Bug Party

This was my first go at a themed birthday party - being for my gorgeous little man's first ever birthday! To be honest there was heaps more I thought of -than I ended up doing , simply because I was trying to keep it basic since he would not really remember much of it at all! And...being a first time mum I was just concerned about being able to do a kids party at all....and getting that cake that would be forever immortilised in photo's, spot on!!

I wanted this birthday to record Caleb's family and closest friends thoughts on him then and what he might get up to in the future....so I created some cards with bug stickers on them (sooo easy!) to go into a time capsule.

cards for time capsule

I have put them in a small, flat silver tin that at some point I want  to decorate or at least SEAL properly...and keep somewhere safe until his 21st birthday! I picked card in primary colours but obviously to do something similar for another theme it'd be easy to choose colours to suit other themes or even patterned or shaped (ie cupcake or flower etc) cards. Something special to look back on anyway!

This was the cake...."Colin Caterpillar"! Took this idea from The Australian Women's Weekly, Kids' Party Cakes book. Loved making this one! Used the natural food colours to colour the icing ( as opposed to the bright more vibrant ones used in the book. I did this so my baby didn't get an excessive high from all the fake colourings etc) and coconut which is the outer layer of the muffins.  As the caterpillar gets longer, the muffins get 'shaved' down and tapered to the right size and shape. I was really happy with how this turned out....but being my first cake -did take me a while, lol :)

COLIN CATERPILLAR

I made extra cupcakes to supplement the birthday "cake"....and decorated the tops of them with various bugs. Sadly (sniff !) hubby, who was taking the pics, didn't get to taking a picture of the masterpieces before they were all gobbled up!! :( I was so proud of them.....they looked a little like these below (also from the Kids' Party Cakes book)....

 My bug cupcakes were modelled after these ones!

We managed to get one pic of one of the spider ones at least.....!

One of my lovely friends who was a guest, created a caterpillar using rolled up lavash bread (stuffed with lots of yummy chicken and salad) and used cucumber to give the little guy some feet! You can see a similar idea on theWoolworths Fresh Food kids website :) Very easy and super yummy!! Was an effective way to add to the theme without being too complex!

The invite I created....very simple and easy!

I did decorate a little with some pictures I printed off the internet....I had lady bugs, caterpillars, leaves, spiders and bee's- even though they are insects- as it wasn't strictly just a bugs theme! There is a lot more you could do for this theme but it can also be as simple as you need too :)