Welcome to Honor's First Birthday Party!!
This was a very "pin-spired"party! I don't know how my mom planned birthday parties without pinterest, etsy and google!
My good friend, Gina, made most of the paper goods that were used in this party. She has a Silhouette machine that is amazesauce and she does a fine job with it!
The party favors were these little reusable totes that I sponge painted caterpillars on! There were also butterfly treats made of Trix cereal for the younger kiddos and skittles for the big kids!
Nikole Vargas Photography is awesome- she took this super cute pic of Honor in her Very Hungry Caterpillar romper I made!
The party came to be through a couple of different turns in the road. First, I really wanted to do a rainbow themed party. Brett vetoed that, so I had to find a way to use rainbow colors in a more subtle way that he would be okay with. One of my favorite books growing up was the Very Hungry Caterpillar, and well...to be honest...Honor sure loves to eat! So it just clicked on day and the ball was rolling! I kinda took too long to book a community center room and when I sent Brett the only available room was the Arts and Craft Room. At first, I was totally bummed! The room is great because it has a full kitchen, adult sized chairs and tables and then on the other side of the dividing wall it has a great space for kids to play and do crafts on kid size tables. I decided we needed to capitalize on the craft aspect so it became a Very Hungry Caterpillar CRAFT birthday party!!
One of the crafts was making a Caterpillar hat. Gina was amazing in finding the perfect paper hat template and cutting out the eyes, antennas and base for the hat. The kids had a great time making their own hats, and they turned out super cute!!
Another craft was making a caterpillar necklace. I dyed pasta to be green like the caterpillar body, and Gina cut out circles for the head and spacers. Mom sent me this awesome rainbow colored yarn to use!
Lacing cards were a huge hit! Gina cut out the shapes and hole punched the cards so that the kids could lace the rainbow yarn through the cards. Can you spot the fruit that isn't found in the VHC book??
And, lastly, the Caterpillar bean bag toss! Thanks to some wonderful friends with a Cornhole board, I was able to create this cute BIG caterpillar face to use! At some point in the party, the cute little bean bags I made out of VHC fabric ended up on the roof...but don't worry, we got them down!
These little caterpillars originally were planned to be the invitations I would deliver for the party, but since it was just easier to invite everyone via facebook events- they became centerpieces instead! Kenzie helped putting them together, although she was pretty fearful of the glue gun. I think she's witnessed me burning my own fingers one too many times!!
For Shanna's baby shower, I made these green tissue paper pom poms as decorations. She held on to them, and thankfully passed them back to me as she was prepping to move. I made a tissue paper butterfly and hot glued him to the top. Voila!!!
Check out that amazing polka dot rainbow banner that Gina made! All star!!!
Of course I couldn't order pizza for a VHC party, but had to stay true to the book for the menu. My favorite part of the party was when a friend's son predicted the menu on his way to the party. I am SO glad that I was able to live up to his expectations!!!
Gina made all the food picks, and they were darling on display!!
I forgot to bring a platter for the plums!! So bummed. I had set out all the platters and sticky-noted what food belonged to each. Becky set out to get the plums for me since the commissary had none and I forgot all about them! Oh well, still turned out cute!
Gina even made the strawberries just like how they are pictured in the book. She's so good!!
These oranges were delish, btw!
Gina and I had a panic moment when I forgot if I had ordered chocolate or not for the cupcakes! I seriously was going to have to call the cake lady and change my order so there'd be chocolate just so we could use the food pick!
My favorite part about serving pickles, everyone told me exactly what type of pickle they preferred. Who knew people were so passionate about pickles???
Crackers were added, because...ya know... you can't have salami and swiss cheese without a cracker!
Because no party is complete without little smokies...
This was my favorite card...sooo cute!!!
Oh okay, so I love this one too!!!
Becky made the most delicious individual cherry pies. That's what friends are for, right??
I had to improvise since the commissary also was out of watermelon. Who doesn't love Watermelon Kool-aid anyway???
It was a great spread of caterpillar food. I hope no one came starving, because the menu wasn't too hearty! But it sure was cute!!!
The cake was pinspired as well. I know what you're thinking...and yes I purposefully planned red frosting on her smash cake and she wore a white romper. No biggie! I can always make her a new one. But, in case you were curious, it all came out in the wash just fine!!
Another amazing moment in the party planning process- coming across these adorable juice boxes with caterpillars and butterflies on the fronts! Best part- they came in a multipack together!!!
The birthday girl had a blast and her party!!!
She fulfilled her VHC-status with this delightful plum!
Most kids at their first birthday are very timid with their cakes. Our hungry caterpillar didn't let that cake stand a chance!!
That's all folks! It was a superb party and I am already dreaming of the next one!!!
