Cole's First Birthday {Elmo Themed}

I did a Elmo themed party for Cole's first birthday, mainly because I had planned on doing an Elmo party for Ethan's 3rd birthday. After he saw Cars 2 last May he decided he wanted a Cars party. Since I had already bought a few Elmo party goods (yes, I plan far in advance!) I needed to use them up so Cole got an Elmo party. He loves Elmo too so it was all good ;-)

Almost all my party ideas are from all over the internet. The only original ones I can claim for myself are the painted favor bags and the "fish bowls". I worked for several weeks putting the ideas together and then the whole week of the party to get stuff done. Top it off with getting up early that morning to run a 5k race and then take the kids to a church Easter Egg Hunt! Thank goodness my husband helped clean the floors and fold & put laundry away because I did not have a minute to spare before the party! I wouldn't change it for anything, though. I LOVE making a fun & special parties for my kids and it has definitely become a hobby for me. Plus gives me a good reason to make an elaborate cake and learn new decorating techniques :-D

A wreath for the front door. I used a wire clothes hanger and tied plastic table cloth strips to it. I made the sign on the computer and printed it out.

My husband built the "Cole Street" sign and I painted it. I bought primary colored fabric bags and painted a letter on the front for each of the kids.

Here's a picture of the little gold fish bowls I made for the favor bags. I cut out fish bowl shaped in glitter velum and a piece of scrapbook paper that looked like water behind it. I then put them inside a cookie bag and poured in gold fish. This wasn't my original idea on how to put the bags together (I was going to sew them together) but this took less time and was easier.

A box wrapped with fabric to hold the chocolate pops. I used the same "I am 1" mold for Ethan's first birthday party.

Display of cupcakes and cookies. The cupcakes were coconut with coconut buttercream. They turned out great, the best recipe I have used so far for coconut! I had lots of mason jars which I bought the lids and paper straws for. Then I put the punch in my glass dispenser and hung a "C" with some ribbon at the top.

Close up of the stand. I made the cupcake toppers myself with the same images I used on his party invite, printed them off the computer, attached them to cardstock and glued a little bow beneath each one.

These were sugar cookies covered with flood icing. I have always loved these type of sugar cookies and it was my first time to make some. They are VERY time consuming (about as time consuming as doing the cake) but they were very tasty and totally worth it. I'm hooked on cookie making now!!

I ended up making a little smash cake (1 layer 6 inch round) for Cole. I was going to just let him have a cupcake, but I wasn't crazy about him having a cupcake that had bright colored buttercream. Plus he loves food and ended up devouring almost the whole thing!

The cake was chocolate with buttercream frosting and fondant accents. The '1' and the stars on top I made with gumpaste and the Elmo was a figurine (come one, I'm not THAT ambitious ;-). I made the batch of marshmallow fondant for the accents and used cutters for the '1' and dots. I made my own "C"s using a circle cutter and shaping them by hand. I painted all the fondant with shimmer dust but I think I got a little too much on it.

I have heard great reviews for Swiss Meringue Buttercream and had planned on using that instead of regular buttercream but after I figured out it was going to take about an hour to make it I realized I didn't have time. Perhaps for another cake a different time. This was my first cake to really work on getting it completely smooth. I'm getting better and learn more each time!