Planning

My son loved "Melmo", my daughter loved Zoe, and my infant daughter gets a big smile on her face every time Abby Kadabby comes on the show.  When I grew up these characters weren't yet living on Sesame Street, my favorite was Snuffy.  But no matter who your child loves, the Sesame Street gang brings a smile to every child, and if you include enough of the regulars you are sure to please each and every one of your guests (not to mention the parents!)  Sesame Street was always fun, and at the same time, we learned our ABCs and 123s…  What could be better?  Thirty years later and its still going strong!   A young toddler (2 or 3) isn't really going to understand the concept of "birthday" however, whether they understand the concept or not is irrelevant when their face lights up upon seeing a room decked out in their favorite Sesame Street characters! 

What is your "Party Picture"?

Sesame Street is a great theme for a young toddler.  At 2 or 3 most children have been exposed to Sesame Street, and there's something about all those colorful silly characters that seems to draw them in.  They'll fall in love with the regulars, sing the songs in the car, and laugh maniacally when you count 5 birds flying in the sky (ahh ahhh ahhhhhhh.)  So if you want to plan a party with a theme that will capture smiles and infectious giggling, this is the theme for you. Sesame Street is a land of primary colors - yellow, blue, green, orange, red - use these colors as the back drop then have the characters stand out.  The other element of Sesame Street is learning - you can incorporate the ABCs and 123s into this theme as well - as well as colors and shapes.  Label everything and hang pictures of items throughout your party space.  These shapes and colors will engage your child as well as decorate your room.  At this age, keep it simple and keep it smaller.  If you are going to include a lot of people have an area that is quieter and somewhat self contained so that a stressed out toddler can escape the larger party. If you are including adults and other children of various ages, you can make this party simply primary colors - and then add in Sesame Street in doses, particularly where the smaller children will be - the "play" area and the tablescape are ideal. Sesame Street is all bout music, lots and lots of music - so if you want to really give a thrill, have Elmo/Sesame  Street music on in the background.  Engage all of your child's senses to the maximum extent possible.

 

 

Invitations

Toddlers are visual - they can't read yet, but they are just grasping the idea of going somewhere to see someone and they may be starting to understand "party" as well.  So make sure your invitation is visual so that it will be something cool for the guest in addition to providing the needed information to the guest's parents.  There are a lot of preprinted Sesame Street and Sesame Street character invitations out there, but you can also get creative (from the simple to the sublime!) if you have the gumption.

Invitation:

• Preprinted:  This is a common theme, you can find several variations of preprinted Sesame Street invitations (you can go with Sesame Street generally or your child's favorite character)- simply fill in and send!
• Sesame Street and Me!:  Snap a picture of your little one with their favorite character figure or plush - make sure the character is visible and clear.  Have this be the picture on your invitation inviting your guests to spend an afternoon with your child and all his friends from Sesame Street!
• My Birthday Story:  Write a short story and use clip art to illustrate it.  Tell the story about how your child wants to meet the people on Sesame Street and bring ALL of his/her friends.  Talk about an adventure where they had to search for the cake or hit the pinata… Make it a story that will create excitement about the party for the toddlers to be invited.
• Elmo's Movie Premier:  Send a "movie ticket" to come and watch a select showing of Elmo's World - Birthdays, Games & More!  This also creates an easy activity that will occupy a group of toddlers for a few minutes!
• The Letter of the Day:  "J is of Joey and S is for Sesame Street and together they make a Birthday Party!"
• Sesame Street Faces:  Make an Elmo/Zoe/Grover/Oscar, etc.  invitation using appropriately colored cardstock paper as the character's face.  Add two large plastic googly eyes, an appropriately shaped/colored paper nose and black crescent cut out for a smile!  Write party details on the back in black Sharpie.

Party Reminder:

• Build a little more excitement by sending a picture of your child's favorite Sesame Street character in your Party Reminder!

Thank You Note:

• Everybody Loves Sesame Street!:  Take a group picture at your party with all of your Sesame Street friends in the picture with your guests.  Include this picture in your Thank You Card, or better yet, make the picture the front of your card!  (hyperlink Shutterfly/Kodak)
• Elmo Loves You!:  "Elmo Loves You!  And __________ does too!  Thank you so much for sharing my Birthday with me!"

