Elmo Birthday Party

This afternoon we celebrated Emily's 2nd birthday with a party at The Little Gym.  Her theme was Elmo / Sesame Street.

The invitations - I erased our phone number/email address.

We've been to several parties at the Little Gym (as well as taken classes) and I was very impressed with how smoothly everything went.  They greeted us at our car and helped us in and set everything up for us, cut and passed out cake, and cleaned up for us.  This was WAY easier than having it at our house.  The party was an hour and a half and we spent the majority of the time playing in the gym.  Em had a ball and I hope all her friends did too.  We had 11 kids come (incl. Emily) and I thought it was the perfect number.  We didn't feel cramped at all in the gym. 

I went pretty simple on the setup since I knew we would be spending most of our time in the gym (and not enjoying the decorations). 

I ordered her cake from a new bakery in Frisco, Frost-It Cafe.  I didn't know anyone that had tried it before, so I was a little nervous, but it turned out great.  And it was really yummy too.  I'll definitely use them again.

A little hard to read, but the bag tags said "Elmos loves his goldfish and crayons too, now so can you.  Love, Emily"  The favors were crayons, a coloring book, goldfish and just because they are Em's favorite - Sesame street bathtub fizzy colors.  And each child got to bring a balloon home too.

Emily and Chelsea

When Em took classes at the Little Gym, I couldn't get her to go near the bars.  But during her party all she wanted to do was hang from the bars.  She would just hang . . .

and hang.

Nattie

Here she is hanging some more.  :)

Aubrey noticing her elmo.

All the kids pretending the balance beam was a rocket ship.

Riding around on the parachute

Emily and Luke

Emily and Brooklyn

Brooklyn and Avery

Running in the bubbles.

All the kids waiting for the airmat to blow up.

From left to right (Hudson, Luke, Chelsea, Brooklyn (in back), Avery, Em, Aubrey, Carson, Nattie (in back), Cameron (in back) and Lauren)

Waiting for the airmat to go down.

We had such a good time at Em's party, but we were all worn out by the end.  It was very nice to just pick up and leave and have no messy house to go back to.  The only thing I was disappointed about was when I had called to confirm her party a week before, they asked if we wanted to open presents during the party and I said yes.  Apparently, that didn't get passed on to the people running the party.  I wasn't watching the time and the party was almost over when I realized we hadn't opened gifts yet, so unfortunately we didn't get to open them at the party.  I guess the norm is to not open gifts at the party (which is weird to me, but whatever).  We had a party to go to for my Dad's 60th right after Em's and family pictures Sunday morning, so we didn't get to open her gifts until later on Sunday.  Good thing she didn't realize her gifts hadn't been opened yet.

So on Sunday we let her open just a couple gifts before naptime (after we got back from family pics).

And then we let her open the rest after naptime.  Please excuse the bed head.  Em received lots of nice gifts.  She has loved playing with all her new toys.