Mia's Very Hungry Caterpillar Party!

My Mia LOVES to read! Loves it! Well, since I can remember(which isn't that far back these days) I've been wanting to do a Very Hungry Caterpillar party(based on the book by Eric Carle). Because parties are a pretty big deal around here the kids always want to outdo each other on ideas, so they'll never let ME decide what their party theme is. When it was getting close to Mia's birthday I thought I'd start pushing the idea of a hungry caterpillar party so that MAYBE she'd warm up to it. She took it hook line and sinker!
 

To start off, I made buttery BUTTERFLY sugar cookies. I did the same method with these cookies as we did with our Christmas cookies.

They turned out really cute. I put them in baggies, tied them with cute tags and put them in a bucket next to the door for guests to grab as they left.

 

For the cake I had planned to use a bundt pan and cut the cake in halves, but Mia is a cup cake girl, and she REALLY wanted to have "up-tates"at her party, so I decided to do cupcakes instead. I'm sure it was easier anyway. I used several shades of of green, a little blue, and a tad of yellow together in the icing bag to create the watercolor look of the cupcakes. I thought they turned out pretty good. I used rolled fondant for the head and face detail. I used tootsie rolls for the legs and chenille stems for the antenna. I thought it turned out pretty cute! We just arranged it on the table with some green shred.

 

The party food was really easy! In the book the caterpillar eats lots of kinds of fruit. I just made cute little food tags from the book with paper behind it and piled plates high with fruit. It turned out really cute!

I didn't want to have all the junk food that the caterpillar eats, so I just printed it out and put it on the table. It looked cute on the table with matching paper.

I also provided cream cheese fruit dip and everyone's favorite NUTELLA for the fruit. Other foods included fruity pebbles(because I thought it looked really cute in my apothecary jars) and pretzel rods. I served a kiwi strawberry green punch.

 

For decorations I wanted to keep it simple but CUTE! I think it turned out great. The table ware was on sale at Target. I thought the bright colors with the white was great to go with the book. The napkins were polkadot, and I just used green plates and clear cups.

 

I made this banner with three shades of green cardstock, red cardstock, black cardstock, and yellow cardstock along with purple chenille stems. I printed out the font I wanted to use and my sweet Manly used a paint pen and wrote the letters in. I thought it turned out REALLY cute!! 

A close up shot of him. So cute!

I used the same centerpiece for the dining room table as I did for the owl shower I gave my cousin.

The colors weren't quite right, it still looked cute.

 

This beauty was SO cute! I got the paper lanterns from hobby Lobby and Manly just hang them close together to create a caterpillar. The face was just glued on with a glue stick so that the lanterns could be used again. We just hung the feet on the bottom of the lanterns. Turned out SO cute!! Just how I wanted it. I hung the crepe paper on a strip of packing tape behind the table. It looked really cool and made the caterpillar stand out nicely.

As my backup plan I had decided to do balloons, but since Manly was able to make my paper lantern caterpillar work I just decided to keep my package of $.87 balloons and create an additional caterpillar on the stairs. I was a real eye catcher when you walked in the door. The kids loved it too!(note to parents:Any time you are using balloons indoors PLEASE beware that children choke on them REALLY easily. I had these up out of reach, but a popped balloon is one of the biggest choking hazards to a child. Just be really careful!) 

 

My old faithful birthday wreath. I just printed out the letters in the font that matched the invitations(which I forgot to take a picture of) and the birthday banner. I also added a little picture of the caterpillar with matching paper from the food table.

 

My Mia looking all grown in front of the table. She LOVED her stuff and looked SO cute in Addi's dress from her third birthday. 

I don't know that I've mentioned it before, but in public Mia is VERY painfully shy. She doesn't talk much, and it really is almost like it's painful for her to speak in front of some people. Now, once she's warmed up to you and knows you she's fine. Because there was a big crowd at the party she was a little nervous when we all started singing to her. Ha!

See?? Poor girl!

She did manage to blow out her candle though and then promptly said, "up-tates!!!!"

Momma and Daddy with the big birthday girl! It's REALLY hard to believe that she's TWO!

I should mention that poor Manly thought he was matching us. Yes, in purple. Who knows. You do know he's color blind, right?! Ha! Poor guy!

 

After food Manly read the story to the kids. It was a hit!

 

A few other pictures from the special day!

Mia asked for doughnuts for her birthday breakfast. It's a REALLY special treat for our kids!

 

Mia in her Merida outfit from Nana and Pop. She LOVES Merida, and really needed some princess outfits that were her size and not torn up to go to Disney World soon.  

 

My Granny(Gigi) with me and Mia in her Merida dress. So cute!

Manly and Me. It took a lot of times to finally get him to just smile for the camera!

Manly wishing he could wear this CUTE outfit to Disney World.

 

Nana, Pop, and Gigi watching Mia open presents.

 

The kids love their cousin Harrison. He's such a sweet child.

This is him hugging Mia before he left the party.

Chubby Bubby having his own after-party!!

AND, our family!

 So many of you are always talking about how we have great family photos. That's because before I have them smile I let them do this to get them happy! HaHa! Look, even Eli is in on the action!! Thanks to my tripod and camera timer for catching these moments. Ha!