This past weekend, I threw a party for our son’s fourth birthday. It is absolutely bananas to me that I have been a parent for four years, and that the little infant I grew inside my body is now running around, an actual child.
We had friends from his preschool over for the party. We’re still at that age where the parents attend the parties with their child, so I wanted to plan a party that was appealing to kids and adults. Thank you, Pinterest, for inspiring so many fun ideas for our bug-themed party.
I loved this DIY from Oriental Trading Co; switched it up a little and had bugs “crawling” out of the frame, circling around the “Happy Birthday” sign. Yes, I did hot glue those twigs on the brick.
Made this balloon arch from a kit I got at Target. Ridiculously easy to make! I had help from the Balloon Buddy, also purchased at Target.
We had two activities for the kiddos. The first was a scavenger hunt. They each got a little card with items to find. I got a sticker book from the Dollar Tree to mark their cards.
After the scavenger hunt, they planted succulents in compostable planters! If I were to do this again, I think I’d have the kids decorate the planters, even though they’re just temporary. You’d have to use markers made from plant-derived inks in order to keep them truly compost-friendly. On their scavenger hunt, they collected a little shovel, a tiny gnome, and other things in the yard that they could use for their planter.
I made this cake based on this gorgeous one posted on reddit. I tried to do it justice! The frosting was homemade buttercream, and the cake itself was made from a box. It turned out much better than I hoped! The flowers were edible, as well as the gummy worms of course, but the other bugs were plastic. Some of the children took the plastic bugs to keep their gnomes company!
They played outside for a little while after they ate cake, and then our guests left, goody bags in tow. The buckets were from dollar tree, along with the shovels they had already used and then took home. The buckets were filled with a mixture of Dollar Tree flower packs, small toys from Party City, and homemade goodies (bug-shaped crayons and a giant butterfly gummy).
All in all, we had a blast. And were absolutely exhausted after the party was over. It was such a blast to see Milo playing with his friends from school.