Zaki's Cookie Monster Birthday Party

This was our first ever birthday party to set up. But we definitely had a blast putting it all together. It didn't take us long to prepare for this one because our ideas were simple. And mostly, store-bought. It was a bit pricey but since it was a 1st Birthday Party, we thought it was okay to splurge a little.

I printed out photos from birth to 12 months and placed it as a banner with tiny clothes pin and a string. I also got a sesame street banner from party city. 

I think this giveaway was by far the most difficult of all preparation. I bought these tiny buckets from target for $1 each. I already had the ribbon on hand. I hot-glued it around the bucket. We bought a few giveaways from Party City. We bought those sesame street straws and bubbles. We bought some cookies in small packages and some kisses. I bought the magnetic sheet from staples and printed Zaki's photos on them with a "Thank You" on it. 

We purchased a cookie monster piñata and those cookie monster balloons. Of course, the year old need assistance, but the older kids did just fine. 

And of course, the highlight of our party - the Cookie Monster cake. Baked by my mother in law. She is so good. I would recommend her to you!

I purchased a canvas from target because at the time it was on sale. I never really knew what I'd use it for. And so we used it as a guestbook. We got some finger paint from Michaels on a paper plate on the side.  And a few pens. And we asked them to sign these. 

We had lots of cookie monster stuffed toys that I thought I'd use them to decorate. I found a jar to place them in, and viola. Oh, poor cookie monster!

I wanted a very simple Photo Booth for the party. We used our laptop as the camera. And I purchased a blue tablecloth from Party city. We made a few cookies as props. We also made cookie monster's eyes and mouth. And placed them on a stick. It was really simple.

We only made one game, since we knew Zaki could only do one game. We used a box that we already had on hand. We drew a cookie monster face on him, and cut out his mouth. We made bean bags out of brown felt and added rice in it. We hot glued black circles on those bean bags in hopes to make them look like cookies. The game is called "Feed Cookie Monster". They had 3 tries to feed cookie monster those cookies. We also made a ball pit using our tiny inflatable swimming pool and filled it with plastic balls. 

It wasn't much but overall, Zaki had fun. It was a great 1st Birthday party for our little one.