Bees & Bugs 1&6yr - Bug Hunt Magnifiers

My son and daughter's birthdays are one day apart so last June we had a combined party to celebrate using bees for Jenna (age 1) and bugs for Cameron (age 6). 

I used bright colors (orange, lime green, yellow and hot pink)for the balloons and tableclothes. 

Cameron's table was filled with little magnifying glasses and plastic bugs.  He had cupcakes that were arranged to look like a giant caterpillar with licorice legs and a chocolate cake that was sprinkled with oreo cookie crumbs with gummy worms popping out. 

My daughter's table was decorated with silk flowers and vines and had a bee hive cake that was made by baking a cake in a Pyrex batter bowl.  It was turned upside down and then iced and topped with toasted coconut.  "Buzzing" around the cake were cute iridiscent bees on wire stems that I put in the cake.  We also had homemade ice cream…vanilla and orange sherbet (easy and delicious!  Just use 1 2L bottle of orange soda, 1 can sweetened condensed milk and 1 can of crushed pineapple in electric freezer.) 

The kids enjoyed playing at the park and also had fun using the magnifying glasses to look for bugs.  I brought along a toaster oven and everyone enjoyed coloring bug-shaped shrinky dinks that I had pre-cut to save time before the party. They beat the heat by having a water balloon war. 

Party favors were little bug boxes (smaller than a band-aid box) that I found for a $1 at a craft store and filled with crushed graham crackers and chocolate sprinkles to look like ants in the sand.  The kids also liked drawing party loot out of a big box with a hole cut in it that they could just reach in a grab out a handful at a time…