Sesame Street Birthday Party!!!

This is a long post, with LOTS of pictures. I hope you enjoy! We did a Sesame Street/Elmo birthday party for Maggie this year. Tyler's parents came down for the weekend for her party, so that was a lot of fun, and Amron was a big help in getting everything set up for the big event (and picking stuff up after the party, and doing dishes, and helping out with everything else).

After the cake as made and frosted I needed to keep it cool overnight so the buttercream frosting would be OK. Not having enough room in the fridge, I improvised and put it up in the attic. It was a high of 40 or so yesterday and today, so I knew it would be OK. Note the fun cover I made, just in case there was something in the attic that liked cake! Luckily, the cake came out of the attic before the party unscathed, and un-dropped. For those of you that know me well, that was quite a feat!
My FIRST attempt at a decorated cake with piped icing. I'm glad it turned out good the first time, those little stars took a lot of butter-cream frosting and it took a long time to do. But I'm glad I did it. Maggie loved her Elmo cake!
The scene. I LOVE that Sesame Street scene on the far wall. It was Elmo, Cookie Monster, Zoey, Big Bird, Bert & Ernie.
Here was the treat bag: a disposable Sesame Street sippy, sunglasses, chapstick, sucker, stickers, coloring page. It looks like a lot, but I got the sunglasses and chapstick on clearance, and the sippy was really not that expensive.
Some of our guests: Dixie & Zayli Christian, Janet, Emet & Evi Yates.
Maggie showing off one of the party favors: these awesome metallic sunglasses I got at WalMart on clearance. I paid $1 for 8 pairs! She is also showing off the too-cute Elmo hoodie I got for her at Babies R Us. Gotta carry the party theme all the way through, right?! She was one coordinated child. =)
Lunch: homemade macaroni & cheese, mini corn dogs, and corn (fun things that kids will eat). Only once I set everything out did I realize everything was yellow! I guess subconsciously that was for Big Bird. Oops! It wasn't the prettiest meal, but it tasted great and everyone enjoyed it.
Here we are unwrapping some gifts. Gramma Spaid got Maggie a Cabbage Patch doll with blue eyes and short blonde hair. In true Cabbage Patch style, the dolls name is Jaycee Perla. Janet's girls have Blanche and Carla - I'm glad we got Jaycee.
Tyler on the video camera.
The carnage after round 1, yes, I said round 1, of gift-opening. You can just make out the froggie bathtub toy holder from Gramma and Grampa Jones. I already put it up, and it holds all her bathtub toys.
Maggie posing with her cake. You will note the silly "cheese" face. She whips out this face every time she sees the camera now!
She did pretty well trying to blow out her cake, but Mommy still helped. All afternoon she said "blow cake, blow cake". For dessert tonight we relit the candle and she got to blow it out all by herself.
Enjoying her Elmo cake - she mostly just ate the frosting.
Round 2 of presents, after most of the party guests left. We had a LOT of gifts to open! The lack of pants on this child is thanks to a very large glob of red Elmo frosting that made it's way onto her pants. She didn't want new ones on for gifts, so we did those gifts in her Elmo panties. She's sitting on this awesome tunnel and tent set that Poppy & Mimie got her. I am so looking forward to warmer weather so I can set it up outside. I haven't decided if I'm going to try and set it up inside yet.
Our big gift to her was a 2-sided easel (not pictured, but I'm sure it'll make it into a future post), so she can color standing up in the middle of the kitchen, away from walls and other surfaces that seem to call out to her to be colored on! We are so thankful for all our friends and family that have blessed Maggie with such nice gifts. I won't list all the gifts she received or pictures of her opening gifts, but thank you all so much! It was a really special day for us to celebrate her 2nd birthday. Our greatest hope and prayer for Maggie as she grows is that she will accept with great joy the best gift she could ever receive: salvation through Christ Jesus alone. If you think of it, please pray that she would accept Christ as her Savior at an early age, and that she would always love God.