This Saturday we celebrated Parker's birthday with a fun party with family and friends! After browsing Pinterest one day a few months ago I saw some first birthday pictures with a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme and I loved it! I have always really liked Eric Carle's books and the hungry caterpillar is too cute! One of the first things I found was
this cute shirt!
I found these super cute invitations on Etsy
here. I thought about making my own but they weren't too expensive. I really like how they turned out! I ordered the actual invitations through Snapfish and put a little birthday poem on the back.
In the dining room I hung some streamers (with Augusta's help!) and used one of his monthly poses to make a one...a last minute idea that I really liked! I also found the Happy Birthday banner on Etsy for a few bucks
here. My dad bought the pretty bouquet of tulips :)
One of the decorations I really wanted to make was a monthly picture banner as well as a hungry caterpillar...so naturally I put them together! I printed a 6 inch circle on white paper and then traced it onto scrapbook paper for the head and body. I printed a few different ovals to get the right size for the eyes and nose. I free handed the feet and antennae. I hole punched each side of the body circles and tied them together with ribbon. Then I cut each month's pictures into 4 inch circles and used double sided tape to attach.
I found a cute picture of the red & green ONE
here but decided to go cheap and cut them from a diaper box.I printed the letters from one of my favorite fonts
MTF Jumpin' Jack and traced them onto the cardboard and used a box cutter. Then I painted the letters with about 4 layers of craft paint. I used a brown pipe cleaner to make the antennae.
Another cute and simple decoration seen
here.
It was really hard to get a decent picture of the front entryway but I found these green paper lanterns, yellow tissue poms, and red paper fans at Hobby Lobby. I had a coupon for my whole purchase so I didn't spend too much on these fun decorations!
(I also made two fabric banners with the dot fabric but forgot to snap a shot of those. Just believe me that they're cute!)
In keeping with the book's theme, I decided to have lunch using food from the story. I found these free & cute printables
here to tape to cardstock table tents.
We had lots of yummy fruits...watermelon, plums, apples, oranges, strawberries, and pears. My stepmom made a colorful salad!
To add a little more for a lunch meal I made meatballs and pulled pork bbq. These foods went fast and clearly they were tasty because we ran out!
A few other snacks...salami, sausage, pickles, and cheese.
I found these cute mason jar drink dispensers at
dreaded Wal-Mart for strawberry lemonade and tea.
I made Parker's high chair banner using a few different spools of ribbon from Michaels and put it together using double sided tape.
Originally I wanted a cake with the hungry caterpillar and some of the different foods he ate. I looked up the bakery we used for our wedding and her website mentioned that she didn't make cakes with characters due to copyright laws. I figured most bakeries would follow the same rules and I wasn't looking to spend a lot so I changed it up to cupcakes! Inspiration found
here. I orded cupcakes from Sam's Club and my mother-in-law made a chocolate cake for the head. I just used paper ovals for the eyes and nose and pipe cleaners for the antennae. I found these cute table cloths at the dollar store.
So cute and super delicious!
In the book the hungry caterpillar ate a slice of cherry pie and while browsing for ideas I saw several people made mini pies! My mother-in-law Cindy is a good baker so I asked her to make a dozen of the mini pies. I accidentally asked her to make apple pies instead of cherry pies...oops! They turned out so cute and they were gobbled up quick!
Since most of the kids that came were fairly young I thought a little craft would make a good favor for coming. I saw these cute little finger painted caterpillars
here and thought they would be so cute on little canvases! I also found mini easels for their artwork to be displayed on at home. More on this idea later!
A little playtime with friends and family before we eat!
I bought some of the dot fabric that is from the book and my mom made him a pair of baby Toms, a tie that we used in his pictures, and a birthday crown!
For Parker's one year pictures we gave him a whole cake which he hardly ate and ended up getting a really bad diaper rash...so we decided to give him a cupcake.
Once he started to eat it...he chowed down on it!
After lunch and cupcakes...presents!
Parker's cousin Kyrahlee enjoyed helping hand him his gift.
He was a little slow at getting started so clearly I had to be a little scary silly to interest him!
He wandered away but once he got on his Batmobile, he wheeled back over and started to get into his presents.
He enjoyed taking things out of bags more than ripping apart the wrapping paper.
He got so many great books! He loves touch & feel, pop-up, and noise making books! Oh and like his little bruise? He fell off daddy the night before! Whoops!
He really liked tissue paper!
Obligatory goofy face.
He needed a little pep talk from his cousin Chris.
He got several really cool toys...like this giant dump truck!
He's always a Batman fan!
Grandma Briggs made a really fun quilt!
Why is everyone always putting hats on me??
Aunt Hilary got me a cool travel pillow for when I go see Aunt Lindsay, grandma Gatlin & grandpa Dale!
Good thing he got two of these musical Elmo cards because he carried it around all weekend!
He really enjoyed his new lawn mower from his bff Ady!
Mike & Jennifer bought him his very own truck! Now he is like daddy!
After presents Parker and his two cousins and his friend Griffin attempted the finger painting craft! I explained what I had envisioned...everyone laughed at me...and I had Parker go first.
First finger in the paint and Parker clearly didn't want to cooperate!
Mommy...just let me paint!
This is so much fun!
I'm a Smurf!
This is his serious painting face.
It's not a caterpillar but it's Parker's first masterpiece!
At the end of the day we were all exhausted but we had so much fun! Thank you to everyone who was able to make it and thank you all for Parker's great gifts!
What a great first year :)
