it in a poster frame and hung it behind the cake table.

Next to the poster I hung 4 mini pinata favors on each side and on the cake table I put 3 purse favors on one side and 3 S.S. beanie babies favors on the other side and 3 Elmo hard candy favors on each side of the table and I put the rest of the favors under the table and past everything out as the children left the party.

The cake was homemade by a friend of mine that makes beautiful birthday and wedding cakes. The cake consisted of two round cakes one on top of the other (10" &12") then it had elmo's face with his hands up in the air sticking out of the center of the top cake simulating that elmo had bursted out of the top of the cake. Then there were 4 little cakes(5") two on each side of the main cake and they had each of the other baby S.S.(BertC.M.B.B Zoe) on top. Then there was an itty-bitty cake (3") that had a candle that I had made that looked just like the poster with my sons picture and all the babies around him.

This cake was given to him so he could crumble it into teeny pieces. I used the same baby S.S. to make centerpieces for the tables . I used a piece of foam stuck an S.S. baby in the middle and stuck lollipops all around. The I put two little fish bowls with Elmo's pet dorothy in them and mini bubbles that I had personalized with elmo my son's name & his birthdate on them. To entertain the kids I rented a huge inflatable water slide(jumpforfun.com) I had buckets full of water balloons and a whole bunch of little water guns for them to shoot eachother with. They had a blast. Then after a while of jumping around I had rented someone to dress up as cookie monster from a local party store (Party Exchange) to make a special delivery of balloons for the birthday boy and cookies for the kids. The kids were extremely excited.

For food I ordered pizza since pizza is elmo's favorite food. Then I had a chicken nuggets and fruit platter made from Chic fil-A chips & dip cheese and crackers and last but not least a baby buffet with Gerber treats for the little guests a the party. Then I gave out flavored ice icicles to everybody since it was so hot. Then we sang happy birthday ate cake and ice cream opened giftsgave out favors and everyone was on their way to their houses. My son had 33 kids at his party God only knows how many adults there was but my backyard was packed. I had a blast and my son for only being a year old enjoyed every minute of it even sliding down the huge water slide. My son had a memorable 1st birthday and tons of pictures to relive the moment in the future.                       "