Cookie Monster Birthday Party!

I had a really fun time planning DD#3's 4th birthday party.  She had chosen Cookie Monster as her theme over a month ago so I got busy looking for decorations immediately.  You would not believe how hard it is to find Cookie Monster alone.  He is always with other Sesame Street pals even though Elmo can be found alone everywhere. 

I found some themed cups & napkins online and planned to buy solid blue plates, silverware and serving dishes at Dollar Tree.  I've learned that I didn't need Cookie Monster everything to make a themed party.  Just the cookie monster napkins would have been enough, but I got a good deal on the cups so I added those, too.  

I was super excited to find a Cookie Monster pinata on Amazon.  It was a big extravagant purchase for me, but it was under $25 including shipping and my kids had been asking and asking and asking for a pinata.  They even tried to convince DD#3 to have a Dora party because they thought that would guarantee a pinata. Imagine their delight (and mine) when I stumbled across a Cookie Monster pinata.  It also made a great decoration next to a clear jar of cookies.

We also saved on the cake.  For the 'Party' birthdays (1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16) our girls get a store-bought, store-decorated cake.  We have purchased the sheet cakes lots of times, but discovered the double round cake is half the price of a half sheet cake.  So for $11.99 we get a fun, decorated cake that is substantially eaten at the party instead of spending $24.99 on a fun, decorated cake that is mostly still in our kitchen when the party is over.  This cake had the added bonus of being decorated with frosting only so we didn't have to buy a licensed character "kit" for $6 to be planted on top of the cake.

Instead of buying candy and junk for the kids' parting gifts we tried something new.  We filled mason jars with the ingredients for cookies so this kids were taking home something "useful."  I also hoped it would help moms manage the kids' sugar intake for the day a bit better.  The best part (I thought) was that it was a ready-to-do activity for kid & parent together.  These would have been much cuter with a Cookie Monster sticker or just plain cookie stickers on the directions.  I left room for stickers, but didn't find any in time and my computer skills didn't allow me to print cookies right on the tags (I tried). 

We also sent the kiddos with the mylar balloons that served double duty as decorations during the party, too.  We got our birthday balloons at Dollar Tree.

 

Overall, it was  fun party.  I've learned that it's hard to plan party games for 4 year olds that will hold their attention so I didn't expect much from them.  They played, the moms talked, we did the pinata, we did cake and gifts, the moms talked some more and the kids played outside.  Pretty relaxing overall with no meltdowns.  Hooray!

An added bonus is that a lot of our party supplies didn't get used and/or are reusable.  I tossed a lot of the leftover party supplies in our garage sale pile so I'll likely get a few bucks back.

Katie