A Sesame Street Birthday Party

My son just turned the big two. To celebrate, we hosted a Sesame Street themed party in our backyard. One of the things I love most about planning birthday parties for my children is getting wrapped up in whatever imaginary world the theme offers and adding little details to make it special and personalized. The kids and I have been watching the classic episodes of Sesame Street (starting with the very first one) through Amazon Prime, and we were thrilled to celebrate with all our favorite characters. Here are some highlights from the day.

THE DECORATIONS

My and I had some special nights once little brother was in bed, creating some of the decorations for his party. His birthday banner was made out of some card stock, Sesame Street illustrations from some vintage storybooks we got from my mom, pre-cut letters from the dollar store, and yarn. The pom-poms were constructed from tissue paper via this tutorial, and the faces were printed from this free template.

Other notable items were pinwheels made out of Sesame Street book pages and the classic street lamp/sign with my son’s name. We also used our many Sesame paraphernalia collected over the years.

 THE FUN

The party games and activities were designed especially with my son in mind. He constantly tries to keep up with his big sister when attending various activities not necessarily meant for toddlers. I wanted this party to be filled with age-appropriate fun just for him.

My favorite idea was creating Hooper’s Store from a section of our play set. A simple sign made out of poster board and construction paper, our toy cash register with colorful Sesame money inside, and a toy shopping cart allowed for some much-loved free play as guests arrived. The games were also a big hit, offering prizes at every station to add to the excitement. We had mixed ages at the party, so the prizes kept everyone happy!

THE FOOD

How could it be a Sesame Street party without the essential veggie and fruit plates made to look like everyone’s favorite monsters? I also scored an Elmo sandwich cutter for super cheap at Walmart for lunch for the kids and served grinders (made by my husband) for the adults.

Juice boxes with the character’s faces were an easy find. Instead of a cake, I made cupcakes with an Elmo face. To make Elmo’s face, I dipped a chocolate chip cookie in red chocolate melts, added some candy eyes, orange jelly bean for the nose, and candy gel formed the mouth. The cookie was then just placed on traditionally made cupcakes. Cake decorating doesn’t come easy to me, so I came up with these as an alternative. They came out better than expected.

THE PHOTO PROPS

I admit I fell in love with using photo props after this party. I can’t believe that I never thought to include them before. They were easy to make  – printed off the computer on cardstock and attached to a dowel. I also included our letter of the day – B and number of the day – 2, as well as various other Sesame Street type accessories we had on hand. The backdrop was ordered off of Amazon and made the pics come alive.

 THE FAVOR

My son is into chalkboards right now, so I had this bright idea that they would make a great favor for any age; plus, they fit well into our theme. As I began the project, I told my husband that I could start selling them on my Etsy shop. Eighteen homemade chalkboards later, I never care to see another can of chalkboard paint for a very long time.

They came out super cute but definitely weren’t the easiest task to complete on the nights leading up to the party. I used colorful plastic picture frames from Ikea and standard chalkboard paint with a brush if anyone is up for the challenge!

As you can tell, we had a blast! A nice sunny day helped complete the party. I hope our ideas inspired you for some DIY party planning of your own.