{Critters and Flitters} Double Party

I had a dilemma.  

My son, Tot,  was turning one ... an occasion we like to celebrate in a big way, but my daughter's 3rd birthday was only 5 days after his.  Poppy had been all about birthdays from the day she had a birthday cake and candles to blow out when she turned two. 

So really the decision wasn't too hard. I'd throw a double party. Since neither of them were really 'into' anything in particular, I chose a theme that I thought would be fun and easy to include both boy and girl aspects.

Critters and Flitters

Critters for the boy:: caterpillars, beetles, ants, spiders etc.

Flitters for the girl:: butterflies, dragonflies, ladybugs etc.

Naturally we had to have one cake for each child ... 

I went with a simple #1 cake with a caterpillar crawling on the top for Tot. 

The icing on the #1 was chocolate with chocolate cookie chunks in it to simulate dirt.

A butterfly was the obvious choice for Poppy's cake.  

I used a paper template to cut out the cake and again to make the wing design with the sugar crystals.

TIP: SCRAPBOOK PAPER ON TOP OF A PLAIN WHITE CAKE BOARD, OR A PIECE OF AN OLD CARDBOARD BOX, COVERED IN CLEAR CELLOPHANE MAKES FOR A UNIQUE BACKGROUND FOR YOUR CAKE.  CHOOSE YOUR PAPER TO GO WITH YOUR THEME 


We had a wide age range of guests at the party so we tried to have activities to suit them all.  Here are the three 'theme related' activities.

Stand alone activity: Guess how many worms are in the jar

Group activity:  Bug hunt, each guest had a labeled jar and searched the garden for 3 hidden bugs each

 TIP:  BUG HUNT JARS WERE CREATED FROM OLD BABY FOOD JARS SAVED FROM TOT'S MUSHED UP FOOD DAYS.

Independent Activity:  Supplies were set out for our guests to make their own bug creations.

TIP: OLD EGG CARTONS, CUT UP INTO SECTIONS OF 1, 2 OR 3 MAKE GREAT BASES FOR A WIDE VARIETY OF CRITTERS

I had fun keeping with theme for some of the party food.

All guests, young and old seemed to take great delight in the 'Build-a-Bug: Snack' table.  We made an idea-starter display and provided all the ingredients for them to make their own!  It served two purposes, an activity and a tummy filler!

Build-A-Bug: Snack

The other fun food addition to the critter theme was our gummy worms in green jelly.  This was a fun one to make with Poppy's help. The end result was a little squiggle away from my initial plan.  I carefully curled each worm into place on a baking tray, in neat little rows to enable easy cutting into little squares.  The worms had an idea of their own though once the hot jelly hit them.  They all went NUTS squiggling all over the place and ended up as you can see ... NOT in neat little rows to be cut into neat little squares.  It turned into quite the jigsaw puzzle!  The squeals of glee from Poppy as she watched the worms squirm made this treat even more delightful!

Gummy worm jelly treats

And of course no party is complete with out take home gifts for the guests. 

The little girls in the group took home butterfly wings and the little boys took home a bug mask (not pictured) both purchased at our local "Dollar Tree".

Balloons and butterfly wings

  The balloons were tied onto little cardboard bags that were a perfect vessel for the guests bug jars, filled with their finds from the Bug Hunt activity.

Each guest also chose a critter or flitter cookie to add to their take home bundle.  These were made as an adaptation to the Women's Weekly cupcake idea, but, we already had cake, so I made them into cookies.
A special thanks to Tot's Aussie God-muma for sending all the necessary confectioneries that we can't get here in the US.

Critters and Flitters Cookie assortment

{Things With Wings} Party - Image Heavy

Ella's 2nd Birthday was themed "Things With Wings" we had noticed during the year that she had been infatuated with things that fly (as most toddlers are) and so we picked the theme based on that.

These are the flowers that I made. The center of each of the flowers (the circle in the middle) is made from hand made (also by me and the kids) paper, and through the paper is tiny little seeds that grow flowers when the paper is planted (My Mother-In-Law planted hers and they have grown... I think!)

 I also created these cute little leafs that also had instructions for planting

The table, half finished, no food yet!

TIP: Big pieces of fabric and long table cloths cover up all the things that you want to hide away for the party!

The cake. This cake was two Coles chocolate mud cakes on top of one another. They are "glued" with icing and covered with fondant. Then I tied a bow around it with some ADORABLE ribbon that I picked up at Go-Lo.

TIP: If you can't make it...  FAKE IT!!! Not only was it super tricky to just use pre-made cakes, but the top layer is just a formed slab of fondant!!! (The top layer was just missing a little something)

Favors, a few little lollipops in a pretty little box!

OHHHHHH! the magic party bottles again!

The kids party favors. In here were bubble blowers in the shape of - purple butterflies for girls and blue ladybugs (I think) for boys. I was trying to keep my eyes peeled for relevant party favors for months, finally I found it all in one day! The bubble blowers were $2 each from Go-Lo...

We had 1 "baby" (he was ALMOST not a baby, but the favors were not suitable for him) and I created a little all-in-one (onesie) with a pic of an airplane on it. Cost, about $2

These cute little marbles I found on clearance for $1 a pack. They really were very beautiful, I picked up dragon, bumble bee, butterfly and owl. CUTE AS!!!

I picked up these butterfly lollipop templates online somewhere (again sorry, no idea where!) and I made about 20 and we stuck them around the room. The aim of the game was to collect all the butterflies (and chocolate ladybugs) and put them in a bowl (to be divided evenly later) 

My Cherubs - Jacob was from NASA (as close to dressing up as he goes now that he's "big")

Travis was a bat (with a collingwood shirt on) Thanks Ella for having your birthday so close to Halloween!

Ella (the birthday girl) was a bumble bee, the plan was for her to be tinkerbell, but she was too tiny for her outfit, so I whipped up this cute little dress and hair clips... ADORABLE! 

  

Here she is again

Travis "holy smokes batman" and Lovely Luci. 

 Ella cutting her cake.

Some adults dressing up

THE INVITE - A Book

Hope you have some new ideas for your next party!