A Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party: Final Post!

This is my final post on the VHC party I threw last weekend for my son! A good friend of mine asked her sister in-law to be photographer for a day and she got some great pics for me! So thank you, thank you, thank you! I never have time to take pics because of all the general craziness that comes with a kids party and I love how all the colors pop in the pics! I'm just going to post pics and put a few short comments on a few so you know what's goin' on. Enjoy! 

I hung the fabric banner I made up on the living room wall over the pictures of my kiddos. Can you tell I'm crazy about them? =) 

Food from the book with signs. 

The kids made caterpillar jars as the first activity. Here, my son is making caterpillar "poop" although he should've been making food out of the play dough. Boys! =)

I bought these butterfly/grass stems from the dollar store. Great for spring decor too, not just a party!

My daughter in her birthday outfit. 

Because his birthday landed on Easter weekend, we weren't able to do a traditional Easter egg hunt so I decided to toss some "caterpillar eggs" into the ball pit. Each kid got to choose one color and they were allowed only to hunt for that color egg in the ball pit. It was wild fun and the kids looooved it! I think I may have to do this again but using different prizes in the pit.

Wild times in the ball pit. BEST investment ever at just $60 for all of the balls and the pool!

Our party room.

Party favors with magnetic butterflies hiding inside.

Caterpillar balloon art with food sponge stamps. 

Tried to make the cake more caterpillar-ish but this was as good as it got. 

He's amazed by the candles. I decided to put candles on a few cupcakes so the other kids could blow some out as well. Kids seem to enjoy that for some reason.

And he scores! (a very yummy cake, that is!)

Makes me smile every time. =)

A Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party, Part 1: Decorations

Hooray! I've survived another crazy birthday party and although this one was a lot less work than the previous two that I threw, it was still such a crazy busy day that I needed two whole days to recover from it! Actually, now that I think about it, I only had one day to recover because Sunday was Easter and we were not home for most of the day. I'm about two days behind on laundry and my refrigerator is nearly empty because I didn't do the requisite grocery shopping for us, only the party. So today, instead of being a dutiful mommy and getting around to those things, I'm sitting at my desk trying to update everyone on this VHC party that I'd been planning for weeks and weeks. So let's just get to it, shall we??? I'll start with decorations today and when I receive my other pictures for the activities we did, I'll put up a second post.

This is our dining room turned party room. I love all the bright colors- it felt fun and festive for a first birthday. My daughter and I finger painted the huge butterfly that's hanging between the shelves. She's requested that it be hung in her bedroom once the party was over and sure, why not? It turned out great! I covered my big shelves in thrifted fabric so they became backdrops for the VHC fabric panels. On the table is another fabric panel from Eric Carle. I simply hemmed it and placed it in the center of our table.

This was our gift/party favor table with my handmade caterpillar front and center. I hung a leafy Ikea canopy overhead to provide a soft backdrop because the wall was bare and I didn't want to brainstorm another decoration to fill it in. I liked the effect the canopy created though. It was so pretty framing the caterpillar and the cocoon favors. We had "caterpillar" eggs that we later threw into the ball pit as a party game for the kids. More on that later but now you know why the bucket of eggs is on the table. =) It was a hilariously fun game that the kids enjoyed too! Oh yeah- that's a thrifted tablecloth too. Pretty, isn't it??? I won't be keeping it on the table long though. Three messy, juice cup-spilling kids would destroy it in an instant and even though it was probably only $6 or less, I like things to last around here for more than one use. Agreed, moms? =)

Here's the birthday boy enjoying the ball pit before the party started. He was jumping in and out of this thing like he'd been doing it all his short life! I scored this lovely ball pit with all 500+ balls on Craig's List for $60 and the kids have made good use of it before, during, and after the party. Money well spent, I say!

This is the wall above our electric fireplace. I had the poster printed online through Staples and edited the text to fit the party theme. Originally, I was going to print up pictures of my son from newborn to 12 months but what can I say- I got lazy! I hung a 6 month portrait instead as a compromise and I think that was just fine. Up in the right corner, you can see a bit of the paper garland I sewed. Unfortunately, we didn't get pictures of the garland and streamers that swooped down from our loft to the living room. It was quite a festive effect so I'm hoping the photog I invited managed to capture a few pictures of them.

 

I hung large lanterns between the party room and living room. Sorry for the poor picture- this was the only one I had of them!

Our party favor bags.

These pretty cookies took me nearly five hours to complete from start to finish. I made gingerbread cookies instead of the usual sugar cookies. The kids gobbled them up! I placed them on top of a platter of Trix cereal. The kids liked those too. =)

I bought these plastic leaf platters on Amazon. They look great with the colorful fruits, don't they? I'm already thinking about what else I could use these platters for. Maybe a summer luau is in store for us! =) I must always be able to use something more than once in order for it to be worthy of purchasing- otherwise, I won't buy it. If I had hoards of money hidden away somewhere, I'd still live by this rule. "Waste not, want not." Right? I forgot where I heard that, but it's so true!

