A Very Hungry Caterpillar First Birthday - Food!

This was my first birthday party that did not involve a full meal. The timing of the party (2pm on a Sunday afternoon) just didn't justify a meal. So, I tried to get creative with our snacks.

The menu...
Chex mix & Gardettos
Veggies & Dip
My Granny's Sweet Sugar Popcorn
Chips & Queso Dip
Caramel Apple Bites
Punch
Cake!

Our food table...

Caramel Apple Bites

These are so much better than whole caramel apples, and, much less mess. Cut your apples, stick a toothpick in them, dip into caramel sauce & refrigerate!

Caterpillar Twigs

By far the best way to serve veggies & dip. Cut your carrots & celery into sticks 3-4 inches long. In the bottom of a plastic punch cup, put some ranch dressing, then stand your veggie sticks on top. Personal serving sizes, and so cute!

Cute little smash cake :)

Can you believe he ate 3/4 of it too?! Sugar High!

And the star of the show....

Is this not the most awesome cake?! I found a picture online of this cake, but it was done in fondant - I hate fondant :( So I called this fantastic (part time mind you!) baker and she said she could do it in butter cream, and, the caterpillar on top in a giant cookie. When I saw the cake, I nearly cried. It was so perfect - and, a wonderful reflection of the caterpillars journey in the book. AND...it was truly the best tasting cake I have ever had. So fresh, so beautiful. Thank you JoEllen for making our first birthday cake so perfect!

A Very Hungry Caterpillar First Birthday - Decorations!

Our little caterpillar, with a big caterpillar!

For this, I purchased yellow & green paper lanterns from Amazon (base the size you purchase on the area you have to hang it in), cut the eyes out of construction paper (using my oval cutters from CM), and added purple pipe cleaners for antennas. We didn't have what we needed to hang it perfect, but this worked I thought :) After the party, we hung this in Jacob's room from the ceiling - it looks adorable!

My custom Birthday sign..

To create this I cut circles out of Green Paper (using my old time Creative Memories circle cutter!), and, the letters out of white paper on my cricut. It turned out so perfect, I love it! And, I can always replace the circle with the # birthday & reuse the banner. LOVE IT!

Table Decor..

I kept it pretty simple. Yellow & Green plastic table cloths ($1.25 each from DG), a helium balloon (opposite color of table cover), and, a picture of Jacob in a $1 acrylic stand (stands & pics printed at walmart). Family & Friends got to take home a picture when they left :)

Build your own caterpillar station..

I wanted an activity for the young children, and I thought this would be cute. I cut the colored circles out of construction paper (heavier grade) using the circle cutters again, cut 2 purple antenna's from pipe cleaners and pre-bagged these items. Black markers & glue sticks were in a basket on the table for them to put their caterpillar together.

My personal favorite...

This was definitely my favorite. We had paper & pens available for everyone to write a note to Jacob. We will open these on his 16th birthday. How fun!

1st Birthday Pictures..

Printing photo's is truly more affordable now than it has ever been. Take advantage of that, and, spice up a cake or food table, with prints of your little one. I printed copies of his 1st Birthday Smash Cake shoot, framed them ($1.50 black wood frames from Walmart) and placed them around the cake (oops - you got a sneak peak! full food post coming next!). We let the Grandparents each take a framed 8x10 home with them.

We also had copies of the book sitting around on tables for people to look at, and, Children to read.

This was such an easy First Birthday, and the Decorations were pretty affordable - especially when so much can be reused, or was given away as favors.

Stay tuned for my post on Birthday Party Food!

More Birthday...

Last Sunday, Cole got to have a party with his school & church friends. We are so blessed to have an awesome playground & gym at the church - so we had the party there. It was so easy!

This was Cole & his friend, Zander, showing Jacob his new toy. It was precious :)

I made cupcakes & bought ice cream cups. That's it!

The kids had so much fun, and, the only effort I made was to bake the cupcakes. That's what I call a WIN!

Birthday Buddies

This is Cole & his best buddy, Jake. They share the same birthday! It's so fun that they will get to celebrate together all the way through school. Because our school is so small, they will always get to have the same teacher :)

Yesterday, we brought cupcakes to school for the boys to share with their friends during snack. They were a hit :)

Mrs. Lister enjoyed giving each of the boys their 6 swats :) She is a great teacher, and Cole enjoys her very much.

Getting to celebrate birthdays at school is so fun.