Unwelcome to Grouchland Birthday — and so the storey begins

Here we are doing another Sesame Street birthday for the world’s sweetest boy, and we loved celebrating him. It was a fun creative challenge making his favorite Elmo movie, Elmo in Grouchland, come to life. B’s 2nd birthday was full of rainbows, pink, and a lot of the same details I reused (because why reinvent the wheel??) I loved getting the chance to do it again with more Jackson-oriented elements. At every infusion, his child life specialist knew to have Elmo in Grouchland ready in the DVD player for him. It was the soundtrack for this year!

I love Oscar the Grouch and all of his grumpy, moody feelings. He embodies everything we all want to say at times, and he’s consistent in who he is. Grouchland is a place where Oscar fits in perfectly, and it is a stinky, junky place. I wanted to have elements of Grouchland in the decor while still keeping that primary color scheme of Sesame Street. I collected decorations like a tire inflatable, construction cone napkins, and trash can cups because they reminded me of a junkyard. We had treats with gummy worms and “dirt” (Oreos), and I labeled the drinks as “Rotten Orange Juice” and “Pickled H2O.”

But I can’t resist color or the classic Sesame Street characters, so we had plenty of that as well! I ordered Cookie Monster doughnuts and decided last minute we needed a few more. They gave me six plain glazed doughnuts that I decorated like Oscar with green frosting, eyeball sprinkles, a piped chocolate unibrow, and a gummy worm to look like Slimey. I also made the same surprise ball characters that I did for B’s party with crepe paper and small trinkets.

I found a vintage Sesame Street pennant on eBay, and incorporated it into the theme because it fit my 90’s primary color scheme so well. The balloons were put together by me in a labor of love, and I got them off Etsy (but won’t link them because I had too many pop or have holes!). I also found an inflatable tire off Amazon that we can use for the pool later this summer, and it pulled everything together so nicely for Grouchland.

I fully recommend getting cups with lids and straws for kid parties. We had far less spills, and they were a great take-home favor! B helped me made dirt cups that we assembled in the Oui glass yogurt cups (lids purchased separately) and those were also easy to take on the road. A few of our guests took some home for later! Our place settings were a mix-match of silver metallic, black/white patterns, and bright primary colors. I love Oh Happy Day!’s brand of circle plates - they mix well for any color scheme.

For the party game, I bought a large trash can from the the hardware store and designed some stickers to decorate it with. I decided the kids would “fish” in the trash can for treasure, and because that part of the game would be fast, the prizes needed to be time-consuming. So I made sensory kits that kept with the theme of the party using meal-prep containers, play-doh, cookie cutters, pipe cleaners, character figurines, and various craft supplies and alphabet beads for the kids older than 3. I added a handle to the top of the containers to catch on the “hook” and labeled the kits for kids under 3 as “Grouchy Meals.” The kids LOVED this even more than I expected. It was a lot of fun seeing what they made - from monster faces to bracelets!

It was such a fun time. I loved seeing how much fun Jackson had - he is a party boy! We are so grateful for him, and these last two years were easy to celebrate.