I had seen similar invitations for sale online but they were almost $7 a piece! I have over 30 invites to send so that wasn't going to work. I decided to make them myself with a little help from Ryan, our very computer skilled friend, who helped with the wording and design. I will say, as happy as I am with the way these invites turned out, they took FOREVER and I was not liking them by the end! I will never forget the night before we moved, I sat in our packed up dining room trying to finish the last 6 of these so we could get them mailed before moving. If I wasn't pregnant, I think a lot of wine would have been consumed while making these invitations.
The invites aren't the only thing I decided to DIY. Actually I make most of the decor because then I knew I would have exactly what I was wanting. Also I am cheap. Here was the wreath on the front door.
I also had a giant balloon caterpillar out front to greet the guests. When I was in the party supply store to buy balloons for the party I saw these monster 36 inch balloons, I knew they would be perfect. I didn't know it would take my husband two trips to bring them home because they all wouldn't fit in our large SUV.
I say you can't have too many balloons for a kid's birthday party.
I made a banner for the party and each circle of the caterpillar body has one of Jax's monthly birthday pictures. I loved being able to see how he grew up this year in 12 snapshots.
We had a copy of the Very Hungry Caterpillar for all the guests to sign with a birthday note to Jax.
Then there was the most important part, the food! We had all the foods from the book, well almost all. I decided to skip the cupcakes the caterpillar ate on Saturday because I decided there were enough sweets on the table! Here was the table set up.
The caterpillar actually ate a pretty well balanced diet with lots of fruits, meat and cheese, lettuce and sweets at the end. Apparently he wasn't much for veggies though.
Each piece of food had a little card showing which day the caterpillar ate that food.
I will say I was pretty proud of these cake pops. I had never made cake pops before, but knew I wanted to make them to look like ice cream cones because I had no desire to serve actual ice cream cones at the party. I ordered mini cones (gotta love the internet) and just kind of made it up as I went along. I saw an idea online to use candy for the cherry and found sour cherry candies which were perfect. I displayed them in a bowl using M&M's to hold them up. I thought the M&M's looked like the polka dots in the book.
I would like to take credit for the chocolate cake because it was delicious, but to be honest I just grabbed it at Costco, cheap and tasty is the way to go.
Speaking of cake, this was Jax's smash cake. I saw this cake on the Pottery Barn website and immediately sent it to my cake maker to see if this was possible. Again, he did not disappoint. I absolutely loved it. Around Jax's cake were mini cherry pies in small mason jars that my mom made.
We were going to have several kids at the party and I really wanted some fun activities for them. I thought about how much fun it would be for them to be able to "feed" fruit to the caterpillar. (The idea for this actually came from a game at the Mr. Gatti's when I was a kid called "Big Bertha" where you tossed balls into the mouth of an animated lady, but I digress...) When our handyman was here doing some work to our house, I asked him to make this caterpillar head for me. He might have given me a strange look or two, but he was happy to help. With a quick coat of paint, some eyes and antennas taped on, we were good to go. I painted the sign myself and bought the felt fruit bean bags off etsy. It is times like this I wish I knew how to sew.
I also had a craft for the kids. I found these great butterfly wooden pictures frames on clearance and snatched them all up. (In case you haven't read the book in awhile, the caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly in the end) We let the kids each paint a frame (or two) to take home with them.
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| I just loved that one of the kids put a caterpillar on their frame! |
There were favor bags for the kids to put their frames in to take home. I just used plain white bags and made the caterpillar using my large hole punch and extra paper from the invitations. The favor bags had butterfly stickers, either caterpillar or butterfly puzzles I found in the dollar bins at Target, a lollipop and some bubbles.
I absolutely loved this theme for a party and loved how everything turned out.
Now I just need a reason to start planning another party! :)
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