Invitations	Thank You Notes
Title Name State	Title Name State

 

Dress It Up

Primary colors are what you find on Sesame Street!  If your child has a favorite character, minimize that character's color in your decoration that way the character him/herself (or is it "itself"?) will stand out.  In a room full of red, Elmo will get lost, orange, Zoe gets lost, etc.   Now, Sesame Street needs lots of excitement and silliness.  So fill your room with balloons, crepe streamers, curled ribbon and confetti!  And don't forget to raid your child's toy box.  Chances are that your little one/s will have plenty of Sesame Street based toys and plush that can be used in your décor.   Finally, don't forget that where there are toddlers, there are many, many, MANY opportunities to pull, tug, knock over, drop, bang, etc.  So look at your decorations from the perspective of a very curious toddler and minimize opportunities to turn your creativity into a mess!

 Decorating Your Party Space:

• Bubbles:  Small children LOVE bubbles!!!  If you have outdoor space, include a bubble maker to bring smiles and laughter!!! 
• Balloons:  I went to a birthday party recently for a two year old and they had filled an entire room with latex balloons floating at the ceiling.  There were colorful strings hanging down from each.  Their little girl walked into the room and stood, looking in wonder at the balloon filled ceiling.  Reaching for the strings hanging down with the most wonderful smile.  It reminded me that, at this age, it's not always about how you did every little detail, but rather, that you filled the room with balloons…
• Sesame Smiles Birthday Banner:  Create a large banner for your little birthday boy/girl that says "Happy Birthday (child's name)" on the first line and "Brought to you by the letter "__" and the number "__"!  Personalize this phrase using the first letter of your child's name and his age for the number.  You can add images of all of your favorite Sesame Street friends as well. 
• Educational:  Elmo and Sesame Street are educational.  So have fun with cut outs of letters and shapes of all different colors to mix in with your character-specific décor.

 

Tablescape:

• Remember Little Hands!:  It may be beautiful, but if your little one and pull and tumble everything to the floor - you have more courage that I do!  Remember that at least one toddler will be present, and you will probably have several.  Make sure your tablescape is fun, lively and colorful, but ALSO can withstand the test of little hands!  A great trick is to take double sided tape and tack the tablecloth up under the table so that there is no brightly colored material to pull. 
• Vivid and Bright!  This age and this theme are all about color.  Make it vivid  - and you will end up with smiles.
  • Consider selecting a vibrant tablecloth (a single color or you can go with an Elmo themed covering) and then add curled ribbon, or little pieces of confetti with a dot of glue.
  • Incorporate balloons above the table (out of reach as balloons are hazardous for small children!).  Perhaps your favorite Elmo figure could be "holding" a bunch of balloons that hover approximately 3 feet off the table.  
• Don't make the centerpiece tooooo interesting!  Be cautious with your centerpiece.  Don't make it so interesting that your little one will go to great lengths to get to it.  One parent made the mistake of purchasing a new "Tickle Me Elmo" for her three year old and used it as the centerpiece.  Unfortunately her little birthday girl WANTED that Elmo - and ultimately, in an effort to stop the tantrum, her very cute centerpiece became her daughters toy earlier than planned.
• Place Settings:  Place settings can be simple primary colors or character inspired paper products.  For this age group favors of candy or little toys really isn't appropriate, so consider the plastic plates and cups decorated with Sesame Street characters that your little guests can take home with them and enjoy for months to come.
• Chair decorations:  Chair accoutrements are fun for toddlers.  These decorations are at eye level for your small guests.  Consider poster board cut outs of the various Sesame street characters with each child's name.  Attach securely so little fingers can't pry them off, then send them home with their character and some balloons! 

Decorations	Tablescapes
Title Name State	Title Name State

 

Food/Drink

This is a toddler party - so plan simple foods that aren't complicated or out of the norm.  Chicken fingers, grilled cheese, popcorn, apple wedges, macaroni and cheese - have a few items available so that you make even the pickiest eater happy.  Plus, don't forget the PARENTS who accompany their children to your party.  It's simply bad form to neglect the adults that are mingling and hopefully assisting in your toddler entertainment efforts.  Try a simple grazing buffet with crackers, cheese, chips etc.  Don't get too fancy as your parent guests are probably too busy managing their very excited children to actually enjoy a "meal". 

Food:

• Pizza:  Um, is there anyone who doesn't know that Elmo's favorite food is PIZZA!!!  Order in a couple of pizzas (you can request that they cut it into 16 small slices instead of 8 large slices when you order).  No muss, no fuss, and most kids love cheese pizza! (don't get creative with toppings and the majority of children are pretty particular about funky stuff on their pizza!)
• Sesame Sandwiches:  Remember, Sesame Street is all about education and they are always teaching shapes - why shouldn't your sandwiches?  Select a couple of different sandwich options and then take geometric cookie cutters and turn your sandwiches into shapes!     