And there's the birthday boy in his ball pit again. He had a fantastic day and I'm so happy that all our guests enjoyed the food and activities. I can't wait to post up the pictures of what we did at the party! Til next time, happy Tuesday!

Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Shirts

And here's the birthday boy's shirt! I got help from my FB peeps to decide the final layout of it and I couldn't be happier with the results! "Still Hungry" is my little guy's motto, it seems. From the time he could hold stuff with his chubby fingers, he's been cramming everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING edible and otherwise, into his mouth. My older two kids did not have this obsession with tasting their way through their new world like my little Noah does. It flustered and flabbergasted me until I realized this meant he was also more open to trying new foods, unlike my two other very picky eaters. 

Anyway, back to the shirt! I plan to applique a number one to the back of the shirt eventually and this will be one of the keepsake shirts that'll go into his memory box. The cake slice image was taken from the same Eric Carle fabric I used for my birthday banner in the previous post. I simply fused the image onto blue felt and then sewed that onto the shirt. The felt letters, I am SO proud to say, were cut freehandedly by yours truly! Yup- I'm that good. They look so nice, don't they? I heat ironed those onto the shirt and voila- a birthday shirt that perfectly describes the birthday boy to a tee. Pun totally intended. =)

And here is the big brother's shirt. Simple- just the way he and I like it. I cut the image out and sewed a zig-zag stitch around the edges to keep it from fraying and then I fused it onto the shirt. Sew fast, huh? ;-) I got the green shirt at Walmart for $3.47. I think there were similar shirts at the craft store that were on sale for 3/$9 but their tees were too thick and I like the lighter, slightly vintage look of this shirt better. 

 A close-up of the stitching. I think it's the little details that make the shirt cool.

And this is a tie dye butterfly shirt for my daughter. Cool too, I think! I had her try the shirt on so I could pin where the wings need to be sewn. The tie dye fabric was an amazing find at the Goodwill. I got 2 yards for $5! I'm trying to figure out what else I can do with it because my family doesn't wear tie dye- ever. 

I sewed a bright ruffle hem for the bottom of the shirt- it really needed a pop of color because the front of the shirt is so white. 

And yes- that's another applique image from the awesome multi-tasking fabric I purchased. 

Trying on the wings before sewing. I think I could clip the wings higher at the wrist so it won't droop so much under the arm. This is why we should try it on before we sew...a lesson I learned the hard way! You would think it'd be easy to simply sew some wings onto a shirt without a fitting but nope! Depending on the fabric (mine was knit) it'll drape differently. I did a quick stitch the first time because my daughter had been asleep so I didn't have her in it before I sewed. After I had her put it on, I realized that I needed to place the wings in an entirely different spot on the shirt! Now I know...and now so do you! =)

Here she is modeling the shirt. She learned to pose after watching my friend's daughter, Leah, pose in her pictures. Lol- my daughter is a little more awkward in her poses though- she's just too shy and doesn't have the attitude that Leah has. But I think it's so her and I can't wait to embarrass her when she's a teenager with some of the pictures I've snapped of her posing. 

Oh, in case you're wondering, she LOOOOOVES her butterfly wing shirt and wore it all day with just the pins holding the wings up. Todays goal: sew them on CORRECTLY!!!! =)

Homemade Fabric Birthday Banner

Some more progress was made this week (finally, right?) for this much anticipated 1st birthday party at the end of March! I was able to sew up a colorful fabric banner from the Eric Carle fabric that I purchased from Treasure Bay Fabrics on Etsy. It's the birthday banner quilt panel (on sale for only $5.99/panel) and I purchased two panels to use for the banner and for the kids' birthday shirts.  

For the banners above, I used the colored fleece I had on hand. They were from the remnants bin and nearly a yard and a half each. On top of that, there was an extra 50% off all remnants that day so they came up to less than $5 each. I LOVE the remnant bin! It's the first thing I gravitate to when I walk into my fabric store. 

I used my pinking shears to cut out all the fabric, including the felt sheets that I used to back the images below. Then I simply sewed them together with a straight stitch and added eyelets to the corners so I can either string a colorful ribbon through or tie them with ribbons to a curtain rod. I haven't decided yet where I will be hanging the banner. It may be hung over the patio door or under the giant papier-mache caterpillar on the loft wall. 

Aren't the images gorgeous and colorful on the fabric? I don't know what I'll do with these once the party's over! Maybe donate them? What do people normally do with pretty party decor that won't be used again??? 

I can't wait to see all the party decor go up and the effect it will create. It's so bright, cheery and colorful- so right for a celebration!