Bug Party 4yr - Pin Spot on Ladybug

Bug party for 4 year old boy.  We had a bug party for our son's 4th birthday. 

Invitations:  Same as the lady bug shaped ones but in all black cardstock so to look like a beetle.  The wings opened up to reveal the party information. I glued on wiggle eyes and black pipe cleaners for the legs and antennea.  The inside read: "Butterflies & beetles, slugs & worms, Nets & canisters & everthing that squirms.  Every rock unturned next to a pile of dirt. Huge holes in the garden, gross stains on my shirt.  Yes, it's me Hayden that would be my name, Bugs are my life and catching them is the game. So come to my party because soon I'll be 4! It will be so much fun. The earth is ours to explore."--(from this site) Below that read "Creep by on Saturday, April 12, 2003; Fly over to (address); Infestation time…4 PM; Buzz us at (phone #) to let us know if you can Boogie with the Beetles!  The wording was printed on white paper in a child-type font and then cut and glued onto the solid circle that made up the body.  The second circle was cut in half to make the wings and attached with small, black headed brads.  A third smaller circle made the head. 

Decorations: I used astro-turf for the table cloths (.97 a foot at Home Depot).  I also purchased a lot of real looking bugs from our .99 only store and the $1 section of a grocery store.  I hot glued them to the tables and all over the walls (outside of house--this was an outside party) I also hot glued some to the toilet seat, mirror and sink in the bathroom.  I punched out spider shapes from a die cut machine and stuck those all over the walls. We saved a spider webbing and spiders from Halloween last year and made a huge spider web a spider and pastic flies in it. I purchased online 20 gross of small plastic ants to use all around. We also purchased the Glitter Bugs pattern of party supplies.  We hung a cute bug mobile and banners across the eves of the house.  They also have a darling 3-D centerpiece that we bought 4 of to go along the back edge of the cake & food table.  We had green and blue balloons tied along the front fence and up the driveway.  I had honey-comb bees that I glued to the tables as weights for the balloons on the tables.   I purchased an ant hill and sent away for live ants.  I used this on the cake table so the kids could see how ants burrow their tunnels. 

Games: Bug hunt; Pin the spot on the lady bug; Bug eating contest; Toss the ants into the ant hill; Bumble Bee bounce; face painting and pinata.

Bug Hunt--We hid about 30+ plastic bugs all around our front yard for the kids to find and put in their small clip-on bug catchers.

Pin the spot on the lady bug--I made a huge ladybug out of red posterboard.  I glued huge wiggle eyes and black pipe cleaners for legs and antennea.  The kids were blind folded and they had to lick the inside of an untwisted Oreo cookie and stick it on one of the ladybug's spots.

Bug eating contest--Each child had a paper plate with some chocolate sprinkles (bugs) on it.  They had to eat the "bugs" without using their hands. Toss the ants into the ant hill--I made a papermache ant hill and sewed ant shaped bean bags for the kids to toss into the opening at the top.

Bumble Bee bounce--I bought white ping-pong balls and painted them yellow. I then drew with a black marker the details of a bee on them.  I made honey pots out of brown lunch bags by rolling the tops down and crinkling the bags a bit.  Each bag had candy, plastic bugs and bug rings in them.  Each child bounced a bee trying to get it into any of the 10 honey pots.  When they did, they went and chose something out of it.  Each child won something and they had numerous turns.   Face painting--a friend who does face painting came and painted various kinds of bugs on each child's face.

Pinata--we purchased a worm pinata at Party City.  I converted it to a pull-string pinata and filled it.  I like to buy cellophane bags and put equal amounts of candy in each tie them up and put them in the pinata. So, when the kids pull the strings and the trap doors open the prefilled bags fall out instead of just pieces of candy.  This way everyone gets the same amount and there's no cleaning up. I also had bug nets for the kids to play with and keep looking for more bugs.  

Goodies: Each child (and adult) was given a set of antennea made out of head bands, black ribbon and black painted strofoam balls.  They had their take home boxes (I purchased cute kraft colored boxes at Pebbles In My Pocket-scrapbook store) that I stamped with various bugs and glued a big plastic fly to the outside.  Inside they each had a critter container with their name on it (ex. Hayden's Critters) with LIVE ladybugs in them; a bug pez; a small magnifying glass; plastic tweezers; bug shaped sidewalk chalk; bug stickers; a bug ring; and a CD with 10 bug songs that a friend burned for me and a ladybug shaped note pad. I also made clear glycerine soap with a bug in the middle for each child.  They also had their clip-on bug catcher/container from the bug hunt. The 2 babies that were at the party each received a bib with "snuggle bug" on it and a stuffed bug. 

Food: We had bug juice (frozen limeade, Sprite, water and lime sherbet ice cream), chips, dips, veggies, hot dogs, bbq brisket sandwiches, gummy worms and ants.  The chips & dips and veggies we served in bee and ladybug shaped patters.  We had the Glitter Bugs pattern for cake plates and napkins and dark green plates and napkins for lunch/dinner.

Cake: I made an ant hill cake.  My son chose strawberry, lemon and chocolate cakes.  I made a rectangle sheet cake--one layer strawberry and the other layer lemon.  I then used my Pampered Chef mixing bowl and baked the chocolate cake in that for the actual ant hill.  I frosted the cakes with white vanilla frosting. I crushed up graham crackers and covered the top and sides of the frosted cake with it to make it look like dirt/sand.  I then used little plastic ants spelling out my son's name along the side of the cake and had the ants keep going on top of the cake and into the top of the ant hill.  It actually turned out nice.   \*\*A helpful hint would be to put the ladybugs into the containers and then place the containers into the refridgerator until you're ready to hand out the goody bags/boxes.  The ladybugs will start moving around again very quickly and this way it keeps them "sleeping" until you're ready. 

This party was a lot of fun to plan and everyone had a great time. It lasted about 3 hours. I started early though . . . last summer to purchase all the bug containers, chalk, etc. when they went on clearance at the end of summer.  This site is always a wonderful source of ideas.