Sesame Street -1yr- Ernie's Rubber Duck Pond

For my son's first birthday party I decided to do a  Sesame Street theme.  Due to the fact that my husband's immediate family consists of 40 and we could not accommodate both our families in our house we held the festivities at the fire department hall.  My husband is a fireman so we can use it for free.  Twelve children under the age of twelve were invited.   

Games included "Ernie's Rubber Duck Pond"  and pin the cookie in Cookie Monster's Mouth.  An art teacher friend of mine helped me make the posters. Then they were  laminated for future use.  I scanned and laminated the "cookies" from the computer.  I blind folded each kid, twisted them around and then they tape the cookie on Cookie Monster.  The child that got the closest to his mouth won a pass to the nearest skating rink.  I hung the Ernie poster on the wall next to Cookie Monster and right below it was a pool of water that had plastic ducks in it.  I ordered the ducks from Oriental Trading.  Each child got to pick a duck and then they were awarded a small prize. Prizes were tablets that I go at a discount store for .25 cents a piece.  Even though my son is just one he was still able to pick a duck.   

I had a table set up with Sesame Street coloring pages and lots of crayons on it.  I picked pages from old coloring books and the internet.  Some examples were Cookie monster holding a bunch of balloons, Zoe with a cake and number one on it.  I Xerox plenty for each child.  I also made covers that said "My Coloring Book" with pictures of Sesame Street characters on it.  Every sheet was hole punched and I had braids for them to bind the coloring book together.  This was a hit! I also prepared a craft that was part of this table.  I collected toilet paper rolls and printed an Elmo sheet from the internet.  The idea was to color all of Elmo's body parts and glue them onto the toilet paper roll making it look like a standing Elmo. The kids were then able to take their coloring book and Elmo craft home with them. 

I purchased a Sesame Street CD and played that the whole time the party was in session.  My husband and I made the invitations on the computer.   Front:  "It's Zachary's First Birthday, Come Help Us Celebrate." With a scanned picture of my son in his Halloween costume.  He was Ernie for Halloween. Inside:  I created a poem that read:  Trucks, trains and toys, Thank heaven for little boys,  Babbling, crawling and laughing is what we do all day,  Always on the go and ready to play.  Washing bottles, changing diapers all through the year,  Zachary is already turning 1, Oh Dear!  And then the time and place was written below.  I purchased return address labels from Current with his name on them. 

They have  Sesame Street characters on them, of course.  Then to decorate the envelope I bought Sesame Street stickers and put them on.  For thank you cards I just bought the ones that went with the plates, napkins and cups.  All had Sesame Street characters on them.  Did the same on the envelopes as did the invites.  I saved money by renting a "red man" costume that looked like Elmo and my sister wore this costume.  If you get someone to come and actually dress up in it, it is a lot more expensive.  "Elmo" then helped us play the games and helped with the crafts.  We took many pictures of Elmo with the kids.  I will give those doubles to the parents. Of course, the whole party was video taped and rolls of film was used! 

To eat we had pizza, salad, fruit salad, cake and cookies. I ordered Sesame Street cookies from a friend.  They are sugar cookie heads of various Sesame Street characters that are iced with the colors of that character.  My dear friend who came to the party made more sugar cookies in the shape of  1's.  I ordered a Sesame Street cake for everyone.  The candle was of Big Bird holding a number one.  My son got his own smasher  cake.  It had a scanned picture of him on it.  The same picture as on the invitation.  For pictures he wore an Elmo bid that said Happy First Birthday.  He wore an outfit that I purchased at Kmart.  It was a polo shirt that had cookie monster on the chest.  

My sister and I made the centerpieces.  I bought terra cotta flower pots, green floral oasis, blue metallic tissue paper, silver tinsel shavings.  The tissue paper was tape around the pot, oasis was cut to fit inside the pot, and the tinsel was on top so you couldn't see the oasis.  I then purchased colored chocolate and Sesame Street lollipop molds.  My sister and I "painted" 36 lollipops and stuck 6 lollipops in each pot.  It took 6 hours to make 36 lollipops!  I then put the little wooden blocks with the letters on them around the pots.  The kids enjoyed playing with the blocks as well as eating the lollipops.   

For the loot bags I got regular brown lunch bags and filled them with Ernie and Bert juice drinks, Cookie Monster cookies and the little kids (ages 1-4) got a Sesame Street tooth brush and the older kids got a tube of Sesame Street toothpaste.  On the outside of the bag I glued on cutouts (that I got on the Sesame Street Website).  For example, I cut out the one with Cookie Monster holding a letter C, colored it and glued it on the bag.  With marker I put "is for Cody"  (one of the kids that attended.)  So the finished product had Cookie Monster holding a letter C which then I knew that was for Cody because I wrote "is for Cody".  I folded the flap of the bag down and punched two holes in the top and tie it shut with yarn that matched the color I colored the letter.  (The site has the whole alphabet.) 

For decorations I bought confetti in the shape of 1's and sprinkled them around the tables. Mylar balloons all had various Sesame Street characters on them.  I bought two types of latex balloons.  Some were light blue that said Happy First Birthday.  I tied these around the centerpieces.  Then I had a few that said "Happy Birthday Zachary" and I tied them to his highchair.  I wrapped his presents in Sesame Street wrapping paper.  We also bought him an Elmo character doll.  I did not wrap him up, I placed him on top of the other present and made a party hat out of the same wrapping paper that I used to wrap his gift and tied it around Elmo's neck.  The first birthday card had Big Bird on it wishing him a Happy Birthday.  Okay, I know my son will not remember this but isn't the first birthday party for the parents anyway!!!!!  Seriously, he will have many pictures that will be placed in a scrap book to remember this special day.