Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party

Pinterest gave me the idea for Jack's 1st birthday party. I saw the picture of the cake and knew it was what I had to do. It was such a fun theme and so cute, too!  We are so thankful that some good friends of ours let us have the party at their house. It was such a blessing!
I squeezed in the Hungry Caterpillar theme in as many ways as I possibly could. It was actually really easy to do and I am certainly glad about that. I don't have time to spend weeks planning birthday parties like I used to. I tried to use as much of the food that's in the book as I possibly could. That, in itself, made the planning a bit easier.  I got the printables for the food table from here.  I tried to make it as fun and kid-friendly as possible but also wanted the adults to enjoy it, too.  Thankfully the foods used in the book pretty much covered all that!  I made PB&J sandwiches for the kiddos and chicken salad sandwiches for the adults.

My amazing and talented friend made Jack's birthday cake. She's made every birthday cake for my boys so far. I adore this cake and was thrilled with how it turned out!   I wanted something to put the cake on so that it would stand out but wanted something different than a regular cake stand.  I searched Hobby Lobby and found this little gem.  I love how perfectly the cake fits on the little blue stool!

Another pinterest idea was to use balloons to make the hungry caterpillar. I thought it was the perfect backdrop to the food table.

For the favor bags I cut out a ton of little green and red circles and glued them on the bags with the kids' names on them. And the wreath was another pinterest inspiration.


I used her gorgeous fireplace for more decorations and as the gift area.  The banner was one I made a couple years ago for one of JJ's parties and it went perfectly with the theme.
 
I set up a little craft area so the kids could make a butterfly using markers, coffee filters, pipe cleaners and clothes pins. I made the clothes pin caterpillars ahead of time so they would only have to put it all together.


When it was time for the cake he really didn't want anything to do with it. I tried giving him a little taste to see if it would persuade him to go after it but he just wasn't interested.  I think he took maybe one bite but that was about it.  So much for messy smash cake pictures.
 

I am so thankful for all of those who came to celebrate our Jack Jack with us. He was loved on and showered with so many gifts. It makes my heart so happy to know that so many people love my boy.



All in all, it was a really great day and one that we'll always remember. Jack was surrounded by those who love him the most and we got to celebrate his first year of life.