Bug Party 3yr - Dirt Cupcakes with Worms

Like most little boys, our son loves critters!  So for his third birthday, we decided on a bug theme. 

THE INVITES: I used lime green blank cards and printed/fancy-cut/pasted the following poem to the front center: Butterflies, beetles, slugs, and worms/ Spiders, grasshoppers, and all that squirms!/ We're going buggy cause Reese is turning 3/ I hope you can come celebrate with me!  Along the border I hot-glued small pompoms (red, yellow, and black) to create a ladybug, bee, and spider  drawing the legs and antennae, and using a teensy black pompom for their heads.  I also used teensy dark green pompoms glued next to each other to create a caterpillar and a pipe cleaner bent to resemble a dragonfly.  Finally, I drew little dotted lines for the bee's flying trail.  On the inside I had: Come Boogie with the Beetles! / Creep by on: Sunday, May 6th/ Fly over to: (our address)/ Bug in @ 2:30 p.m./ Buzzzz me at (phone #)  These were time-consuming and a bit messy using the hot glue on such tiny pieces, but they received many compliments! 

THE FOOD: Ants on a log (raisins placed on peanut-butter covered celery sticks), Bug Bites crackers (Keebler makes these adorable insect-shaped crackers similar to Teddy Grahams), Cocoons (pigs in a blanket made with the small size hotdogs and cut down ready-made croissant triangles), bug juice (a fruity drink served in a punch bowl including floating gummy worms!), and of course we also had some fruit, chips, and soda out, too. 

Our cupcakes were dirt cupcakes (crushed Oreo's over fudge icing with gummy worms coming out of the top) and butterflies (each used two pretty fruit slices , cut in half to make the wings, a sour gummy worm for the body, and black licorice or Twizzler's Pull-n-Peel for the antennae). 

THE DECORATIONS: Besides the foods which were arranged really cute on the dining table(additional dirt" and some dyed shredded coconut as grass under the cupcakes I had a few insect garden sculptures that I found at the dollar store.  From the ceiling (our party was at our home) I hung big butterflies (Walgreens) and worm balloons that I found in the party section of my grocery store.  I used fishing line and pushpins  these were a cheap and easy decoration that made a big impact for setting the scene. 

THE GAMES:  I gave each child a plastic bug box (Dollar store) with their name on it and told them we were going on a bug hunt.  We marched like ants hopped like grasshoppers and then buzzed like bees to the side yard where my husband had just hid 100 plastic bugs (Oriental Trading Co.).  The kids were pretending to scare each other and their parents as they found bugs hiding in the grass on leaves and in tree branches  they had so much fun!  After the bug hunt we played Place the Spot on the Ladybug.  I had a big ladybug drawn on a piece of red poster with all of his black spots there except one (there was a dotted circle where it should be).  Each blindfolded child (smallest to biggest) got an Oreo cookie to unscrew lick the white and try to stick it onto the missing spot.  Next we had a bug eating contest.  Each kid got a white plastic plate and a few shakes of chocolate sprinkles.  (If the child was three he got three shakes a five-year-old got five shakes etc).  They had to eat all of their "ants" with no hands.  They thought it was so funny!  We got some great pictures during this activity!  Finally they did the pinata (we bought the pull string kind which didn't work so Daddy ended up ripping it open for them but of course they didn't notice). 

THE GOODIE BAGS:  Each child took home their bug box with their plastic bugs and pinata candy inside and a Bee Your Best bottle of bubbles (Oriental) with some insect tattoos and a ring pop.  This was such a fun party; I hope you enjoy yours as much as our birthday boy enjoyed his!!!"