Ben's 2nd Birthday Party

This morning we had Benjamin's 2nd birthday party, a few weeks early but with me being due with the baby a few days after his actual birthday we opted to celebrate early. Since I'm 38 weeks pregnant, we did something small at home with just the 7 kids from his playgroups and their moms.

Ben has been talking about his birthday party for days and was VERY excited that the big day had finally arrived. All of his best friends were here at once to help him celebrate, there were lots of games and treats to eat and the theme was Sesame Street. What else could a two-year-old possibly want? :)

With a theme as cute as Sesame Street, I could not let my craftiness sit idle so I started preparing a few months in advance and came up with some cute decorations for the day. Here are the invitations that I made and sent out to everyone. Of course featuring Ben's favorite Sesame Street characters - like all kids, Elmo; but also Big Bird and Cookie Monster.

The sign I created for the front door. I forgot to take a photo of it hanging on the door this morning since it was so foggy outside at the time..

And here are the little themed candy cups that I placed at each child's spot at the table during our craft time. Nothing like M&M's to keep one to three-year-olds focused for a few extra minutes!

We started out with free playtime and a very simple game. Here are almost all of the kids playing together. The youngest one is about 18 months old and the oldest two just turned three a few months ago.

Andrew took a long lunch and was able to come home for the party, which was so much fun for Ben. He loves having his 'Dada' around during the day! Here, Andrew is playing with Tyler and Elaina with some of Ben's fake food.

We played an Oscar the Grouch beanbag toss game, starring homemade Oscar beanbags that my mom and I made together. There's a photo of them later on. Everyone got one and just had to throw them into the foil-lined garbage can. Of course Ben loved this since he likes anything involving throwing lately.

Ben's trying to encourage his friends to throw their beanbags into the can.

Here, Tyler and Elaina join in the fun while Samantha and her mom watch from the sidelines.

Next, we did a very short Big Bird craft. Each child got a "naked" Big Bird at their place and a gluestick and had to glue feathers onto him.

Ben splitting his craft time between crafting and eating M&M's and Goldfish!

All of the kids busy at work crafting.

And voila! Ben's finished creation...

Next up: lunch. Kids loves pizza so we took advantage of this and ordered out instead of making something instead. So, I just had to make a few simple side dishes, nothing fancy since kids like plain foods. We had tossed salad, ABC Jello Jigglers (HUGE hit with the kiddos and everyone enjoyed taking the letter that their names start with!), star-shaped cheese and crackers, strawberries and Elmo and Oscar the Grouch cupcakes.

Ben and Tyler.

Teddy.

Samantha.

Caroline and Olivia.

Gifts were next on the agenda and boy did Ben have a good time. He didn't waste any time waiting to open them as he had last year when he turned one. It was cute because just about all of the kids were so excited to give Ben their gift that they had brought.

Finally, the favorite part of any child's birthday party: dessert! I made Elmo and Oscar the Grouch cupcakes: Elmo because I figured all of the kids would want those and Oscar because they looked so cute and I couldn't resist. (Plus we call Ben, Oscar sometimes when he wakes up from his nap cranky!). To my surprise, every single child except for one chose an Oscar cupcake instead of an Elmo one!

Singing Happy Birthday to my TWO YEAR OLD. I can't believe he is two already!

Ben took an Elmo cupcake at first, ate the marshmallow eyes and then said "No....green!" and pushed Elmo away. He wanted Oscar as well and thoroughly enjoyed that one!!

Yummy! Finger-lickin' good...

All of the kids eating their cupcakes. I apologized to all the moms for the red, green and black icing :).

Finally, here are the favors that all of the kids got to bring home (in addition to their Big Bird craft): an Elmo goodie bag, a giant chocolate chip cookie in a Cookie Monster bag, and their Oscar the Grouch beanbag.

What a fun party and Ben had the best time. He even burst into tears when the last of his friends left!! He really enjoyed the day and loved having all of his best friends and Sesame Street friends there to celebrate the big 2 with him. I'm just glad I didn't go into labor before the party and was able to have it for him!