Ladybug Theme -3yr- Flower Cookie Bouquet

For my daughter's third birthday, we had a ladybug theme party.  I made her invitations with red gingham checked paper and white card stock and put ladybug stickers all over them. 

The invitations said "I'm a little ladybug whose's turning 3. Please come and celebrate with me." 

Decorating for the party was fun!  I covered round table with red table clothes and used round black placemats.  At the end of the summer we bout ladybug windsocks and we hung several of them from the ceiling.  For centerpieces, my mother took red buckets and made candy bouquets using red and black candy and red tissue paper as filler. 

The table with the cake and punch on it had a ladybug tablecloth with the cake in the middle and two ladybug bouquets on the side.  I used two ladybug flowerpots and put styrofoam in the bottom.  One pot was filled with red suckers and that created a ladybug topiary. 

On the other pot, I made a cookie bouquet by making round cookies on a stick and covering them with icing to make them look like flowers. My mother made the cake.  She made a regular size white birthday cake and covered in with green icing.

She also made a chocolate cake and cooked part of it in a rounded bowl and the rest into a miniature cupcake pan.  The rounded cake went on top of the green cake and we iced in with chocolate icing.  Then we covered in with red and black M&M's to make it look like a ladybug.  We used black icing to create legs and green icing to create grass.  With the cupcakes, we made smaller versions of ladybugs and put them around the cake.  

Each child was given a ladybug hat (red plastic bowl with black fuzzy chenille sticks woven through for antennas)and a ladybug bag (a kit I bought through Oriental Trading Company).  We also got a ladybug costume after Halloween and had it available for kids to wear for a picture we were taking.   As the kids arrived, they put on their ladybug hat and soon after everyone got there we had a "ladybug hunt". 

I read the story The Grouchy Ladybug (I'm a teacher) and told them that there were other ladybugs around that we needed to find those ladybugs so they wouldn't get grouchy.  I bought small rubber ladybugs and hid them all over.  With their ladybug bag, the children went on a hunt and put the ladybugs in their bag.   After cake, ice cream, and lots of playing around, the party came to an end. 

I made treat bags out of red paper bags and glued black foam dots all over them.  I shopped all year to find ladybug poppers, ladybug necklaces and ladybug pencils.  Candy of course was included.  I also made a ladybug picture frame for each child (using foam circles, pipecleaners and wiggle eyes to created ladybugs) for their own ladybug picture to go in.  

It was fun, festive and perfect for a little ladybug!