A Ladybug Birthday

Becca requested a ladybug party for the big number 8, and I obliged without realizing how few resources would be available for a big girl ladybug party, but after a little creative thinking and a trip to Dollar Tree we came up with a very fun day.

We started the morning with ladybug pancakes per Becca's request. All I did was make slightly oval pancakes & let the girls decorate them with strawberry syrup and raisins.

For the party, I decided to call it a ladybug picnic and included lunch in the party. Here is a picture of the invitation...It looked much brighter in person, but my lighting was bad. For lunch I made ladybug PBJ's (I made open-faced sandwiches cut in ovals basically like the pancakes but with mini M&Ms for eyes, peanut butter, strawberry jam, and raisins or chocolate chips for the spots (I let the girls decorate their own)). I also served cherries, BugBite Graham Crackers, carrot sticks, string cheese & oyster crackers (Becca's choice) for lunch in cute little trays.

Here is a picture of the girls at lunch--they are wearing ladybug aprons I found at Dollar Tree :)

The reason we got the aprons was that Becca wanted to let the girls decorate their own cupcakes, so when I saw the aprons I thought it was the perfect accessory. Here is a picture of the cupcakes we made (I made the two on the middle tier that are tipped on their sides and the girls made almost all the rest. They did a good job)

Once we finished our lunch and dessert, the girls had a ladybug toss (I found a garden flag at Dollar Tree that had 3 flowers on it, so I cut out the centers of the flowers & had the girls toss little rubber "BlingBug"(sparkly) ladybugs through the centers. The prize? More BlingBugs. I separated the girls & had some tossing ladybugs while others had their toenails painted to look like ladybugs. I got each of them a pair of red or black flip-flops to wear so they wouldn't ruin their pedicure & they were all thrilled with their bright red toes.

Do you like Sarah's toes (sans flip-flops on the bottom left)? She wouldn't let me remove the paint from her toes & she has had three different ladybug pedicures (first from me to practice then from Becca when they were supposed to be cleaning their rooms) so her toes just look like a blob of black and red, but she was thrilled with the look.

After the pedicures we played ladybug bingo, opened presents, and went on a ladybug hunt (a treasure hunt where each of the clues had a ladybug sticker on the outside...so they were looking for the bugs). The rest of the party favors included bug-shaped bubble wands (butterflies and ladybugs), ladybug sidewalk chalk, stuffed ladybug picture frames (I took the girls' pictures at the beginning of the party and printed them while they ate lunch) wall crawler giant ladybugs, pinwheels and other ladybug goodies. I had the girls decorate treat bags with ladybug stickers, markers, glitter etc. as they arrived and then handed them back when they reached the end of the treasure hunt.

Becca was thrilled with her party. She got some darling gifts including this cute ladybug notebook
If you don't know how to make these notebooks tell me...they are a fun, fast, cheap and easy project (we have made several with our young women...at a class activity and again at girls' camp).