Butterfly Party 5yr - Caterpillar Cocoon Game

I did a very fun Butterfly party for my 5 year old this year!  I had it from 11-12:30 on a Saturday morning. 

Decorations:  I first got some butterfly decorations at Lakeshore Learning.  I found a pack of about 25 beautiful pictures of all types of butterflies for about $4.99.  I taped them up all over our windows at home.  They looked great!  And it was easy!!  I also got a big butterfly balloon along with two purple balloons and the colors were purple and pink.  My daughter had two hanging butterflies in her room that I used.  I put one as a centerpiece for the kids table and I put one attached to the chandlier above.  It looked very cute and it didn't cost me a thing!

Invitations:  Next I mailed out the invitations which I made from plain pre-made white butterfly cards I got from Michael's Craft Store.  I had my daughter and her brothers and her cousins decorate the butterflies with bright colored markers.  They looked great!!  And I loved that the kids made them and it was easy for me!  All I did was write all the information on the other side.  I got lots of compliments on them and all the mom's said their kids loved them!! 

Costumes:  Next I got 8 sheets of poster board and made butterfly wings from them.  I first folded the poster board in half and cut it then I folded each half in half and drew half of a butterfly wing on the folded part and cut it out.  So I could get two wings from each poster board.  Then I bought rubber bands and stapled two rubber bands to the back of each butterfly wing.  I stapled them towards the center of the wings and I also stretched the bands out before putting them on. The kids would be decorating the wings at the party. 

Then I made some butterfly wands for each of the girls.   They were very simple.  I already had pink sticks from another kit but all you need is popsicle sticks, pipe cleaner, and coffee filters.  You take the coffee filters and open them up so they are flat.  Take the pipe cleaner we picked the color purple, and wind it around the stick put the coffee filter against the stick and wrap the pipe cleaner around the filter and twist it back onto the stick.  You can glue the pipe cleaner to the stick as well but I managed to just twist it onto the stick without glue.  It worked fine.  Then I folded another pipe cleaner in half and cut it and took a pencil and winded each half around a pencil so it would curl to make an antenna.  Then I took the curled antenna and attached it to the body pipe cleaner on the filter.  They were super cute!!  So the kids would color the wings of the wands with markers for another craft. 

Activities:  So the kids arrived and we had them go to the porch where I had my daughter's two older brothers help the kids each get the butterfly wings and decorate them with gem stickers, butterfly stickers and markers.  I got the stickers at Michael's some were even in the $1.00 big which was great!  The kids really got into decorating their wings!  We made sure we put each of the kid's names on the wings so we knew whos was whos.  Next I took pictures of each child with my daughter with their wings on.  It really worked out well!

Games:  Next I worked on the games I wanted to make this educational so I wanted to incorporate metamorphosis somehow.  I found a cute game from my Family Circle Crafts book about wrapping the kids in toilet paper for a Chrysalis.  

Next I had them all go downstairs while some of the other kids finished up their wings.  They played duck duck gray duck" but we called it "butterfly butterfly caterpillar."  Once the rest of the kids came downstairs I took a big group picture. I had copied off some pictures from the internet showing each stage of Metamorphosis (you can google Metamorphosis and find lots websites) and talked about it while holding each picture up.   The first picture was the egg then the caterpillar then the Chrysalis. Then the butterfly. So I thought it would be fun for the kids to do a game with each stage.  We did not do anything with the egg stage. 

I had the kids take their wings off and become caterpillars.  They did a little obstacle course being caterpillars. We had little tents with tubes that I had the kids go through first and then they leaped over a fake log and crawled once around a cone.  They did this a few times and had lots of fun!!! 

Next they partnered up and each received a roll of toilet paper.  This was the chrysalis stage.  I had my sons helping and their older cousins which was great because the 5 year olds needed some help with this game.  Half way through the toilet paper role I stuck a pencil so the kids wouldn't use an entire role which would have been too much.  5 year olds are little:)  So most of the kids could wrap each other up but if they pulled too hard the toilet paper ripped.  Once they were wrapped up they got to break out of it like a butterfly!  They all had a great time doing this!!  Once they were done they put on their wings and flew around.  Metamorphosis was complete!!!

Then we went upstairs and had lunch.  Right after lunch I had the kids color their butterfly wands.  They loved doing this!  Again we made sure to write each of their names on the wands.  Then we had butterfly cake. 

Cake:  I made a butterfly cake from a book called Birthday Cakes for Kids.  Basically you bake cake in two round 8 inch pans.  Let them cool…then cut out two wings while the cake is still in the pan.  I took the wings out of the pan(there is a part you won't use).  Then I put the wings on a big plate and frosted them with white frosting.  I wanted to make it pink (my daughter loves pink) with red food coloring but I didn't have any.  But we did have pink sprinkles we used instead.  I actually liked the sprinkles better.  My daughter could help me out and they were sparkly!!  Then I took two Ho Hos for the body part and had mini oreos for the spots on the wings.  The face was one big oreo which I put on the top of the Ho Ho.  I used the mini oreos for eyes by taking them apart and using frosting to attach them to the big oreo.  Next I needed black licorce for the antenna but I forgot to get it so I used black pipe cleaner instead.  It looked great!!!  The kids and my daughter loved it! 

After cake we opened presents my daughter loves the game "I Spy"  So I had her pick something in the room and each friend got to guess and whoever guessed right got to sit next to my daughter and have her open their present.  My daughter also asked each friend what their favorite animal was before she opened their gift.  My daughter loves animals!!  This was her idea!  I think it is fun to do as it makes each child at the party important too:) 

Favors:  Before her friends left my daughter handed out each of the goodie bags which consisted of tiny playdoh containers(bought at Walgreens)cute star lollipops(found at Michael's) silly bands (Target) butterfly stickers and a chocolate coin.  They did have very cute butterfly necklaces to make at Michael's I wanted to give but my daughter had different ideas:)  They also got to take home their butterfly wings they decorated and their butterfly wands.  I did the thank you notes from butterfly coloring sheets I had copied off that I thought I would use at the party.  So it was perfect because I didn't have to spend  bunch of money on thank you notes.  So when the kids got the thank you letter in the mail they got to color the picture too!  My daughter told me it was the best butterfly party she ever had!!!"