Happy 2nd Birthday to my little Elmo!

Lucas's birthday was actually last month, but I was busy hanging out next to my toilet, so I didn't post about it. Fortunately, I did manage to pull myself together long enough to celebrate my little man turning two!

Shirt by The Tiny Closet. Adorableness by Lucas.

Also, it has come to my attention that some people don't know this: if you sign your child up for the free Toys R Us Birthday Club, you get a $3 store gift certificate for their birthday every year, plus they get a free balloon and birthday crown when you bring them in to the store. Tra la!

Lucas really loves Elmo, so we did an Elmo-themed birthday party. For the record, if you search Pinterest for "Elmo Birthday Party," you will find approximately 90 billion ideas. Good old Pinterest. So I can't claim all of these ideas as my own. Thanks, creative people of the world!

My friends Sarah and Rebekah of Sarahbelle's Cupcakes made these delicious cupcakes. (They're the same ones who made the cupcakes for Lucas's necktie and bowtie party last year.)

Chocolate peanut butter, Oreo, and funfetti cupcakes. And my grandparents' wedding picture.

I had seen a really cute idea to make an Elmo fruit tray (on Pinterest, of course,) so I left some fruit and a tray with Dan's mom while I went to the store, and I came back to this:

How stinkin' cute is that?? I was very impressed! 
We served it with fruit dip (half strawberry yogurt, half  Cool Whip,)
and after the party started, the fruit was gone in under 30 minutes.

My mom and Dan's mom also hung up streamers and other decorations while I was at the store.

I wasn't really feeling up to making a ton of food, so we just ordered lots and lots (and lots) of pizza.

The Elmo plates and napkins are from Party City.

I found this "Place the nose on Elmo" game at Party City.

All of the kids got stickers as prizes, so Lucas is decorating the game with his prize stickers.

My favorite part was the treat bags.

In case you don't have the "Elmo's World" theme song memorized (lucky you,) one of the lines says "Elmo loves his goldfish, his crayon too." So I made little tags that said "Elmo loves his goldfish, his crayon too... Lucas loves that he got to share his birthday fun with you!" (I did actually come up with that part myself. High five, Bethany!) I got the treat bags from Party City, and inside each bag we put a bag of Goldfish crackers, a box of crayons, and a little notebook with an Elmo sticker on the cover.

And of course, there was my little man's adorable Elmo shirt!

I bought it here. Oh, how I love Etsy!

So, there you have it. Lucas's Elmo birthday party! Feel free to borrow any of these ideas, since I borrowed most of them from other people anyway. :)

Little Man's Bowtie and Necktie Themed Birthday Party

Before Lucas was born, I bought two sets of one monthly onesie stickers from Baby and Belly Designs on Etsy (formerly little babycakes and co.) We decided not to find out our baby's sex until he was born, so we bought one set for a boy and one set for a girl. Since he's a boy (obviously) we ended up using these adorable necktie onesie stickers to take pictures of him every month.

When I was planning his first birthday party, I wanted him to have a special shirt to wear. I found an adorable first birthday bowtie onesie from Stitch to my Lu on etsy, and a birthday party theme was born!

It's not easy to photograph a one-year-old at his own birthday party.

I wanted a birthday banner that matched the theme, and rather than search for one, I just made my own.

I printed large outlined letters on card stock paper and then cut them out. (Ok, technically, my mom and mother-in-law cut them out for me.) I cut bowties out of scrapbook paper to make the middle of the "A's" and made a necktie for the letter "I." Then I attached them together using brads to make the banner.

I bought cheap frames and framed the monthly pictures of Lucas and put them out as decorations. For party favors, I made bowties for the little boys and hair bows for the little girls using the directions I found here.

The sign reads "Help make Lucas's birthday party a black tie affair by selecting a bowtie or hair bow for your little one."

Most of the kids at the party were older than Lucas, so I decided to have a game for all of them. We did our own version of "pin the tail on the donkey" and had the kids stick a bowtie on a picture of Lucas while they were blindfolded. (I traced a bowtie on to the picture so that the littler kids would know where it was supposed to go.) I made sure to have prizes for the winners and for everyone who participated so that no one would feel left out.

The game before and after.

My fabulous friend Sarah baked cupcakes (half strawberry, half chocolate and peanut butter! Yum!) in polka dot cupcake liners so they would match the rest of the decorations.

We had a great time, and the decorations and game were cheap and easy! Plus, all of the little guests looked absolutely adorable in their matching bowties and hair bows.

What other themes can you think of for a first birthday party?