Sesame Street themed birthday party

It's been a very long time since I've blogged. I have often considered just ditching it. And I have considered changing the content. But I keep finding myself wanting to do the same thing. So, here I go!
Recently, my son turned 3. He kept asking me for a "MoMo" "Cookie Monster" and "Big Bird" party. I looked over several blogs and asked my friends who had thrown their children a Sesame Street party. Combining all the ideas. Here is what we had:
First, we sent out Sesame Street invitations. You can find them at party stores. If you are lucky, you may find them at a dollar store or K-Mart.

My mom gave me these cute cups awhile ago. They have lids and straws. I have no clue where she got them....Target maybe? We also had plates and napkins that we picked up at the Dollar Tree.

I made up my own Sesame Street sign by referring to a picture online. The sign reads "Brought to you by the letter B and the number 3." The table is lined in "Happy Birthday" paper. Sesame Street gift wrapped topped the kid's table. And I think a party isn't a party without colorful balloons.

I served cookies for Cookie Monster. Goldfish crackers for Dorothy the fish. I also served two other kinds of chips. In small cupcake cup holders, I put a portion of Dots candy, M&Ms and jellybeans for people to pick up and put on their plate. And we served kid drinks like juice and lemonade as well as soda for the grown ups. 

Here are the cupcakes I made. I was really nervous about making them. And then my friend reminded me that it was for little kids and they will recognize the color and love them no matter what (Thanks Jenna!)

I made the cupcakes the night before from a regular mix. 

About an hour before the party, I iced the cupcakes with icing I bought at the store with the colors blue, green and red. My friend Sara piped her icing on and hers came out waaaay cuter than mine. 

For all of the characters, I had mini marshmellows and dotted them with black icing in the small tube. 

Cookie Monster has googly eyes, so be sure to make them silly. 

Then, I crammed a small store bought chocolate chip cookie in the cupcake making it look like he is eating a cookie. 

Grouch isn't very grouchy here, but sometimes he does smile on the show (at least that's what I kept telling myself). For his mouth, I cut an Oreo in half. His eyes are normal and I used the black icing for a unibrow. 

Elmo's eyes are normal as well. He has a jellybean nose and I used the black icing to make a smile. 

Of all the characters, I think Cookie was the coolest. 

I did notice that the heat was getting to them, so I had to pop them in the frig. Each one was melting and their faces were getting distorted! 

For Ben, he got a big Elmo cake that I baked. Again, I referred to a cartoon picture from online. 

Yes, that is a real goldfish centerpiece in front of him. My parents brought that for the party. 

After the party, the kids played a game of tape the cookie to cookie monster (our version of pin the tail on the donkey). My friend, Beverly, did this game when her now grown son was a kid. 

That's just a big piece of blue poster board. Two big eyes cute out of regular white paper with drawn on eyes. And the cookies are just yellow construction paper cut out in circles with each kid's name on it. I gave out small bottles of bubbles to each kid for trying. 

Then, we headed outside for the opening of gifts....Ben is sporting his Elmo T-shirt.

After the gifts were unwrapped, we all just hung out in the backyard to enjoy the first sunny day in a long time. The kids loved to roll down our hill and play at the church playground (yes, it's in our backyard). We also brought out our bubble machine, sidewalk chalk, sandbox, and other toys. We had a wonderful day!