Cute Bug Party 1yr - PB&J Tortilla Caterpillar

For our son's first birthday we had a bug theme, since he is so little we wanted cute bugs.  We went mainly with a bumble bee, ladybug, and caterpillar.  The colors for the party were yellow, red, and green.   

For the invitation we got bug frames (the three bugs mentioned above) from Oriental Trading.  We put three different close ups of our son's face in the frame part.  On the caterpillar we wrote: Jackson's 1st Birthday".  Next we had the lady bug with the party details printed on spots (garage sale dots from office store) on one we had the date on another time and on another the address.  Laslty was the bee on which we wrote "Bee There" and "Give us a Buzz if you plan to attend: (phone #)".  We enclosed them in the envolope in that order.  I was very glad to be using pictures of our son to make it more personal and all about him.  We also got bug stamps from the post office to place on the outside of the envelopes.   

Decorations and Food.  We had the party in the backyard.  Along the big posts on the back wall of our fence we had red and yellow helium balloons.  We picked them up early and drew black dots on the red ones and black stripes on the yellow ones.  On the wall of the fence we lined up several green ballons (not helium) to make a caterpillar.  We wrote the letters of his name real big on the balloons and one with a face.  Above it we had a "Happy 1st Birthday" banner.  On the side walls of the fense we had red yellow and green helium balloons at each post.  We had made a CD of bug songs which we played during the party. We covered the food table first in different color (party's colors) table cloths then we cut fake grass mats to fit the tops of the tables. 

On the main table we put a big terra cotta pot in the center with ballons floating from the center we then filled it with indivudual bags of chips.  Around it we had several two foot sandwiches from the sub shop that we decorated to look like caterpillars.  We also had a watermelon cut as a bowl with melon balls inside.  And we made several "ants on a log" snacks.  We used a lined wheelbarrow filled with ice and then all the beverages.  For the kids' food I made peanut butter and jelly on rolled up tortillas and sliced and arranged to look like a caterpillar.  I also halved the melon balls and put mini chocolate chips upside down in them to look like ladybugs and lined the chocolate chips on cantelope balls to look like bumble bees and added a few of these to their plates.  I made the kids' plates ahead of time and left them covered at kids sized picnic tables.  They also had the chips ants on a log and juice boxes.    

Games Activites and Favors.  We had lots of kids and all different ages so we planned activites for all.  We chose two activities (one geared towards older kids and one for the babies) for each of the three bugs. 

Caterpillar: we read the Very Hungary Caterpillar and we made a huge human caterpillar (crack the whip). 

Bumble Bee:  We sang the baby bumble bee song and we played bumble bee tag. 

Ladybug:  We played the put the spots on the ladybug game with oreo cookies and didn't blindfold the little ones and then for the big finale we had real live ladybugs for the kids to catch!  This was a huge hit even the littlest ones had fun watching them. 

For the favors I had red and yellow bags again decorated with dots and stripes respectively.  Inside we had bug tongs magnifying glass pinwheel ringpop bubbles gummi worms.  We also had bug boxes that I had painted and put the kids names on ahead of time.  We had cute bug stickers that the kids decorated their boxes with (we did this when they arrived while waiting for other guests) and then they got to chose either a bee or ladybug bag to add their boxes to.  It was fun to see the kids use their tongs boxes and magnifying glasses when catching their ladybugs.  I also had several small different colors of cirlces cut out that the guests decorated and wrote a message for the birthday boy on I put them together to make a caterpillar in his memory book.  Also instead of party hats I made antenas out of headbands springs and styrafoam balls.  It was so cute to see all the little bugs at the party.   

Cake.  I made cupcakes and arranged large ones to look like a caterpillar.  I also made mini cupcakes that were decorated to look like lady bugs and bumble bees.  I had them all sitting on one of our fake grass covered tables and it looked very cute.  Plus the birthday boy had his very own cake to dive into.  It said "Happy 1st Birthday Jackson across the caterpillar.   

After the party we continued the theme by sending butterfly thank yous.  He had made his trasition from those infant months to a little boy.  The butterfly thank yous were also frames from Oriental Trading.  It had a spot for two pictures in one we put a picture of the birthdat boy from his party and in the other we put a personalized message on the butteryfly itself we wrote Thank You.    The party was a huge success lots of fun for all ages.  And the birthday boy loved it!"