In case you are new around this party joint, our Thanksgiving party is always paired with Leah’s birthday party, and her current love affair is with Elmo. Challenge accepted! I pulled out my red tote and started planning all things Elmo… on a budget. Like, a major budget because I was technically spending someone else’s money. I might save more of my own cashola if I pretended every party budget was coming out of someone else’s pocket. Ha!
Michael’s birthday surprise is the sponsored portion of this post, but the Elmo birthday party is all mine.
ELMO BIRTHDAY PARTY FAVORS
Since this was a party for a two year old, I kept the party favors simple. I stuffed a bit of white tissue paper in the bottom of the leftover bags from our Dr. Seuss party to give the illusion of ‘being full’ before placing a small book in it. I found two packs of ‘Read with Elmo‘ books in the dollar section at Target, so each favor was maybe .75. And that’s a huge maybe.
ELMO BIRTHDAY PARTY DECORATIONS
I wanted a few high impact decorations to drive the Elmo theme home so I opted for the street sign and this Elmo topiary. The topiary reused one of the red vases from my Dr. Seuss party (having now been used in 3 parties), I painted a wooden dowel that was leftover from a previous project, and covered a Styrofoam ball in red feather boas. (Estimated cost = $6)
The street sign was just over $10, but it doesn’t have to be. Use whatever time you have before your party to think of alternative supplies if cost is a big concern. The ball at the top of the sign? That sucker was $4 at Home Depot! The baluster? That was $5 at Lowe’s! Michael was able to make the base from old boards in the basement, and the rod was the same rod from the topiary.
And that was it for Elmo specific decor! Keepin’ it simple!
ELMO BIRTHDAY PARTY FOOD
Are these chocolate covered cookies not adorable? OMG! I am so in love. The red chocolate ran about $2, the candy eyes were $2, the cookies were $1, and the M&M’s were $1.83. So, for under $7, I could have stopped at one treat. Except I didn’t. You know one treat is not enough for this very pregnant lover of sugar.
So, I moved on to chocolate covered pretzels with the same bag of chocolate and M&M’s. The pretzel rods were $1 and I spent another $2 on candy eyes. BUT! BUT BUT BUT! Elmo pretzel rods are not easy to make. They will test your patience.
Tips:
- Dip a bunch in chocolate so they have time to cool down.
- Place one eye so it touches the parchment paper. Then, place the other eye so it sort of rests on the first eye. If you don’t, it will slide off. Promise. We had a few Elmo rods in need of some serious love from a bottle of eye drops.
The chocolate covered strawberries looked a bit more like something from Veggie Tales, so skip them unless you love yourself some chocolate covered strawberries. We did have to open a second bag of $2 chocolate, there was another $2 spent on candy eyes, and we will estimate $2 for strawberries.
And of course we had cake! During one of my MANY clearance shopping trips, I scored an Elmo cake pan on clearance. You’re not surprise, right? Ha! I gave the pan to my aunt and she worked her tasty magic.
ELMO BIRTHDAY PARTY DRINKS
- Water bottles wrapped with red duct tape.
- Punch ($2)
- Red cups ($2?)
- Orange and yellow silverware with a paper straw, wrapped with a red napkin and a bit of black construction paper. ($3?)
All in front of the red and orange feather boas I used in my NickMom bachelorette party. Reuse! Reuse! Reuse!
To keep the budget down, I used black, white, and orange construction paper for all of the faces. Brilliant? I think so! Just slap a bit of glue or tape on the back and call it a day!
I opted for a hodge podge of silverware colors because quality silverware is SO expensive! I had red napkins, paper straws, and some yellow silverware… but no forks. Forks are sort of important, so I bought a package of orange forks and it looked like I planned it that way. You know, because I totally did.
Except not.
The orange tablecloth is from my sangria party, but plenty stores carry plastic tablecloths. Now, had I had a bit more time, I would have given the party table a backdrop with the paper lanterns I own to make it feel more like a ‘Mallery party’. I’m a little fussy when it comes to parties. Tee hee!
Money saving tip: Don’t forget to save boxes for your different wrapping paper covered tiers!
Michael is finally to the point where he wants to play video games. Heck, I want him to play video games! I love a good MMORPG so telling him he can’t wield a controller would make me a hypocrite. What I worry about is introducing the sedentary gamer lifestyle before he hits his teens. I mean, I absolutely understand what his teens look like, but he has many years before hitting that point.
For now, his LeapTV allows him to play video games, learn something, and stay active. I’m a genius and he is happy.
Mom thoughts:
- The controller is so much easier for little hands to hold.
- The audio instructions help Michael follow along.
- Easy to setup.
DO A GIRL A FAVOR AND PIN THIS ELMO BIRTHDAY PARTY!
