I finally found a site that still sells my favorite Sesame Street birthday party supplies - the Sesame Smiles line. (Although, I suppose there's nothing specifically birthday about the designs, so you could use them for any Sesame Street party. And let's face it, any excuse for a party these days, right?)
Anyway, it seems ShindigZ.com still carries the Smiles line of party supplies, but I'm not sure just how much longer they'll be around. They have them marked down right now anywhere from 25-55%, including invitations and banner. It's already limited to just a few items (sigh), so you might want to hurry if you were really wanting those cute Oscar cups or Cookie Monster napkins.
(And because I love my readers, you can save 10% on party supply orders of more than $100 right now. Just use promo code SZCJC8 when you check out. Works on non-Sesame Street birthday items as well, although why would you want anything else?)
It might just be me, but I love paper invitations. I'm cool with getting Christmas letters via email or a link to a webpage. Don't mind finding out what's going on in my friend's lives via Twitter. OK with being sent to Facebook to see the latest family pictures.
But invitations? I love getting those in the regular mail. However, I've been invited to enough birthday parties and baby showers to know that email invitations are popular thanks to the quick turnaround, easy RSVP and low cost.
One of the more popular ones out there is eVite.com, of course. You can pick from their pre-done designs or design your own using pictures you upload from your computer. But there's a new player on the field now, My Punch Bowl. My understanding is that MPB is meant for bigger parties, but it does allow you to search flickr for images to use in designing your invite rather than just using what's on your computer. (I'm a little concerned that it's not pulling things that are under a Creative Commons license, but that's another issue.)
Now, neither of these have any Sesame Street invitations, but with some creativity (like doing a theme within a theme), you can find some invitations that will work just fine. I thought the designs for a kids birthday party were a little better at eVite, but that could just be my taste.
So what do you think? Would you do an evite for a kid's party? Or do you think it's more appropriate for one for adults? Have you used them for your own parties? 'Fess up!! I really want to know.
(I learned about Punchbowl from Venture Beat. Interesting thoughts in the post and comments about whether this is a service to keep an eye on.)
I've been reading a lot of blogs/stories/posts related to throwing a birthday party lately. Gotta stay on top of all of this for you, my fabulous reader, right? And wow, I'm amazed at what some people put themselves through to throw a party for a young child.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but if your child is turning one, then a DJ, clown and facepainting is going overboard. Just a bit. When you start using words like caterer and survived in referencing a party for a first birthday, it's time to slow down a bit.
It's so easy for parents to get caught up in throwing the perfect birthday party for their child. It's their first birthday, it's their first party with guests, it's the first party they'll remember. (Maybe.) There's always some reason to take what could be a simple Sesame Street birthday party and turning into an overdone, stressful affair.
But keep in mind over everything else who this party is supposed to be for. Your toddler is likely still at the stage where they'd rather play with the box than the fabulous gift that came in the box. Particularly with a first birthday, the child has nothing to gauge against, no way of knowing you've thrown the best party ever. So how to keep things under control, on budget and exceed expectations?
Here are a few ideas I've found as I've been out wandering the web:
Have an old-fashioned birthday bash at home - classic games like pin the tail on the donkey, simple decorations and separate cake and ice cream times make this a breeze to pull off. Keep it short and sweet and at a time that doesn't interfere with nap!
Think appropriate - Everything from decorations to venue to food should be geared to the age of the child as well as your budget. What can you use that you already have? How can you plan to avoid excess food planning? How can you get the other parents involved?
And always remember that the point of the party is to have fun and you don't have to spend a lot of money to do that. (One mom mentioned in the comments here about spending $1000 on a party for a three-year-old!) In fact, here's yet one more post I found for you with some great ways to keep things simple and (bonus!) save on your party planning.
So enjoy yourself, create some great memories with your child (and Elmo or Abby) and remember to keep things in perspective in planning a great Sesame Street birthday party. Save the DJ for the wedding.
Well, we've talked about cake toppers and we've looked at shaped cake pans. Next up is the growing trend of cupcakes rather than a regular sheet cake to celebrate a Sesame Street birthday.
Particularly for a child's party, cupcakes make for a great option. Single serving sizes, no muss, no fuss. And when you're decorating in a particular theme - like Elmo - no fighting over who gets to have the Elmo on their piece of cake.
The cupcakes here at the top were done by Datin Mary Zain, a bakery in Malaysia. I love them because you can tell it's Elmo and Oscar and Cookie Monster, but they aren't precise interpretations. It's a lot less stressful when you don't try to create something exact. Give your toddler some credit. They'll know the red cupcake is Elmo.
