Birthday Planning

I've started to ponder Sam and Anna's second (!) birthday celebration.  Last year was such a bust after this and my parents getting the flu, that our "party" had a total of 3 guests.  So far, we have decided that we're going to try something different this year and take the party to our relatives, instead of at our house and having them come to us (which involves juggling several sets of house guests).    Less stress of getting our house clean and hosting different sets of families overnight, but trading that for a 7 hour round trip drive and less than stellar sleep for Sam and Anna in a less than familiar setting. 
We'll see how that goes.

What I haven't decided is the theme for Sam and Anna's second birthday party.  I've had in the back of my mind basing it off of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle for a long time. I have so many cute ideas stored on pinterest:



However Sam and Anna have really turned into Elmo nuts lately.  I don't entirely get where it comes from, since they don't watch Sesame Street and they just listen to Elmo's song at daycare from a CD (besides the characters being on their diapers).  Our daycare provider gave them plush Cookie Monsters, Elmo, Big Bird and Ernie for Christmas, and they have been some of the most popular toys in the last few weeks.  Regardless of where it comes from, they love Elmo. 

I've never been much of a characters-for-kids kind of person.  No judging for anyone that is- for me it's like the color pink.  Some people like it, some people hate the color pink.  If you don't like the color pink, it's not like you look down on people that do- it just isn't something you aren't fond of personally.  Sam and Anna don't have anything Elmo based except for the gifts they got from daycare.  I would kind of like to keep it that way.

BUT, I can kind of see why people buy into character stuff now.  The way their faces (Sam especially) light up when I play Elmo's song for them on you tube is priceless.  Their joy becomes my joy.  I'm growing to love that furry red monster too, because my kids do.  As far as characters go, too- he's not that bad.  He doesn't whine like I've read Calliou does, or act bossy like Ruby from Ruby and Max does, or promote the helpless woman rescued by a man theme from Disney.

And so, I'm now contemplating an Elmo theme for the 2nd birthday party.  After all, it is their day, and to see their faces light up with that much joy from the Elmo junk stuff all over would make me happy too, no?

Plus, I've pinned all this good stuff from pinterest so far.




This is gonna be a tough decision to make!