Sesame Street 1st Birthday

Before I start posting things that I am doing currently, I want to get a few entries in that look back at some things I have already done (and thus teach myself how to document and explain things properly)

So my son, Jacob, turned 1 one on Oct 8th, 2010, and this is the theme that I loved for his party:

Now I'd like to go through and show you some things that I created (along with my mother... Grammy is always a huge help) to decorate and match the theme (while working on a budget)

Home made invitations:

With the help of my friend Johanna, and her amazing photo program Corel, we put together this invite, sized it to be about 4x8, printed onto photo paper, and fit it into regular business size envelopes. I was even able to use the character image and paste it onto return address labels.

Centerpieces:

I kept these nice and simple since it is just a first birthday party. It was definitely important to me for my son to have nice things at his party, but I needed to be practical. So these are craft paint buckets sold at AC Moore. I believe they were $3.99, so I used 40% and 50% off coupons (found in the news paper or online at www.acmoore.com) and got them cheaper. Filled them with colored M&M's (because who wouldn't like to snack on them) and just decorated them with Happy Birthday and sesame street stickers. As the centerpieces, they were used to be the balloon weights, also.

Snacks:

 I got a bunch of mini fish bowls (.77 cents in AC Moore) and decorated them with Elmo stickers and Happy Birthday ribbon. I filled them with Goldfish crackers to be a mock of Elmo's Goldfish named Dorothy.

 I found a glass cookie jar (used another 50% coupon from AC Moore) and I decorated it with Cookie Monster stickers and Happy Birthday Ribbon. I filled this jar with... Cookies, of course.

Goodie Bags:

These may just be what I am most proud of for his party. Hand painted character buckets for the kids. The orange, yellow and blue are beach buckets and the red are "popcorn buckets". I found all of them in dollar stores (and some even on sale since it was after summer). I found print outs online that were the drawings of their faces (could also be used for carving pumpkins) and then my mother found (from AC Moore of course) a packets of make-your-own stencils. Mom and I sketched the print outs onto the stencils and cut them out. Then we taped the stencils to each of the buckets and traced them with a permanent marker. I bought cheap paint and brushes from the store and we got down to work. It took a couple coats of paint and then bought a can of spray laquer to make sure all of our hard work didn't scratch off.

It was important to me for the kids to not just have junky goodie bags. I think as parents we spend a lot of money on them and a lot of it ends up being crap that gets thrown out. I made the buckets for the smaller children who I knew would really appreciate them (and they did) and just used the boxes and bags to give candy to the older kids.

Dessert:

Chocolate Covered Oreos decorated as Elmo and Cookie Monster.

What you need:

Oreos (I believe this was just one package)

Melting Chocolate in Red and Dark Blue

Candy Elmo Faces & Candy eyes (both made by Wilton)

tube of black icing.

Melt chocolate in either a double boiler or in a microwave safe bowl, stirring often. Dip and cover the oreos and set them to dry either on waxpaper or a silpat if you have one (and if you don't, they are a fantastic investment. Before they dry, place the candy on them. After the cookie monster ones are dry, use the black icing to form cookie's mouth. I used black gel icing because I happened to have some at home. They were super simply and everyone was in love with them.

Chocolate cake.

Nothing spectacular.

Boxed cake mix (I'm still trying to find a recipe that I'm good at from scratch and I think I found the chocolate one yesterday)

Buttercream icing (1 stick of butter, 8 tablespoons of shortening, 4 cups powdered sugar, teaspoon vanilla extract, and a couple tablespoons of milk.... you can sub the shortening for another stick of butter, I make it with both because that if how I was taught)

Wilton "1" Pan, assorted wilton decorating tips (I believe #'s 18, 21 and 5) and bags, and wilton food coloring.

The little sesame street figures are candles.

Vanilla Cake.

I cant take the credit for this one, it's all thanks to my son's wonderful Grammy. Neither of us claim to be artists, so this cake was a huge accomplishment. She used sketch paper to copy the design off of the plates, placed the sketch on the cakes and traced it with a tooth pick, and just kind winged it. Very Proud of her work. A wonderful first birthday cake for my baby (and again, boxed cake mix and buttercream icing)

Someone enjoyed his bithday cake.

And clearly, he had quite the good time.

So I think that's just about it.

It was a wondeful day with family and friends, my son and I are very blessed.