What kind of mother would I be if I didn't boast about the millions of hours I spent planning a 3 year old's birthday party? Natalie's birthday is in early December, so December has been a stressful month for the past few years: babies being born (or about to be born), decorating to do, trees to put up, and of course-birthday parties to plan. Come New Year's Eve, I am plumb tuckered out!
birthday. No, we do not normally force Elmo to brave sub-zero temperatures on our front stoop. This year, I decided to take it easy on myself and not plan a craft that would just be thrown away the minute the kids piled back into their minivans. I kept things simple, and the girls colored Sesame Street party hats and decorated them with little jazzy pom poms on the top. That kept them busy for all of 3 minutes before the whining (Natalie's) commenced. She wanted cake. RIGHT NOW!I managed to distract them (her-she has a cake obsession, don't know where she gets it) long enough to propel them into the new room. We played "Pin the Cookie on Cookie Monster." Natalie cheats. Then we managed to get all the girls to sit in a circle for my very own version of "hot potato," which we called "hot cookie." This entailed the girls passing a small plastic cookie around the circle while Sesame Street music (theme song and "C is for Cookie") played in the background. When the music stopped, the person holding the cookie was out. Except that two and three year olds are very egotistical, and the shock of being "out" is more than their little psyches can handle. So the "loser" had the privilege of choosing a glittery necklace and standing to the side. This went over much better than dragging them screaming from the circle.
After the mass riot over the necklaces ended, the SWAT team (other moms) ushered their kids into my kitchen for the best part: cake and ice cream! At this point, I don't want to see a cake decorating tool for a long, long time. I was up very late making these Cookie Monster cupcakes, which were my very first attempt at cake decorating (unless you count running a spatula of icing over some hastily prepared cupcakes and then eating the remaining icing). They weren't all that hard to do...just very, very time consuming. They were also devoured in about 2 minutes. Please don't report me to the Cake Wrecks blog, Meri, as I am a novice and I do not sell my work. Not that anyone would be buying....
Well, if they won't let me eat cake, I will eat my shoe!
Absolutely adorable! You did a great job and I thought the cupcakes turned out cute! The games looked like a lot of fun and the Elmo holding the sign was perfect. I'm sure everyone will reflect back on the wonderful time they had at Sesame Street.
ReplyDeleteWhat a cute party, lots of work, but very awarding in the end. Good thinking to award a prize for being out; saved lots of fussing. The cupcakes were so cute with the mini cookie in his mouth. I remember all our girls birthdays with their friends. Lots of good memories.
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