Join The Swarm Party 1yr - Bug Green

After deciding between several ideas for my son's first birthday party, I finally landed on a Bug theme. I found that this was an easy, fun theme that could easily be adapted for boys or girls.  

I started with invitations that I found online. It was a magnifying glass with a cute cartoon bug holding it up. I used the following words: Our little bug, (son's name here), is turning 1! Buzzz on over to join in the fun! Bee There: August XX, 2009, Swarm site: 1111 Bug st. Bugland, TX XXXXX, Infestation time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm, Pest Control: Jack and Jill Nelson, Buzz Kill: XXX-XXX-XXXX or XXXX@XXXXX.com, Come Join our Swarm! I was pleasantly surprised that the website I ordered the invitations through featured my wording on their blog! 

Next were decorations. We wanted to create a Bug's Life" or "Honey I shrunk the kids" kind of atmosphere so we got a roll of green butcher paper from a local teacher supply store and cut large pieces of grass blades. We then picked up free paint sticks at the local Lowes to help them stand up. We created a background of grass on the wall using these grass blades and some sticky tack to secure the top of the blade to the wall. I then ordered 2 balloon bouquets that included 1 giant flower mylar at the top. I put one bouquet on either side of the blade of grass section. I then found a couple of vinyl table clothes that had grass printed on them in the football party section. I used this on the floor in order to catch any mess the kids may drop. Finally my mother is very creative and made a 9ft baby Einstein catapillar table that would seat 15 kids. It sat on top of the grass vinyl table cloths and in front of the grass background.   I also had a birthday banner hanging above the scene. I found several bug cutouts at the teacher supply store to sticky tack to the wall among the grass blades as well.

We placed a table at the entrance of the party and had color sheets that I printed out online of scenes from the "A Bugs Life" movie to color on until everyone arrived. This is also where we had a set of Bee antennas for each child. I found these from A Bee Movie at the party store. I bent the girls antennas to be spirals and the boys to look like lightening bolts. It was very cute. I also had a Dr. Suess book called "A bug that went Ka-Choo" on the front table. This served as our guest book and everyone signed the inside cover as they arrived. To add a punch of color I added a vase with bright orange lime green and blue jelly beans in a vase with some fake green and yellow gerber daisy flowers on the table. A cute way to get a lot of color and a different look than colored m&m's which are used so often now.  

The food table was covered in a table cloth that had dots of colors in bright orange lime green and turqoise blue. I added a piece of turf as a table runner that I had cut at the local Lowes store for less than 5 dollars. Then strewed some giant bugs from the dollar store among the food on the turf runner. We then served ants on a log colorful 7 layer dip bug juice which was gingerale lemonade and frozen fruit (easy easy and soooo good) bug bark (puppy chow recipe) cheese/cracker and grape tray as well as honeymaid bee cookies and of course Dirt cake in a flower pot decorated with gummy worms and fake flowers. This served as the centerpiece on the grass turf table runner. My son's smash cake was in the shape of a bug and bought at our local Kroger Store.  

The favors were a huge hit! I found bamboo handled multi colored bug catcher nets at the dollar store and had bags of funny bugs sidewalk chalk and plastic garden tools with bug handles sealed with a sticker I had made that said "I joined the Swarm" with the party date to secure the bag closed. Each bag was put in the catcher net.   My mother also created a wood cut out that said I joined the Swarm. It was a painted 4ft X 4ft piece of plywood with a landscape with several kinds of bugs. The bumble bee's face was cut out so each child could stick their face in the hole and become a part of the "swarm". We got a picture of each child and plan to use them as thank you notes.  

This party was so much fun and my coworkers were still talking about it on Monday! Hope these ideas help you to create your own Swarm recruiting bug party!"