My daughter loves Elmo and Elmo’s World, and so do all her friends. So after attending a Sesame Street Live show, I decided to throw them all a party. I picked Sesame Street as a theme so I could do more with the games and decorations. I sent out handmade invitations of Elmo’s face on them. I bought plates and napkins with different characters on them at the local discount store. I made all the games and used the toys I already had for the d©cor. I didn’t spend a lot of money, but it took a lot of time. But it was definitely time well spent.
INVITATIONS:
For the invitations I used red poster paper and cut out the shape of Elmo’s face and attached googly eyes, and an orange puffy nose. I drew Elmo’s mouth myself, but you can cut out a black felt mouth. I printed —
You are invited to Elmo’s World
Guess what Elmo is thinking about today…
A party!
And he wants you to join him and (your child’s name) and all her friends!
I also included all of the party details.
DECORATIONS:
For the outside I wanted to draw Big Bird feet with sidewalk chalk leading to the door, but since the business was still open I couldn’t. So I attached balloons of all colors to all the posts and trees. And used 3 Mylar Elmo balloons from the dollar store to show where the door was. I also made a sign that on one side said “Elmo’s World this way” and “Elmo says Welcome” on the other.
For decorations inside, I enlarged some of the characters and had my 6 year old niece color them, giving that childish look. I also made a Sesame Street sign. I scattered several Sesame Street toys around the room. We had the party at a pretty big room with rectangular tables. I set up five tables with different colors representing Sesame Street characters. I made a lot of decorations by hand, and purchased almost nothing. For filler d©cor I used a Big Bird kite and my brother spelled out ELMO using streamers. I just placed colored Sesame Street pictures where ever an area looked bare.
When you entered the door you were greeted by an Elmo table. Here I had all the red and yellow goodie bags lined up. I had my daughters Elmo toys decorating the table along with refrigerator alphabet magnets scattered down the center of the party table. Here the parents also grabbed a sheet that had a list of all the games and directions and said —
Welcome to Elmo’s World
After receiving their goodie bag, guide the children to a play dough or coloring table to keep them occupied until all of the guests arrive.
GOODIE/GIFT BAGS:
Each bag was filled with crayons cookies candy Sesame Street stickers and a Sesame Street juice box. I also put a thank you note in the bag that I printed off the internet of Elmo saying thank you. I didn’t put too much in them so that they can still have room for all their prizes and other goodies.
ENTERTAINMENT:
While the party was going I had a few Sesame St. DVD’s playing in the background. I also had a bubble maker turned on which the kids absolutely loved. I printed off tons of Sesame St. coloring pages off the internet and place a bunch at each table. On each table there were also jars of play dough for the kids to enjoy, which they did. I also had Zoe’s craft corner. Here the older kids could make themselves Froot-Loop Necklaces. I used generic fruit loop cereal and string. You can use licorice lace just tie the end and string the lace with the cereal. The kids enjoyed this yummy treat. At the craft table there was also foam cards that they kids could draw their favorite Sesame Street character on with waterproof markers.
At this table I also had a game for the older kids. It was for Elmo’s pet goldfish Dorothy, called Swim Dorothy Swim. Using a shoe box I attached the lid to the back and made a poster that said, “Uh-Oh!”, Elmo’s pet fish Dorothy jumped out of her bowl! Can You help her get back in? I filled the shoebox with blue plastic shopping bags to represent water. Using stuffed goldfish that I made out of felt each child had to try and toss the goldfish into the “fishbowl”. This was especially entertaining for the older kids.
GAMES:
As the families arrived, I had four activities set up for the kids. This may seem like a lot, but when you have thirty kids its best to have multiple options.
The first game was the Cookie Monster Toss. Where it said C is for cookie. This is where the kids had to feed Cookie Monster cookies. I made just Cookie Monsters head, using a shoe box and some blue felt. I cute out an oval shape from the felt and then cut an opening for his mouth as big as I could. I cut a hole in his mouth and then through the box. This had to be so that it was possible to get the cookies in from a distance. I then glued big google eyes off set. I taped Cookie Monster to a shoe box. I had him sitting on a small t.v. tray and in front of him I placed a small cookie sheet and cheap spatula and an oven mitt. Then I made cookies out of tan puff balls with brown spots from a marker. The object of the game was to put on the glove and standing behind a line see how many cookies you could feed to Cookie. If they made or didn’t make a cookie in his mouth they could get a cookie from his jar.
The next game was Pin the Nose on Elmo. For this game, you will need a large colored poster of Elmo and enough round red stickers or orange puff balls to represent Elmo’s nose so every child gets one. These puff balls will be placed on the poster using Velcro. This game is very similar to “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.” To play this Elmo game, tack or tape the poster onto a wall at a height the children will be able to reach easily. Every child had to close their eyes, because they were a little young to blindfolded and spun around for each year old they were before placing their puff on the poster. The child whose sticker is placed the closest to where Elmo’s nose is the winner!
The third game was the Oscar Toss. For this game you will need a small garbage can or two, for Oscar’s house. I glued an Oscar head on the lid and the kids threw balled up newspapers at him. Everyone who tried got gummy worm, for Oscar’s pet Slimy.
The Fourth game was Ernie’s Rubber Ducky Game. I used my daughter’s inflatable ducky tub filled with small BD rubber ducky’s. A few of the duckies had Ernie stickers under them. All the kids picked a duckie & the ones with the sticker got a prize. I printed a picture of Ernie in the bathtub and put it above the game.
FOOD:
When it came to the food I kept it simple. We simply served Hotdogs, Sloppy Joes chips fruit and Pasta salad. Instead of a cake I ordered Elmo cupcakes from our local wholesale club. I also found juice boxes with the characters on them at a local store.
For the adults I simply had fruit punch but on the front of my punch bowl I had a picture of Big Bird, and I decorated the table with a Big Bird theme. The dessert table was decorated with a Cookie Monster theme. And along with the cupcakes we had large chocolate chip cookies. The food table was decorated with Bert and Ernie.
On each of the tables there was an Oscar Garbage Pail. I saved up my son’s formula cans and took the labels off of each of them. Then I wrote “SCRAM!” on each of them. I filled them with kid friendly snacks, like Chex cereals, and the many different types of Cheerios.
After dinner, I gave the parents a break and had a balloon fight with all the kids. Before the party ended we played one last game, Journey to Ernie. Before the party I took 3bags of brightly colored eggs and filled them with soft candy and an Ernie sticker. And placed them in Big Birds nest. I had each kid come and get an egg, then they could keep their eggs and what was inside and if Ernie was in any of their eggs they could come see me. Which they did because they all had stickers! Each of them got to choose from a tote full of Sesame Street books, stamps, whistles, coloring books and more.
Everyone had a great time and I had a lot of fun creating the party. I can’t wait for the next one.