The other picture comes from the blog I Love Cupcakes. These feature a more precise interpretation, but also another trend I'm seeing - combining a small cake with cupcakes. Same benefit of the cupcakes, but the space of a cake for more decoration. (Check out the detail on those packages! I find other people's skill with fondant just fascinating. I just make a mess.)
I've been having a lot of fun looking for and at great Sesame Street birthday cakes. There is some really great creativity out there. I'm favoriting a lot over at flickr. Check them out if you're looking for some inspiration. I promise, there are some you can pull off.
Grover is the hardest working muppet on Sesame Street, without a doubt. And one of his best jobs is explaining concepts like near and far or top and bottom. And you can use his expertise to develop a couple of new musical games for your Sesame Street birthday party.
Now we looked at a celebrity visit last time with Destiny's Child and "New Way to Walk". This time, we'll be using a classic Sesame Street skit with Grover explaining "Over, Under, Around and Through."
My brain just won't stop with the ideas on this one, but I'm going to put a halt at three. I'm sure you can come up with your own as well!
Follow the Leader – Make sure your party setting includes lots of things to crawl over, under around and through, then play a version of follow the leader where the kids have to tell you what word applies to the situation. So you go around the tree, through the tunnel, under the table, etc. If you have a lot of kids and plenty of room, enlist some other adults to be leaders as well and get a lot of short lines going.
Simon (or Elmo or Abby or Grover) Says – Develop some simple movements for each of the four words and play a variation of Simon Says. Maybe stand on tiptoe for over, squat down for under, make a circle for around, push arms out for through. Toss in a couple of other motions and you're on your way.
Obstacle Course – No, not a real one. We're likely talking about toddlers, after all. But, you could do a version of one with stations for each motion. Get the kids in a group, pick a word, then they can run (or walk fast) to the place to do the motion and then hurry back for their next instruction. If the kids are a little older and you have the space, just give them the word and send them out to figure out what they can go under or over on their own.
So those are my quick ideas. What are yours? I'm sure anyone planning a Sesame Street birthday party would love to hear them. Heck, I'd love to hear them!
If your child hasn't even reached toddler age, you likely haven't hit this challenge yet for your Sesame Street birthday party. But increasingly, it seems the choice of whom you invite is being taken away.
Many schools now have rules that if you want to distribute invitations at school to people in your class, you have to invite everyone. This causes problems for any number of reasons, and even led to a complaint to the Swedish parliament in one case.
Simple solution here - Collect all mail or email addresses at the beginning of the school year and give them out to all the parents. Then it's easy enough to just invite the four kids your child really wants or everyone but the class bully or limit the group to what you can afford. The school doesn't have to serve as your post office, and you can once again control your invitation list.
Or maybe you disagree with me? Are the schools wrong to even have policies about this kind of stuff? Do we fail to teach our kids valuable lessons in making choices or dealing with disappointment when we institute these rules? Would it be better to have the rule changed than to find a way around it?
OK, deep breath. There's a lot to keep track of when you're planning a Sesame Street birthday party. Decorations, food, activities, invitations, invite lists, thank yous … . Tired yet?
But don’t panic. You can do this. In fact, the younger your child is, the easier this will be because you set the expectations. So step one is to decide just what really needs to happen. Do you really need 500 balloons? Do you have to have individually crafted invitations? Do you need three courses, plus cake and ice cream?
Seriously, take a close look at what you have planned for the party and make the decisions that will help you have a good time – not just at the party but in planning it. This also means making decisions about allowing someone else to make the cake or using pre-printed invitations or bringing out the goldfish crackers rather than homemade snacks.
One other option to take a look at is the packsthat include everything you need for the decorations – plates, cutlery, napkins, balloons, crepe paper, etc. Most of the time, these packs help you save time and money by giving you the basics in your theme, and you don't have to worry about forgetting the napkins or candles. And – best of all – you can save good money by buying the pack – up to 33% sometimes.
Now, I'm a big advocate for working with solids and mixing things up rather than buying everything in the theme. But if you're looking to save time and want to have the Sesame Street birthday-themed plates and napkins anyway, it's definitely worth taking a look at. And since the packs generally come in counts of eight or 16, you can always add in some solids to round out your numbers and cut costs even more.
I finally found a site that still sells my favorite Sesame Street birthday party supplies - the Sesame Smiles line. (Although, I suppose there's nothing specifically birthday about the designs, so you could use them for any Sesame Street party. And let's face it, any excuse for a party these days, right?)
