It was Sunday July 15th and the big day I'd been planning and planning for finally had arrived. Actually, I hadn't been planning that much. In fact, I had been feeling guilty the previous week, wishing I had more time to put into Evan's first birthday party, but alas, the two weeks leading up to this day I had been very busy. First with the trip to Kansas over the 4th of July, and then that was followed by a weeklong workshop for work that led to long days and little free time. Thus, what planning I had done was mostly completed by the end of June, and the rest I squeezed into the few days before the big day. Plus I relied on my family (especially my niece and nephews) who were visiting again this weekend (thus why we scheduled the party for a few weeks before Evan's actual first birthday).
I had chosen a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme, since Evan has loved that book for quite some time. I designed an invitation that followed this theme and also that included photos of Evan from every month of his first year. My friend Jessica helped me polish the design for high-quality printing and she also helped me make paper caterpillars for party decor with her Cricut machine. Cutting circles would have been a pain without that neat gadget! I had wanted to have one long caterpillar "banner" that would showcase each of those monthly photos. We ended up having some extra paper and decided to make one more little caterpillar that would have Evan's name on it.
Along the Hungry Caterpillar theme, I chose to serve snacks that were right out of the book. In the story, the caterpillar eats through a variety of fruits, then a whole bunch of junk foods. While most of the fruits were not great party foods (i.e. apples, oranges, plums, and pears), I chose to display those fruits in a fruit bowl with none other than the little hungry caterpillar himself. Then for the food spread we had strawberries, watermelon, swiss cheese, salami (summer sausage), pickles, and sausages (in bbq sauce). Even though they were not from the book, I threw in some grapes and baby carrots too for some more healthy snack options. I found these cute printable labels for all the food that had the caterpillar theme ("On Monday he at through one apple...") for each of the foods he ate (note that he ate all the junk food on Saturday and as a result had a tummy ache!). I printed those labels and made little table tents and signs for each of the snacks to highlight how they fit into the story theme for the party.
Then the other more dessert-like junk foods the caterpillar eats (i.e. lollipop, chocolate cake and cupcakes) were served for the birthday cake (more on that in a bit) and party favors. I found a cute design for lollipop butterflies on pinterest (free templates available from Skip to My Lou), which I thought would make nice party favors as well as be a way to include serving lollipops. My niece/nephews and dad helped cut out all of the butterfly shapes (that said "Thank you for helping me celebrate" around the wings), which was a big help.
Those were pretty much the only custom-made decorations that we had. I did buy some basic "Happy Birthday" banners and such, and then used basic red table cloths and a variety of colors of paper plates and napkins to keep the party colorful. The rest of the party prep involved setting out the food and picking up the cake.
For the cake (which was my favorite part of the party) I had planned to make it myself, as I had seen an idea on pinterest to do a hungry caterpillar cupcake cake and it seemed pretty simple. However, I also wanted to have a smash cake for Evan that had the butterfly from the end of the hungry caterpillar book decorated on top (not as easy). So I ended up ordering the cake instead, and it reduced my stress load immensely! Plus, I couldn't have been happier with how it turned out! Our Walmart bakery did an amazing job AND was so affordable! For our cupcakes, I asked them to frost them in their light (lime) green buttercream frosting and then spray various amounts of a darker green spray coloring to give the cupcakes a two-toned effect. Then I just asked for a flat frosted red cake for the caterpillar's head, with very simple yellow and green eyes, and a simple black dot for the nose. I cut out card stock for the antenna and feet to complete the look. For the butterfly smash cake, I gave them a simple design I found online (meant to be used to make butterfly cutouts, but worked wonders at simplifying the complicated butterfly from the book!) and asked them to give it some little colorful polka dots on the sides. I could have used the cake from the caterpillar head as the smash cake, but didn't want Evan messing around with too much colored frosting, so opted for white frosting on the smash cake and then that allowed him to have the butterfly, which has always been his favorite page of the book, decorated on top! Like I said before, it turned out so awesome, and I couldn't have been happier!
Along the Hungry Caterpillar theme, I chose to serve snacks that were right out of the book. In the story, the caterpillar eats through a variety of fruits, then a whole bunch of junk foods. While most of the fruits were not great party foods (i.e. apples, oranges, plums, and pears), I chose to display those fruits in a fruit bowl with none other than the little hungry caterpillar himself. Then for the food spread we had strawberries, watermelon, swiss cheese, salami (summer sausage), pickles, and sausages (in bbq sauce). Even though they were not from the book, I threw in some grapes and baby carrots too for some more healthy snack options. I found these cute printable labels for all the food that had the caterpillar theme ("On Monday he at through one apple...") for each of the foods he ate (note that he ate all the junk food on Saturday and as a result had a tummy ache!). I printed those labels and made little table tents and signs for each of the snacks to highlight how they fit into the story theme for the party.
Then the other more dessert-like junk foods the caterpillar eats (i.e. lollipop, chocolate cake and cupcakes) were served for the birthday cake (more on that in a bit) and party favors. I found a cute design for lollipop butterflies on pinterest (free templates available from Skip to My Lou), which I thought would make nice party favors as well as be a way to include serving lollipops. My niece/nephews and dad helped cut out all of the butterfly shapes (that said "Thank you for helping me celebrate" around the wings), which was a big help.
Those were pretty much the only custom-made decorations that we had. I did buy some basic "Happy Birthday" banners and such, and then used basic red table cloths and a variety of colors of paper plates and napkins to keep the party colorful. The rest of the party prep involved setting out the food and picking up the cake.
For the cake (which was my favorite part of the party) I had planned to make it myself, as I had seen an idea on pinterest to do a hungry caterpillar cupcake cake and it seemed pretty simple. However, I also wanted to have a smash cake for Evan that had the butterfly from the end of the hungry caterpillar book decorated on top (not as easy). So I ended up ordering the cake instead, and it reduced my stress load immensely! Plus, I couldn't have been happier with how it turned out! Our Walmart bakery did an amazing job AND was so affordable! For our cupcakes, I asked them to frost them in their light (lime) green buttercream frosting and then spray various amounts of a darker green spray coloring to give the cupcakes a two-toned effect. Then I just asked for a flat frosted red cake for the caterpillar's head, with very simple yellow and green eyes, and a simple black dot for the nose. I cut out card stock for the antenna and feet to complete the look. For the butterfly smash cake, I gave them a simple design I found online (meant to be used to make butterfly cutouts, but worked wonders at simplifying the complicated butterfly from the book!) and asked them to give it some little colorful polka dots on the sides. I could have used the cake from the caterpillar head as the smash cake, but didn't want Evan messing around with too much colored frosting, so opted for white frosting on the smash cake and then that allowed him to have the butterfly, which has always been his favorite page of the book, decorated on top! Like I said before, it turned out so awesome, and I couldn't have been happier!
More to come in another blog post on how the rest of the party turned out...
3 comments:
What cute details. I love the cakes, too! :)
The cake is making me very hungry.
LOVE it! I'm thinking of doing a Mario party, but perhaps Logan will Choose something else based on what he loves by then. Logan loves scout too! We've had it since he was about 3 months and it has been a huge help when he is fussy.
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