A new year and new birthdays!

I have so many half finished projects on the go right now and, as a result, half finished posts so that explains the lack of blogging on this blog! Oh well, that's just the way things are these days.

I have been thinking allot about my sons second birthday coming up at the end of March. His first birthday was kinda weird as we had just recently moved to a new country and he was only turning one so he didn't have very many friends (he didn't/doesn't really know what friends are anyways I guess!) The first birthday is more for the adults in the little persons life and although we had some new friends we had lots of old friends back home in Canada so it was kinda sad. SO we did a little party at the common room at the apartment we were living at, it was circle themed and I made a bunch of cute decorations but it was kinda random and drop in style and he only had two little friends come by. We did do another party a week later at my parents place up in Canada while we were visiting for Easter and since my extended family is basically dejavu of My Big Fat Greek Wedding it was pretty big. Since our little family had just relocated to California we celebrated it and had a beachy theme. It was super cute and my dear, sweet boy got to smash a cupcake in his face twice in one week- lucky kid!

This year hes turning two and old enough to kind of 'get' the whole party, gifts, games thing and since we have lived here for a while now we and he has more friends to invite to his birthday this year so I'm getting really excited to plan a shin dig. We also live in a house now (a little show box sized half of a house mind you) that has a yard so there is room to have some fun! I decided since Ive got a real B-O-Y on my hands to throw a backyard buggy bash. This kid is obsessed with bugs. Its going to be caterpillar/bug theme and 'going to use a lot of inspiration from the book A Very Hungry Caterpillar! I have been cruising around the internet and have found so much inspiration!

Here is a run down on my thoughts so far:

Some invitation inspiration...

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Super cute handmade invitations. I am having mine made by a friend who designs cards but these are so cute!

FOOD:

In the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar the caterpillar eats different food every day and it goes like this:

• Day 1: The main character is established. The hungry caterpillar eats through a single red apple.
  
• Day 2: The caterpillar eats through 2 green pears.
  
• Day 3: The caterpillar eats through 3 purple plums.
  
• Day 4: The caterpillar eats through 4 red strawberries.
  
• Day 5: The caterpillar eats through 5 whole oranges.
  
• Day 6: On this day, the caterpillar devours his way through many, many different foods: chocolate cake, ice cream, a pickle, swiss cheese, salami, a cherry pie, a lollipop, a single sausage, a cupcake and a whole slice of watermelon. The caterpillar then gets a stomachache as a result of eating all this food.

I am thinking it would be fun to have all of these foods for the party and I have seen really cute ways to arrange them on a buffet table.



I am really excited to make a caterpillar cupcake cake and a caterpillar out of sandwiches!

A really cute centerpiece idea Ive seen is lollipops growing out of pots or buckets on the table.

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Individual cherry pies in a jar for the adults perhaps? Represents the cherry pie he eats on day six!

GAMES:

My son is (unfortunately) into hitting things so a pinata is a must. I'm thinking I could fill it with fun things like plastic bugs from the dollar store. I found this super cute butterfly pinata like the butterfly in the book on Etsy!

I want to do a bean bag toss game and am hoping my husband will make a bug with an open mouth painted on a board to toss bean bags through. I was even thinking that I could find some fabric from the book and make some cute bean bags.

I think as a favor I am going to get the kids who come to the party a bug bucket thing with the magnifying glass on the lid to keep your bugs in and look at. I always liked that when I was a kid. So, I was also thinking that a way for them to use their bug holders would be doing a bug hunt. Apparently you can buy lady bugs online (like 1000 of them for 7 bucks!) and release them into your yard for the kids to 'hunt'. I know that my lil guy would go nuts for this.

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For a craft I was thinking that we could make egg carton caterpillars. Egg cartons, paint and pipe cleaners is all it takes to make one of those lil critters and I think it would be a fun activity, affordable and age appropriate. The finger print caterpillar pictures are so cute too!

DECOR:

Lots of balloons in red and two shades of green. Ive even seen when they make the oh so popular pom poms that are popping up everywhere into a caterpillar and it looked super cute. People have also made the caterpillar out of Chinese paper lanterns or balloons, simple and affordable but big impact!

A sweet birthday banner that a mom made out of paper plates! How resourceful is that?!

Isnt this a great idea for a guest book? Use the actual book!

I really like the idea of making apple stamps out of a real apple to create your own thank you cards. Keeps with the theme of the party and is super green!

So, yeah, those are some ideas that I am excited about. We will see how many or few I actually do but either way its going to be a fun party and a great day!