Last week, Borders advertised that they were hosting an Elmo Birthday Party on Saturday, February 21st, from 2pm to 3:30pm. We were so excited to go to this because Gracelyn absolutely loves Elmo! I mean, her favorite color is red, so of course she would be enamored of a little, red, furry, lovable monster! All week long, she kept talking about how she was gonna see Elmo and sing him "Happy Birthday". She even decided that she was going to wear her Elmo costume (from Halloween last year) to the party, so she could show Elmo how much she loves him.
The day of the party (being a Saturday, we had our usual Costco-TraderJoe's-Target trifecta of grocery shopping to do), we busted our butts to get out of the house early so as to finish our shopping and still have time to come home, unload groceries, feed Haven, and get ready for Elmo's big day. We raced over to Santana Row, and, seeing how crowded it was in that area (who has money for shopping these days?, I ask you...), we did a drop off of Daddie & BG at Borders while Mommie and Haven went in search of a parking spot. As Haven and I were walking to the bookstore, I was getting text after text from Judd, and they were not looking very positive. What basically happened was this:
Judd & Gracelyn walk up to the children's area, to find a dude reading an Elmo book to a group of kids. There is no Elmo in sight, except for Gracelyn in her costume. Upon seeing our big girl in her red-monster gear, several of the kids cry out, "Look! There's Elmo!" Once they realize that this particular Elmo is extremely shy and won't sing to, dance for, play with or even smile for them, the excitement wears off within seconds. The dude reading the Elmo book finishes up, passes out some stickers and Elmo coloring pages, then has the kids sing "Happy Birthday" to Elmo who isn't even there! He then says, "Thanks for coming to Elmo's party, everyone! Have a great day!" The whole thing lasted a whopping 25 minutes, and -- did I mention? -- Elmo wasn't there. We spent the rest of the day trying to explain that one to Gracelyn (side note: she still wonders aloud where exactly Elmo went).
I mean, yeah, the economy is crap and funds are tight these days; I completely understand that. But how are you gonna advertise a birthday party for someone and then not have them even make a cameo appearance at the bash??? How hard would it have been to dress up one of your college-kid-employees in a red suit and call him Elmo? Seriously. Kids are pretty easy to please when it comes to things like that -- a princess is anyone in a fancy dress and a tiara, a superhero is anyone with a cape and/ or mask, a clown is anyone with silly clothes and colorful hair, and an Elmo is anyone dressed in a furry red suit with a big orange nose and a smile on his face! Come on!
The day of the party (being a Saturday, we had our usual Costco-TraderJoe's-Target trifecta of grocery shopping to do), we busted our butts to get out of the house early so as to finish our shopping and still have time to come home, unload groceries, feed Haven, and get ready for Elmo's big day. We raced over to Santana Row, and, seeing how crowded it was in that area (who has money for shopping these days?, I ask you...), we did a drop off of Daddie & BG at Borders while Mommie and Haven went in search of a parking spot. As Haven and I were walking to the bookstore, I was getting text after text from Judd, and they were not looking very positive. What basically happened was this:
Judd & Gracelyn walk up to the children's area, to find a dude reading an Elmo book to a group of kids. There is no Elmo in sight, except for Gracelyn in her costume. Upon seeing our big girl in her red-monster gear, several of the kids cry out, "Look! There's Elmo!" Once they realize that this particular Elmo is extremely shy and won't sing to, dance for, play with or even smile for them, the excitement wears off within seconds. The dude reading the Elmo book finishes up, passes out some stickers and Elmo coloring pages, then has the kids sing "Happy Birthday" to Elmo who isn't even there! He then says, "Thanks for coming to Elmo's party, everyone! Have a great day!" The whole thing lasted a whopping 25 minutes, and -- did I mention? -- Elmo wasn't there. We spent the rest of the day trying to explain that one to Gracelyn (side note: she still wonders aloud where exactly Elmo went).
I mean, yeah, the economy is crap and funds are tight these days; I completely understand that. But how are you gonna advertise a birthday party for someone and then not have them even make a cameo appearance at the bash??? How hard would it have been to dress up one of your college-kid-employees in a red suit and call him Elmo? Seriously. Kids are pretty easy to please when it comes to things like that -- a princess is anyone in a fancy dress and a tiara, a superhero is anyone with a cape and/ or mask, a clown is anyone with silly clothes and colorful hair, and an Elmo is anyone dressed in a furry red suit with a big orange nose and a smile on his face! Come on!
We didn't have our camera with us (not that there would have been much to photograph, anyways), but I did want to share some pics of Gracelyn in her Elmo costume, just because she's so darn cute. These are from Halloween last year.
