Sesame Street birthday party - Part 2: The details!

It’s taken me awhile but here’s the follow up to my post on the Sesame Street Birthday Party Invite.

Of course nothing ever quite turns out how it is imagined in your head. I had a grand elaborate plans with a lovely dessert table scheme all thought out, but then the hall wouldn’t allow us to put up any decoration on the walls nor would they let us arrive early to prepare either. Pay $100 extra just to set up, the Desi in me couldn’t dish it out. I do regret that choice as it would’ve made things run much more smooth, especially since it suddenly began to snow the day of the party! Ah well, you live you learn. And ultimately, if your guests show no signs of leaving early, if people go back for 2nds and 3rds, and if they mention weeks later that their kid slept like a baby that night because they played until they could no more you know your party was a success.

So my detailed plan became a quick scramble to set everything out as my guests began to arrive. And since it was just me and the hubs and about 90 church chairs to clear out before we set up tables and décor it really was a mad dash to get things done. Fortunately for us, people can’t see cloud images of what’s actually in our head so no one knew how far from reality my party ideas were, and they all greatly still appreciated everything we did. I got tons of compliments on everything from the cake to the desserts to the lunch menu and games. All in all, it turned out wonderful and most importantly, our little monster had a blast at his party and that fact makes me feel the most at ease!

We spent countless hours on our dessert table. That was my baby. I was so excited to share all the goodies I had made for everyone. Then stupid stupid snowfall had to happen. We had 4 families cancel on us at the very last minute. That’s about 10+ people. That's when I realized I had gone way overboard. I just made wayyy too many desserts thinking people would enjoy snacking on them as a take home treats from the party. A lot of people did take things home, but we were just short on so many guests (especially guests with kids, who love desserts!) and had a ton left over. I was eating rice krispie wands for lunch two weeks post-party. Nonetheless, those who DID attend our party and didn’t flake because of a little snow (I get it snow sucks and people don’t want to drive in it, I feel you, but it’s my party and I can be a wee bit upset!) said they loved all the desserts. Fortunately New Years was a few days later and I was able to take over all the leftover goodies that my cousins greatly appreciated :)

Menu Cards

I made menu title cards for all the appetizer/dessert items. This took hours on the computer trying to make things all fit into a template plus finding some of these character images was not easy, but I thought the end result was nice and gave the dessert table a cute look. Especially, for all the kids, it was a treat to see their favorite characters all over the party! I had another card not pictured (because I can't find it on my computer!), 'B is for Brownie' with a picture of Bert.

this said C is for Cookie but for some reason the image I have on my computer now isn't updated

Again a glitch on my  computer, this said Oscar's Mudpies

Star shaped Rice Krispies (halal of course) dipped in colored choclate covered in sprinkles!

Nothing makes Super Grover strong like hummus!

Ronzoni pasta was on sale $.88/box a week before our party eek! I mixed 1 box Alphabet pasta with 1 box  Rotini pasta and meat sauce. So much fun to eat, not just the kids devoured this! Sadly, no one took a picture of the actual dish

Party Games

I had labels for all game stations too (of which maybe 2 were actually played. Turns out, kids enjoy running around more than playing organized games. I’m okay with this.)

I just got a  craft box from Amazing Savings which included all the items to make 24 little puppets using popsicle sticks, pom poms, googly eyes, etc. Kids loved it!

The idea was to hide TWO (number of the day)  of each items like cars, balls, books etc around the room and have kids find them for a prize

Labeled the Ducks 1,2, and 3. Win a prize corresponding to the number duck you pick. Easy game for toddlers

Toss a ball into a tin can, win a prize

Sesame street tattoos bought via Oriental Trading

I was able to print out great coloring pages via the PBS Kids Sesame Street website

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Party Favors

I was super lucky and found these amazing lunch bags at Stop & Shop that were perfect for our Sesame Street Theme. I created a small thank you note, which I placed in each bag and sealed them with the Thank You label found here. And voila! Perfect favor bags for the kiddies to take home. We filled them with Elmo essentials: Goldfish crackers, Crayons, Elmo notepad (Also from Amazing savings, gotta love my mom for finding the best things!), Sesame street themed stickers (bought via Oriental trading) and misc chocolate/candy. 

To sum it all up, my heart was in the right place. My luck and time management skills, not so much. I even found great websites via Pinterest where I was able to print out a banner, which also didn't get put up since we had no time and no place to put it.  But there is always his next birthday :) Here's a few shots of the party:

Thank you Pinterest for the idea!

One of the few games the kids actually played!

Yes it looks nothing like I had imagined, there were too many items and not enough space, you can't even see all the desserts all in one picture here. And don't get me started on that darn ugly brown tray ugh. I'll stop crying now haha.

There is no close up of my Mud pie mousse I worked so hard on. It tasted heavenly too! Trust me I ate it for days aftewards, so I know!

aaaaaaand here is my favorite shot, of Ali's Dad hard at work late into the night making his famous cream puffs from scratch. These definitely were the first go at the party!