Bug Party 2yr - Anthill Cake

For my son's second birthday we are having a bug party.  He is totally into bug hunting.  Here's what we did/are doing:

Invitions- On the front of the invitation there is a graphic of Josey (our son) as a caterpillar, there are also bugs in each corner and it says "You're Invited".. Then on the inside on the top there is a graphic of Josey's head (with antennae) sticking out of a coccoon and it says "To A Buggy Birthday!" .. On the inside bottom it has you guessed it, a graphic of Josey as a butterfly and then all the birthday info (time, date, location, etc.).  Since we printed these up on the computer we made it even easier and put the address on the back of the card so all you have to do is put on a stamp (you can order bug stamps or just about anything else from the post office)and send them.  I also put a little graphic of two bees and it says "Bee There".  You could easily make the bug pictures by just cutting out a picture of a bug and adding on your child's head. 

For the main decoration we made a big spider web using string and crepe paper (you could just draw one on a big posterboard) then we made all the birthday guests as different bugs (Lindsey Ladybug, Mary Ruth Roach, Nana Gnat, Jerry Junebug, etc.).  Then of course we needed a spider so we made a big Daddy (my husband) Long Legs.  I also did a big drawing of Josey holding a bug net.  We're also doing red balloons with black spots (ladybugs) and yellow with black stripes (bumblebees) for decoration along with red, green, blue, and yellow streamers and a bug mobile from the chandelier.  Paper butterflies and other flying insects also from the ceiling.  For our cups I bought red cups from the dollar store (cheap!) and colored on black spots for ladybug cups.  We found bee dessert plates and set them on top of blue dinner plates (sky).  The silverware has plastic ants glued on.  For the napkins we actually found some bug themed on sale at the party store.  Then we got those spider rings and they became napkin rings.  My mom found some yellow with dragonflies fabric cheap at walmart so that’s going to be the tablecloth. 

The centerpiece on the table will be the anthill cake.  I've already made a couple for practice and they turned out so cute!  I made a chocolate cake in a bundt pan. Let it cool (freeze it even, it works better) then I cut down the sides making it into a hill shape.  The hole was too big so I just put the excess cake in there and it worked perfectly.  Frost the whole thing with peanut butter (or other light brown) frosting.  Then I put crushed honey graham crackers all over it (sand) and added some plastic ants crawling up the side.  At the party we'll have ants "crawling" from each corner of the table to the cake. 

We also made a ladybug and a bee cake.  They are both just two 9-inch cakes layered.  Use black icing and make a head (about a third of the cake).  The rest of the cake color red for the ladybug or yellow for the bee.  With the ladybug we added a black line down the middle and then mini oreos halved for spots.  The ladybug black icing stripes.  We did toothpicks with Kix cereal on the ends sticking up for antennaes, m&m eyes, and licorice whip mouths.  We used a sterilized black marker cap for the stinger on the bee and two teardrop shapes cut from thick white cardstock stuck in at an angle for wings.  They both turned out very cute.  We plan to set those on either side of the anthill and then just scatter various fake bugs (along with the ants) on the table for decoration. 

We also did ten cupcakes lined up in a wavy pattern on green dyed coconut ala caterpillar.  Just decorate them in whatever color and you can add words too.  We are using one to say happy, one to say 2nd, one to say birthday, and then J-O-S-E-Y then one just colored and then the head.  We are using two (its his second birthday!) candles for the antennae, licorice mouth and just icing eyes. 

For other food we are having kabugs & lice (kabobs and rice).  After the kabobs are cooked we're adding fake bugs to the ends and then just rice to eat with them.  To drink we are having "Bug Juice" (lemonade mixed with blue koolaid, very neon green) with ice cubes with fake flies in them (put them in at the last minute, you don’t want floating flies!)  We also ordered an autograph dog from the oriental trading company (only five bucks).  It’s a fabric dog that you can have the guests sign with marker.  On the front I plan to write "These are a few of my favorite fleas" to stay with the bug theme and then draw little fleas all over for people to sign there names next to. 

All the guests are grownups so we are not really doing much in the way of games.  I did buy the Elefun game though.  It has this elephant that shoots butterflies out its trunk and you try to catch them.  We're also going to put a tv in the dining room and play some of Josey's sing-a-long tapes with bug songs (ants go marching is his favorite) and let everyone sing-a-long while they watch him do the too cute actions. 

For favors we found picture frames with bees and beehives on them at the dollar store (2 dollars) and put in a paper with Josey as a bee and it says "Thanks for BEE-ing here! Love - Josey"  We also found bee birthday paper that has bees and says Happy Beeday all over it.  We wrapped up one frame for each couple. We made a sign to put above a basket holding all the wrapped frames that says "Pleazzzze take one bee-fore you leave" We got bug thank you cards (on sale) and we're going to send pictures of each couple with Josey at the party in them to put in the frames.  I do believe thats all.  Happy Beeday everyone!