Beverages:

• Keep it simple for little spillers:  Toddlers spill!  So keep it simple - juice boxes or juice pouches!  Try not to select juices that are dark color (like purple grape juice) as your carpet may not be able to tolerate it! 
• Parents too!  Don't forget your adults - soda, punch, and water are perfect.

Food	Beverages
Title Name State	Title Name State

 

Cake

Desert:

• Cookie Monster Cookies:  Take Sugar cookies, blue died vanilla frostings and sprinkles, gum drops, chocolate chips, licorice bits, etc.  Help the little ones frost and then let them garnish away!  (May want to use some old T-shirts as smocks for this activity/food as the blue icing can stain!)

The Cake:

• Elmo Face:  There are two ways to do this cake - 1)  Make a large round cake and frost it with Elmo red colored icing.  Then use three cupcakes to represent the white frosted eyes (with a dot of black icing or black jelly beans for pupils) and his orange nose.  Cut a section of a second round cake into a crescent and frost black for Elmo's mouth.  Or you can have a HUGE red circle (red wrapping paper over a round form) and make individual cakes (you can even have different flavors) for his eyes and nose and mouth. 
• Pre-made:  If easy and awesome is for you, this Theme is common enough that every bakery will have a cake that is Sesame Street themed and Elmo themed. 
   

Title Name State

 

Entertainment

Sesame street crafts, music, and videos are readily available.  Have some fun with character inspired activities and you will have created a miniature world of Elmo. 

Activities

Activities:

• Journey to Ernie:  Take colorful plastic Easter eggs and fill them with fun little Sesame Street stickers.  However, in a few place a colorful little picture of Ernie.  The little ones will explore and find the Easter Eggs in a hunt for Ernie!  You can have a little craft fun beforehand by having the kids make Big bird masks (precut - all they have to do is color it yellow and then adults can assemble) so that they can pretend to be Big Bird in his Journey to Ernie!
• Shape Scavenger Hunt:  Divide up simple colorful wooden blocks in their shapes - square, circle, triangle and rectangle and hide them throughout the party space (you can also try posterboard cut-outs as well).  Then select a block of that shape, show the children and let them hunt for the corresponding blocks throughout the room.  An alternative would be to select the color and have the shape be irrelevant.  Have numbers on each block and have prizes for certain numbers (make sure everyone gets at least one - they don't know whether the number is a prize or not, right?)
• Elmo's Music Circle:  Have the children sit in a circle then give the Birthday child a stuffed Elmo (smaller in size, max 10").  Start Sesame Street music and have the children pass Elmo around the circle.  When the music stops, whoever has Elmo gets a treat!  At that point you can start over with everyone, or that child can take their treat, step out of the circle and the game continues until everyone gets a treat.  (Select a treat that has some continued interest, like a lollipop that a toddler will happily suck on while watching the game continue).
• Sesame Street Parade:  Give each child a musical instrument of some sort (can even be a pan and wooden spoon!) and have a parade route highlighted on the floor (I used red footprints!)  Put on your favorite Sesame Street tune and let the cacophony begin!  
• Elmo Says…:  Note, for this age, the distinction between "Elmo says" and "Elmo didn't say 'Elmo says'" is virtually impossible.  So just have fun getting the kids to do silly things and don't eliminate any "player".   Elmo can touch his head, his belly, jump up and down, roar like a lion, clap his hands, act like a monkey…
• Brought to you buy the Letter __ (you can select "E" for Elmo or the first letter of your child's first name) - This is a great ice breaker activity - it's a fun, simple inexpensive craft.  Have construction paper, stick paste and lots of cut outs of that letter and pictures from magazines of things that start with that letter.  Let them paste away (if you have kiddos that are good with children sized scissors you can let them cut their own pictures and letters). 
• Cookie Monster Cookies:  Take Sugar cookies, blue died vanilla frostings and sprinkles, gum drops, chocolate chips, licorice bits, etc.  Help the little ones frost and then let them garnish away!  (May want to use some old T-shirts as smocks for this activity/food as the blue icing can stain!)
• Elmo's Story Time:  When you need to wind everyone down for a minute pick an engaging Elmo story and play story teller.  Now, if you want to keep the energy going then have the kids do something silly every time you say a certain word (such as "Elmo") like clapping their hands or yelling "Hooray!"

Title Name State

 

Prizes / Favors

Stickers, little trinkets, books, music, videos, crafts, coloring books - pretty much anything you want with Elmo, you can find with Elmo!  There are so many ideas other than the simple (and parent-hated) candy.

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