Ladybug Party -4yr- Duck Duck Ladybug

I planned a ladybug birthday party for my 4 year old daughter that was super fun!! 

I first made the ladybug invitations from red and white construction paper.  I made a bunch of red circles by tracing around a yogurt lid, then I did the same thing with the white paper.  I cut the red circles out and added a rounded head to the white circles.  I bought gold fasteners at a craft store. I then cut the red circle directly in half after I wrote on it Corah's 4th Birthday" in big letters.  Then I attached these red wings to the white piece of paper with the gold fasteners right below the head on the white circle. So the red half circles were directly on top of the white circle.  I filled in all of the details of the party on the white paper and so it read "Come be spotted at Corah's birthday party on Dec. 4th from 1-2:30 for ladybug cake and ice cream games and lots of fun!"  When you opened up the wings.  I colored the head with black marker and made little eyes and put 3 black dots on each of the red wings of the ladybug. 

It was very cute and I got many complements on it!!  So you could open and close the wings which all the kids loved to play with after they got the invite in the mail.  So I did a 1 hour and 30 minute party which worked out great!  Beforehand I made antennae for all the kids. We had three boys coming to the party do I bought three red visors(instead of a girly headband) and put antennas on those.  For the girls I got some cheaper headbands at Target and attached the antennae.  The visors I got at Michael's for a $1.00.  For the antennas I simply used black pipe cleaner and white styrofoam balls.  I painted the balls red.  All I had to do was poke the pipecleaner into the balls and they stayed great!!  I thought I might need to use Tacky Glue but did not need to.  I then twisted the pipecleaner around a pencil so they were curly.  Then I simply poked the pipcleaner through the red visors for the boys and just twisted the pipecleaners around the headbands for the girls.  It worked out great!!  I did not need any glue!!

As each of the kids came I had my daughter pass out the antennas to her friends.  Then they went into the kitchen and sat down and colored a really cute ladybug picture I printed off of the internet.  Right after that I took a group picture so I would not forget!!!  I thought this was a great idea as I always get to the end of my parties and I have not taken a picture.  Plus the fact the kids were not too wound up yet. For decorations I simply got a huge number "4" mylar balloon(they did not have any ladybugs)and a bunch of red helium balloons.  I took a black sharpie marker and colored black dots on all of the red balloons.  I had a red plastic tablecloth and had my daughter help me cut out black circles out of construction paper and taped those onto the tablecloth.  My daughter has a big stuffed pink ladybug that we used for a cute centerpiece.  Then I printed off a bunch of other little ladybugs and had all of my kids color them and we taped those all over the windows. 

After the picture I had the kids go downstairs where we played ladybug games. 

The first game was "give the ladybug back her spots."  Basically pin the black spots on the ladybug. Beforehand I drew a big ladybug and left it without any spots but colored the wings in red.  The next game was a bean bag game with a ladybug mat that my daughter had in her room.  I put the mat on top of our train table and put three bowls where the spots on the ladybug were and had the kids try to get the bean bags in the bowls.  They had a ton of fun doing this one!! 

The other game was simply a ring toss game.  Before they started playing they each got a paper ladybug attached to a rubber band to go around their wrist.  At each game I had the person running the game put a stamp on each of the kids' paper when they were done playing.  They thought this was really neat and it kept them interested in playing because they wanted a bunch of ladybug stamps!!  Once we finished playing those games I had them sit in a circle and play "Grasshopper Grasshopper Ladybug"  Basically "Duck Duck Gray Duck".  They had a ton of fun playing this one!!  Plus they got to run around. 

Then I asked them if they wanted to head upstairs for ladybug cake and icecream and they screamed "YES!" So we had ladybug cake.  I was supposed to use a dome shaped cake pan but did not have one.  I thought I could put my mixing bowl in the oven and was advised not to.  So I used my casserole dish(which was more oval) which worked out fine.  I shaved it a little with a knife after I baked it so it would be more round. I made a bunch of cupcakes and used one of them for the head.  I bought red coloring spray but it did not work real well so I used red food coloring drops on white frosting to make the red frosting.  A little pink but my daughter loves pink so it was fine.  I used junior mint candies and milk duds for the dots on the ladybug. Then I used green "dots" candies for the eyes and red stick licorce for the antenna.  It was very cute.  I served both vanilla and chocolate ice cream so the kids had a choice. 

After singing happy birthday and eating the cake and ice cream I had the kids come into another room and pulled out a little wooden box with a mesh top on it.  I found these for $1.00 at Michael's Craft Store.  I told the kids these were their lady bug boxes for them to decorate and keep so in the spring they can find their own ladybugs and keep them in there. I thought about letting them paint them but thought it might get too messy so I bought a bunch of foam bug stickers and just plain lady bug stickers and had them decorate their boxes that way. 

I also got some sporty stickers for the boys.  Then I told them we were going to go on a ladybug hunt up in Corah's room.  I found little plastic lady bugs at Creative Kidstuff for .50 each and hid them up in her room.  I told them they each could find one and put it in their bug box.  Once they found their lady bug they needed to sit down.  It was fun I suppose it would have been more fun to have a ton of them a do a huge lady bug hunt.  But I could not find a big cheap bag full of plastic lady bugs anywhere. 

Then we went back downstairs where we opened the gifts.  I made sure I got a picture of my daughter with each friend.  I had them sit together in a big chair while she opened the person's present.  I had never gotten the chance to do this before at a birthday party!!!  Once we were done with that it was 2:30pm.  So the timing with everything worked out great.  I just told the kids they could play until their parents came. 

AS they were leaving my daughter gave them their goodie bags.  I got the girls a ladybug necklace they could put together themselves the wooden bug box with the plastic lady bug inside a bug stamp red and silver Hershey kisses and as they were leaving my daughter opened up a shoe box and it had little stuffed ladybug for each of her friends.  Plus they got a headband or visor. I found the stuffed little ladybugs at Party City.  Super cute!!!  The boys got a little wooden reptile painting kit I found at Michael's for a $1.00 instead of the ladybug necklace.

For the thank you notes I found super cute ladybug paper online and printed that off and put a picture of my daughter and her friend in it.  The kids had a great time!!  My daughter thought it was the best ladybug party she had ever been too!!!"