Our Love Bug's First Birthday

Our little Love Bug's 1st birthday!
We celebrated our "love bug" with a pink lady bug theme. I decorated pink and hot pink paper lanterns with black polkadots using a 2 inch paper punch out and stuck the dots on with double stick tape...Easy!. I curled think fuzzy black pip cleaners for antennas and made ladybug lanterns!

I used Hot pink and pink gerber daisies as my flowers and used black and white polkadot grosgrain ribbon as my accent for napkin rolls, center pieces, flowers, and thanks you for coming presents.

For thank you gifts I took pink Chinese take out boxes and filled the with lady bug bubbles, spinning lady bug toys, and other lady bug treats. I made stickers with pink lady bugs and stuck to the boxes and bowed with the white and black polkadot grosgrain ribbon for accent pop.

For table centerpieces I blew up and "1" and blew up my Lady bug and glued 2 ladybugs to each "1" the put it in that green flower styrofoam, with a shish kabob stick glues to back to keep sturdy. I bought pick buckets off amazon and put toped green straw grass to hide floral styrofoam. The daisy on the "1" was made with a flower paper punch and a rhinestone was glued on.

I believe that all parties are great parties when there is entertainment. I hired a DJ and we had a mini dance floor for the kids, We had a bounce house (pink of course), and I hired a clown who did face painting, ballon hats, and the clown had a rabbit for the kids to hold.

For a piñata I went on Esty and was able to have a piñata designed to look like the ladybug I chose as my theme. I had the piñata made with pull ribbons to open piñata since it was young kids (not ready for the bat yet) This was about $40. Not a bad price for custom made!

For desert table i made ribbon curtain fro a back drop. I took left over ribbon I never used from my wedding and draped pink rope from home depot to the curtain rod in my guest room so it was high and cut strips of ribbon double the length of what I wanted it to hang. Then folded the ribbon in half and knotted it through the rope like you would a luggage tag. I used 2 inch ribbon and each color was about 50 yards of ribbon to go across the length of the back the gazebo. The nice thing is I was able to hang the ribbon curtain over a hanger in my guest closet and I have used it for two Easters so far ,so although it takes some time to make, I have used it three times already. I bought my ribbon at a wholesale florist so each roll of ribbon (25 yards was only $2.75 each.

The food I served was "the taco guy", but I made appetizers and deserts. The fruit was cut to look like a bouquet with strawberries as the lady bugs. I made the black dots with melted chocolate put into a squeeze bottle with a small opening to make the spots.

Appetizers were sourdough with strawberry cream cheese and a strawberry decorated to look like a lady bugs with a blue berry as the head. I also did a spinach dip on a cracker and did a half tomato as the body of the lady bug and a half olive as the head and thin sliced green onion sliver to make an the antenna.

For the desert table I did all pink deserts. A failed attempt to make cake pops for the first time. Only a dozen turned out. used another bucket with floral styrofoam and straw grass to hide the styrofoam as the presentation so they looked garden like flowers. I also dipped rice Krispie treats with pink chocolate. I LOVE how the cake turned out! Pink lady bugs on Flowers. My daughter's smash cake had a Josephine porcelain doll that was mine each year for my birthdays. Thought that was a fun way to reuse those dolls with some sentiment. I added a flower and some pink lady bugs to carry the theme to her smash cake.

Each guest table had a mason jar of crayons and print outs of different ladybugs found free on the internet that kids or adults could color while at the table. A fun way to carry the theme to the tables. Each table had a white umbrella with light pink 60 inch drape table cloths. From the inside of the umbrella 4 pink and hot pink ladybug lanterns hung under the umbrellas. I used fishing wire to hang them. It turned out so cute! I also lined the ladybug lanterns at the entrance to the house and back yard

Since my daughter's nick name was "love bug" it seemed like a perfect first birthday theme. Dad, mom, and my daughter all wore hot pink and my daughter wore the dress my husband and I bought together when we found out we were having a girl. It was the very first baby girl thing we ever bought, which was sentimental for us. I had handmade pink ladybug barrettes in her hair custom done in hot pink found on Esty. At cake time my daughter got changed out of her dress and wore just her diaper with just her white bloomers that came with her dress and her "Love Bug" wings ( purchased from Esty)

The invitation was handmade. It was a pink lady bug! The body of the lady bug was circle and a smaller 2 inch paper punch made the head. The ladybug's pink wings with black spots opened to the invitation inside. I used a thick black wire to make the antennas that I twisted with pliers then layed a second 2 inch circle to back to hide glue and work as a backing. I chose a frosted envelope so you could see the lady bug through the envelope.

• What People Ate

  The food I served was "the taco guy", but I made appetizers and deserts. The fruit was cut to look like a bouquet with strawberries as the lady bugs. I made the black dots with melted chocolate put into a squeeze bottle with a small opening to make the spots. Appetizers were sourdough with strawberry cream cheese and a strawberry decorated to look like a lady bugs with a blue berry as the head. I also did a spinach on a cracker and did a half tomato as the body of the lady bug and a half olive as the head and think green onion as the antenna.

• What People Drank

  Pink ladybug lemonade, Butterfly water, ( and of course wine for the adults I was celebrating my first year of making through parenting too!)

• Desserts

  For the desert table I did all pink deserts. A failed attempt to make cake pops for the first time never laughed so hard. READ THE DIRECTIONS, YOUTUBE, if it your first time. Only a dozen or two turned out. I used another pink bucket with floral styrofoam and straw grass to hide the styrofoam as the presentation so they looked garden like flowers. I also drizzled pink chocolate over rice Krispie treats. I LOVE how the cake turned out! Pink lady bugs on cake and flowers. My daughter's smash cake had a Josephine porcelain doll that was mine. Each year I got one for my birthday as a kid. Thought that was a fun way to reuse those dolls with some sentiment. I added a flower and some pink lady bugs to the smash cake that my HUSBAND handmade to carry the ladybug theme to her smash cake. My husband likes to cook and it was important to him that the first cake my daughter eat be his. He even took a cake decorating class so it would looked good. But this is the dad that home cooks organically all her food. He knows if it was up to me she would be eating cheese wiz and crackers.

• Party Favors

  For thank you gifts I took pink Chinese take out boxes and filled the with lady bug bubbles, spinning lady bug toys, and other lady bug treats. I made stickers with pink lady bugs and stuck to the boxes and bowed with the white and black polkadot grosgrain ribbon for accent pop.

• Activities / Games

  For a piñata I went on Esty and was able to have a piñata designed to look like the ladybug I chose as my theme. I had the piñata made with pull ribbons to open piñata since it was young kids (not ready for the bat yet) This was about $40- $50 Not a bad price for custom made! I believe that all parties are great parties when there is entertainment. I hired a DJ and we had a mini dance floor for the kids, We had a bounce house (pink of course), and I hired a clown who did face painting, ballon hats, and the clown had a rabbit for the kids to hold. Each guest table had a mason jar of crayons and print outs of different ladybugs found free on the internet that kids or adults could color while at the table. A fun way to carry the theme to the tables.