Cohen’s Bugsday Party
Still can’t believe our little guy is ONE already. Where does the time go? Here are two posts from last week….
For Cohen’s birthday party I definitely didn’t do as much as I did for Kenley’s Tangled Birthday Party. I “borrowed” a bunch of ideas I had found on the internet by searching bug or insect themed birthday parties. But again my mother-in-law was really the one behind all of this. She did SOOO much. I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful I am to have someone that enjoys throwing parties as much as I do!
My husband and I went on one of his business trips the week of Cohen’s party so we didn’t get home until about a day before the event. So I tried to have all of the stuff planned and done ahead of time so when we got home I just had to put everything together.
Here are pictures from Cohen’s Birthday Bugsday Party……
Invitations
These were made by Designs by Symmie on Etsy. And I copied the wording from my sister-in-law (she had a bug themed party for my nephew when he turned one, we like to recycle parties in this family!)
I think we got these invites within a few hours of placing the order. Then my mother-in-law printed them off and placed them in the envelopes and added some bug stamps she had.
Decor
First of all I have to say I have had FOUR YEARS of pink and purple birthday parties. I was soooooo excited to be working with PRIMARY COLORS this time. I could get use to this boy thing 
(although buying clothes isn’t as fun, I am just excited to be on my way out with all the pink and purple!)
Since we were working with a bug/insect theme we thought adding a little bit of The Very Hungry Caterpillar to the birthday party would be cute.
The front door was decorated with two bug nets from the party store (gotta love cheap decorations that can be played with after!) Then my MIL found some Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric and glued it to a piece of poster board. She glue three long pieces of ribbon and cut out the words Cohen’s Bugday Party with her Cricut.
My mom owns a Christian Bookstore in Iowa Falls: The Living Well. Check them out on Facebook OR check out their website (which I am very behind on updating). Her store carries party supplies for baptisms, graduation parties, etc. Every year we go to a party store about an hour away and get a ton of stuff at 30% to 50% off. This is where my “OCD event planning” comes in handy…. I have my kiddos birthday party themes planned out a year or two in advance I know I am crazy, but it gives me all year to think (or steel) ideas haha. When we go to the party store I already know what I need and we can get it at a huge discount. Totally worth it to plan ahead so I know what I want for napkins, plates, tablecloths, decor, party favors, etc.
For the food tables I got some tablecloths that looked like picnic blankets and then put ants all along the edge of the pool table.
For the tables everyone ate at I had two more tablecloths that were bright red. I cut some Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric in large strips to look like table runners and then I sprinkled a bunch of fake ants on them.
I also used some of the Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric to cover up the pink high chair. No little boy wants to see pictures of him eating cake in a pink high chair at his first birthday party! But mostly I covered it up for my husband because he always makes a comment about the “pinkness” whenever we have dinner at my parent’s house and Cohen has to sit in it.
My MIL found a Very Hungry Caterpillar PDF file. She got this banner from Etsy and printed it off at home and tied it together with ribbon.
Food
My MIL wrapped all the silverware and tied them with ribbon and fake spiders.
She also made all the labels and used these Caterpillar food printables from Soiree Chic Shoppe on Etsy.
My husband made the “Slug Burgers” on the grill.
I made the “Grub Worms”
and “Ants on a Log”
Pretzels for the “Antennae”
Over the years Heavenly’s Creative Bakery in Iowa Falls has helped us out a lot with cakes, cookies, cupcakes and even our wedding food. I think I will do a post sometime about Kenley’s past birthday parties and the cakes they made for those.
But back to Cohen’s Bugday Party…..Heavenly’s made some of the food for me which was a huge help because as I said earlier we were gone up until a day before.
They made the “Butterfly Salad”
and the “Snail Shells”
But best of all they made Cohen’s Very Hungry Caterpillar Cupcakes & Smash Cake. SOO CUTE! (The only issue was Kenley ate the two back feet off the caterpillar before I could snap this picture hah! That is my classy daughter, she always sticks her fingers in the frosting the minute she sees a cake!)
The cupcakes were chocolate with peanut butter filling and almond with fudge filling! DELISH!
For drinks we had water bottles for the adults. Very Hungry Caterpillar bottle covers were a PDF printable file from Soiree Chic Shoppe on Etsy.
We also had some “Sweet Nectar” lemonade. The juice dispenser (is that what you call that thing?) is from Wal-Mart cost me a whopping $13. Love a good deal.
For all the little kids that attended we had some mason jars filled with green “Bug Juice” and my super-talented MIL made the snails for the straws. The green juice was nasty but the kids liked it…that’s all that matters
SMASH THAT CAKE!
“Uhh why is everyone singing?”
“Hmmmmm?”
“Oh where has this stuff been all my life?”
“Give me more!”
Cohen was so excited he began jumping up and down and shaking his hands. He LOVED his first cake.
Fun & Games
We had a few games and crafts for the kids. Coloring, stamps, games (all bug themed of course) and even making bug pencil crafts.
I had a friend come to face paint all the kiddos (yup even the babes got in on the fun). Pretty sure she has only been doing this a few months and she is AWESOME. She does it as a hobby and it “relaxes” her! Crazy, right? CRAZY GOOD!
Isn’t she awesome? Wish I had the patience and talent. Kenley would probably want to go to school every day with her face painted.
Marcus had to give Cohen and “opening presents pep talk”
Kenley got Cohen a “Caillou Doll” She loved the PBS show Caillou when she was little and I think Cohen will follow suit if his sister has anything to say about it. I had no idea they even made Caillou dolls.
Chillin’ with Grandpa Steve and Uncle Braden
Cohen got these Magnetic Fabric ABCs from me for his birthday. You can read more about how I made them here.
Party Favors
The older kids also got a personalized coloring book, goodie bags, The Very Hungry Caterpillar coloring book, and some crayons.
The goodie bags were filled with bug fruit snacks, insect and frog stickers, bug tattoos, fake bugs and ants, and some insect inspection toys/nets that I found on sale at the Omaha Zoo. The Thank You tags were also made by Designs by Symmie on Etsy.
We had all of the guests sign notes to Cohen in his Very Hungry Caterpillar book. And all the little kids got these squishy caterpillars ($2 from Wal Mart…sweet last minute find at the check-out!)
We had a GREAT time at Cohen’s party….can’t believe our little buddy is growing up so fast!
