Ladybug Bash Party

Tiffany from "All About Riley" spent months and hours and hours of planning and preparing for her Girly Girl 1st Birthday Ladybug Bash! This adorable blog is focuses on a mothers LOVE for her little ANGEL:) and is full of beautiful photos and sentiments.

I choose a ladybug theme for Riley's 1st birthday party back when she was about 5 or 6 months old. I had just chosen a ladybug costume for her first Halloween and after seeing some cute party ideas I decided ladybugs would make a perfectly adorable 1st birthday party! My husband says our house was infested because of all the ladybugs:) I spent a month or so looking around on the internet looking at other parties and getting ideas before actually starting on the purchasing and making things to spread out the costs. I found a ton of great ideas on Etsy, some that I made myself and some that I purchased.

I had such a great time planning Riley's 1st birthday and was happy with how everything turned out except the balloons. We blew them up a couple hours before with one of those helium tanks that you can buy but they all got a little droopy right after the party started. Anyone else had this problem? Maybe I bought the wrong kind of balloons?

Here is the invite that I ordered off etsy! So easy to do, I took the picture at home and then got them printed as 5 x 7's at Costco pretty cheap and bought envelopes and stickers to add from Hobby Lobby. I ordered Riley's outfit off etsy as well! "Our Little Lady is turning 1, so fly on over to have some fun! Please give us a buzz at____ We hope to spot you there!"
I also used return address labels with this little guyand I ordered these stickers for the back of the favor bags and the thanks you cardsAnd these were the thank you cards that I made. I had the ladybug frames printed from a die cut machine at work and used a thank you stamp in the center in red and a ladybug stamp in black on the little red square that was punched out from the frame part of the die cut. I glued them on a white card and envelope set that I bought at Micheal's.
The inside on the top part of the card when it was opened. okay now on to the fun stuff, the decorations!!!

Outside I didn't do much because of the chance of it raining, but luckily it didn't! I was going to put one of the banners outside but I didn't want it to get ruined. Out front I had a small ladybug flag (that I didn't get a picture of) with some balloons and this on the front door.
And in the back a few balloons, a red tablecloth, polka dot labels I made for the coolers, and a different small ladybug flag. Nothing too exciting.The kids table (one of Riley's birthday presents)Okay now the fun decorations! My favorite, the cake table!
My mom made the polka dot runner for the tables

I had a very talented friend make the cakes. Here I used her tutu from her invite outfit as decoration.I decorated the cake dome to put over the cake but there was no way that cake was going to fit under there. It was still cute though so I left it on the back of the table to use to cover the leftover cake during the party but there was nothing left to cover that cake was so yummy!Riley's smash cake, I served it on a fun ladybug plate that she will get to use after the party. I also hot glued rhinestones on her red one candle to add some sparkle! You can also see her little ceramic ladybug tea set we got her and used as a decoration. The flower pots I made to go across the cake table, each flower had a picture from birth to 11 months and then the center photo in the frame is from her 1 year photo shoot. I spray painted them red, glued black pom poms all over and red ribbon with black polka dots around the top. Then I cut out flowers from scrapbook paper and glued them to green pipe cleaners and added green easter grass in the pots.
The one you see painted here was also used in her 1 year photosFun banner that Riley's NanaMac made for her partyPolka dots everywhere! I found the plates and napkins at target a while back.I found these tins at Hobby Lobby and these are the polka dot tags I made for all the food.My first attempt at ever decorating cupcakes without spreading the frosting on with a knife and I am pretty proud!I bought the cupcake toppers off etsy.
I put frosting in a ziploc bag and cut the corner off to put the frosting on like this, I didn't like how they looked until they hardened.
I tried my best and I think he looks okay for my first decorating attempt! If I would have let the white chocolate dry before adding the chocolate eyes it would have looked cleaner. I also think I should have used dark chocolate for his spots to make them stand out more.The cookies, the only thing that we had professionally made.
The favor tableThe write-on plate is from hobby lobby, it came with the red polka dot ribbon but I figure I can change that out for other parties. And in the basket are antenna headbands that I made for all the kids. I bought the bands at the dollar store covered them with ribbon and added pipe cleaner antenna. The one big antenna with the glitter balls is from Riley's Halloween costume.The bags that I made:) Even though they took alot of time I loved how these turned out!Girl's bags got eyelashes but the boys didn'tClose up of the back The kids got a mix of this stuff depending on their age and gender. If you look close you can see the ladybug hair clippies that I had a friend make for all the girls:) I told all the "big" kids to take a cookie or cupcake home!I didn't have a gift table until the last minute. I put 4 tv trays together and threw a tablecloth over it. But the grandparents filled that up so the rest of the gifts I put on the floor on the other side of the cake table. I need to figure something better out for next time.Present from my mom she drew a ladybug on and glued goggly eyes on:) So cute, I saved that for the scrapbook:)My tissue paper pom poms, I thought they turned out great. I hung the black with red and black ribbon and the red with red and white ribbon.I ordered these foam ladybugs from oriental trading but didn't know what to do with them. The day before the party I got this idea, I glued two together so you could see them from both sides. I also hung them from the pom poms over the tables and glued them to all the serving dishes and my flower vase. A great little detail.Two big poms I made before I realized I needed to cut the paper in half but they worked well here. I hung these with ladybug ribbon. Ladybug balloonsThe bar An adorable frame I ordered from etsy and a plush ladybug book she got as a present.Snacks for the kiddosBanner behind the food tableLadybug water bottlesThe ladybug throne. Here you can see the ladybug plate I put her smash cake on as well as her party hat, sippy cup and bib.The food. I didn't get alot of pictures of the actual food but I wanted things to be kid friendly. I made yummy meatballs, chicken nuggets with lots of dippers, chips with salsa and queso, ham tortilla wraps, pretzel mix as well as fruits and veggies with cream cheese marshmallow dip (Yum!) and ranch dip.

Table before all the food was put out

Here is the Bug Juice.
Pretzel mix, you can see the ladybugs I glued on everythingClose up of the labels I made Snacks for the little onesAnd my favorite:) The fruit bowl
The weekend before the party I couldn't find a big watermelon so I was going to make him out of a honeydew or cantaloupe but the day before the party I found one! He took some time, mainly removing the seeds as I balled the fruit but it was so fun to make and I had some help!See my cute ladybug dish and spreader with the fruit dip! I also found a ladybug spoon rest that I used for the queso spoon but i didn't get a good picture. It pretty sad how months of planning and fun are over and gone in a day! (and then you have to clean everything up) I have been on the lookout for ladybugs and polka dots for so many months now it is going to be strange to start looking for something new. (Yes, I already have a couple ideas for her 2nd birthday party. I hope you enjoyed our party as much as I enjoyed planning it!


(photo and content credits: All About Riley)