Sunday, May 31, 2009

C is for Cookie Party

Ahhh birthday parties. They can be so stressful. How many kids do you invite? Who do you invite? Will you do a theme? How will you fill the time?

I have thought about Eli’s birthday party for a while now. My friend Rebekeh suggested we do a C is for Cookie party (she’d seen some cute ideas on some blog) and that’s what we did! Below is Eli, sporting his fabulous “C” t-shirt.

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I tried to keep things simple. We had goldfish, pretzels, grapes, and drinks. And lots and lots of cookies, of course.
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I went through a lot of grief about who to invite. I am in charge of our huge playgroup with lots of great little kids, but I knew Eli wouldn’t handle a party with a million kids very well. So we invited five of his friends that he gets along with really well or has had successful playdates with and I tried not to look back (though I stressed and stressed about other kids we didn’t invite). I thought about not posting stuff on my blog, but decided that was silly.

We started the morning off with the bubble machine, which was lots of fun.

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But after a little bit, the kids were just having fun running around the yard, playing with balls and climbing on the playset. It was all pretty low key, which was nice! My family also came to the party, which was fun.
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Ben is my hero. He drew this fabulous Cookie Monster poster so we could play “Pin the Cookie on C.” He did such a good job!! The kids didn’t really get into the blindfold part of the game, so we just spun them around really fast and it was still really fun.

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See that Happy Birthday banner on the fence? It came without an A in Happy! So it read: HPPY BIRTHDAY. I’m taking it back to Target.
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Rebekeh gave Eli a mix CD with all kinds of fabulous kids songs (including the C is for Cookie song!), so we played it during the party. The kids had fun dancing around the patio area and Eli was very protective of his “C” stuffed animal.
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As I mentioned earlier, we had lots and lots of cookies at this party. I made sugar cookies in the shapes of the number 2 and the first letter of each child’s name. I also did some circles since I figured those would be fast to frost and decorate – so each child decorated some cookies (and most ate them right away). Then it was time for the chocolate chip cookie cake (we were really trying to sugar them up :).

One of the funny moments with the cake was that Eli was showing C the cake and C leaned in a little too close, getting whip cream on himself. Eli wasn’t too happy about that, but we quickly cleaned C up and it was fine. Opening presents was lots of fun too!
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Charlie slept through the first part of the party and was a little out of it after he woke up.
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Eli was in a great mood for his party (which was a relief because he didn’t nap yesterday, so I was nervous about how he would be today).
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We opened presents from my family inside after the party was over. Gram made Eli a whole ensemble of fleece duck things – a big blanket for Eli, a pillow, a stuffed duck, a mini blankie for the duck, etc. He of course loved the soft, stuffed duck and was sweet with it. My parents gave Eli a cute wooden train that has stacking blocks, a tugboat book and some bath toys (tugboats). Davey gave Eli a cute book too.
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Eli really loves Davey. But every time we had him sit at the stairs to take a picture, he would pause for just a minute and then get up and run around the yard laughing.
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13 comments:

Marci said...

What a fun little party! Happy Birthday to Eli! I love your deck too - don't you just love being in a house :-)?!

DC Diva said...

#1. Are you using live writer? What do you think?

#2. Where do you get Eli's cute shirts... specifically his one from a few posts ago w/ a 2 on it?

#3. Stressing over who to invite=story of my life. ;)

#4. Your parents are looking so good!

And finally -- cute theme and cute party!

Laura said...

What fun!! what a cute theme! i'm trying to decide myself! Great pics! Wish we had a backyard! Love the charlie first food!! such a classic moment! Happy bday ben! And sarah i still am in awe that you find the time to do all you do, even your cute blog, with 2 kids!!

Hillary said...

You guys have a great backyard. Looks like the party was a hit! I'm sure no one was mad about not being invited. You have to draw a line some where and not overwhelm Eli, so I think you did a great job. I love his shirts too, by the way!

kell-bell said...

It looks like lots of fun, what a good idea for a party!!

Beckie said...

it was such a FUN party!!!
the cookies were all so yummy. Wish I had a piece of the birthday cookie right now. yum!!

Jodie, Stefan and Natalia said...

such a perfect party for a 2-year-old. so cute and simple. i love it.

Rachel said...

Darling party, Sarah. The shirt he is wearing is so cute, and I loved all the details. Perfect party for two-year olds. Your parents do look great -- I need to go on whatever diet they were just on. Looks like Eli had a great birthday.

Kell's Belles said...

I heard the rule of thumb on invites to kids' birthday party is the age of the child plus one maximum. That way nobody gets stressed out or overwhelmed. Looks like you totally followed that :)

SUCH a cute party. What a great idea!

Laura said...

Hilarious about the happy birthday banner with no "a" - at least the kids can't read yet. Happy birthday to Eli!

Amber said...

I am SO impressed. What a fun idea and great party. We are doing a princess party for Emma's 3 year b-day party this Sat. I hope it goes as well as yours did! I am so stressing about it!

Sarah Beck said...

What an awesome idea! Way cute--looks like Eli had a great time!

Cami Severson said...

Just catching up on all your blogs, after being in blackout in Burney Falls for a week!! BTW I got home and realized that Eli's little gift and card, didn't make it into the mail. So sorry, I forgot to mail them! Hopefully, it won't be too weird if I send them now. It looks like he LOVED his party! I am so glad! I still need to blog KK's, I am a little behind on the big events! What a great idea! I like the spread! What a fun party.