The invites to The Very Hungry Caterpillar party were made with finger prints. I attempted to use my one year olds, but got to messy so i had my four year old help me with the rest. My finger print was the head. Inside It said "COME VERY HUNGRY!" for dinner cake and ice cream.We had the guest wear antennas to look like bugs.
For dinner we served Pizza, we had a few side dishes which were a fruit salad made with plums, strawberries, apples, oranges (mandrine), and pears. We had a platter with pickles, sausages, and swiss cheese with holes that looked like the caterpillar already ate through them. (I made these with a straw). We had a spring mix salad which is made of many different types of leaves. I also had a watermelon I forgot to cut up and serve at the party. Oh well you get the point we had about everything from the book.
For decorations I had red and green balloons down the center of the eating tables to look like the caterpillar. The wind made it hard to use the tables to eat, but I did get one good shot of them. I also made caterpillars out of egg cartons for the food and gift tables.Presents were not the typical one year old event. Brigham was not interested in the wrapping paper like most kids his age. He wanted the gifts and I had a hard time getting him to move on to the next wrapped gift.
We played two games. We had a caterpillar beanbag game, which we handed dum dum suckers out for prizes. The big hit was the cocoon making contest. we had everyone pare up into groups of two or three and raced to see who could get one of their team mates in a cocoon first (toilet paper) the prizes were gummy worms and lollipops. It was a lot of fun! (it would be a fun game for a Halloween party as well and call them mummys)
My sister made the cakes (zoobiecakes.com). Brigs cake was chocolate and the rest of us had cupcakes, chocolate and white cake. After all the hungry caterpillar ate through a chocolate cake and a cupcake.
Here is about how the cake eating went (pic below). he wasted no time eating it. he even licked the platter clean at the end. Check out video below for more. (Sorry video is not wanting to work)
Dean's Dinosaur Train Party
Dinosaur Train is a new (about a year) show on PBS kids. There are not many things (or nothing) out there like party supplies, so we had to do it ourselves.
Dean's invite was made to look like the train tickets on the show with few alterations. On the back we put: come have a train-tastic time at Dean Lawrence's birthday party. All aboard the Dinosaur train at (place of party). Departure is (time and date) come travel through the time tunnel for a dino-mite of a party.
We started out the party coloring pictures of the dinosaur train caricatures. Everyone got a conductor hat that looks like the one the conductor on the show wears.
After coloring we started our first game of toss the lava rock into the volcano. we then moved on to the game hatch the Dino, were we had small toy dinosaurs in eggs (balloons). the kids then had to sit or stand on them and pop them to hatch the Dino.
We started out the party coloring pictures of the dinosaur train caricatures. Everyone got a conductor hat that looks like the one the conductor on the show wears.
After coloring we started our first game of toss the lava rock into the volcano. we then moved on to the game hatch the Dino, were we had small toy dinosaurs in eggs (balloons). the kids then had to sit or stand on them and pop them to hatch the Dino.
They played with their new Dinosaurs for a few minutes then we opened presents and had cake and ice cream.
After cake and ice cream they dug for Dinosaurs. In there goodie bag they got a wooden train whistle, dinosaur fruit snacks, dinosaur suckers, magnifying glasses, notebooks. and they got to keep the dinos they hatched and the ones they dug up, and the brushes they used to dig with.
Dean Had a lot of fun, which is what matters. We only had his cousin show up and none of the four friends he invited so things went fast. I'm just glad I had to cut a lot of things out because of lack of time or practicality. I was planning on making fossils with playdough and paster of paris, but I couldn't get it to work well on the trial run. also I was going to make a balloon arch as a time tunnel, but after Brigs party and the wind I desided not too. I was also going to make large paper mache dino eggs for the goodie bags, but never found the time with two kids wanting to be with me all the time.
After cake and ice cream they dug for Dinosaurs. In there goodie bag they got a wooden train whistle, dinosaur fruit snacks, dinosaur suckers, magnifying glasses, notebooks. and they got to keep the dinos they hatched and the ones they dug up, and the brushes they used to dig with.
Dean Had a lot of fun, which is what matters. We only had his cousin show up and none of the four friends he invited so things went fast. I'm just glad I had to cut a lot of things out because of lack of time or practicality. I was planning on making fossils with playdough and paster of paris, but I couldn't get it to work well on the trial run. also I was going to make a balloon arch as a time tunnel, but after Brigs party and the wind I desided not too. I was also going to make large paper mache dino eggs for the goodie bags, but never found the time with two kids wanting to be with me all the time.
