My son and daughter are twins and turned 5.  I wanted to throw a combined themed party for them.  Their interests are so different it seemed a difficult task at first.  My daughter loves butterflies.  My son liked the idea of having a party about bugs. When my daughter realized that butterflies are bugs she agreed.  My party had to be indoors which resulted in problem when trying to come up with a way to go on a bug hunt.  To prepare for the party I used a party to go kit from WWW.apartyspot.com. It had almost all of the party favors and things I needed to throw this party. It had a lot of ideas too! My father made us some wood boxes about 6 deep and 6' wide. I painted them white and then spent about a week shredding green brown and black construction paper to simulate grass and dirt.  I put the pretend bugs in the bottom of the boxes and covered them up with the shredded paper. I made spider legs out of old nylons. I took a strip of fabric and elastic and made a belt like waistband that the kids could slip over their waists with 8 spider legs hanging off of them. I purchased some fly swatters for the games.  Before the party I involved my son and daughter in the preparations by making paddles.  I used white cardstock paper and markers. We traced their hands on the cardstock. They colored the hand prints and decorated around it. I cut the corners off the cardstock to give it a rounded edge. I covered it with clear contact paper to give it a heavier consistency.  I got some free paint sticks from Wal-Mart and taped the handprint pieces to the sticks.  The end result was a paddle.  My son and daughter used the magic markers to make the paddle sticks prettier and I used shipping tape to cover them and make them washable. Then we cut out tissue paper in the shape of butterflies and dragonflies. I also bought a big floor puzzle from Oriental trading and we colored it with markers. We drew bugs  and made ours very colorful. I also bought ladybugs with sticker backs and color your own puzzles from Oriental trading.  I made the invitations to look like a ladybug.  I used red and black cardstock paper. I cut out a small circle for the head and a large black circle for the body.  I used red cardstock and cut them in half circles for the wings.  The kids colored the circles in black. I printed off on white paper the invitation details and taped them to the center of the ladybug body. I used brads to attach the wings and head. So when you opened the wings and lifted the head up you could read the information. Very cute! I had my son and daughter make placemats by punching out different shapes and gluing them to a piece of green poster board.  We then covered them with contact paper and still use them today. I had a white tablecloth and solid green tableware and it was very colorful and cute! I used the ladybugs from Oriental trading and put them inside the balloons. I had about 50 balloons hanging in a few places for decorations and later used them all for a game. For lunch I kept things simple by giving them sandwiches and juice.  I had a bowl of bug shaped crackers I found at our grocery store and served those later in the party when we played bingo.  We read the story book from the party spot kit. Then we sat down and made the bug house craft.  I passed out the bug tweezers and nets and the kids went on a bug hunt by digging through the grass.  This was a big hit! Then we took the bugs to a table and I told each kid to pick a favorite - they used their magnifying glasses to look at the bugs. We used the bug guide book from the party spot kit and the kids really liked learning a fact about the bugs.  We used the color your own bug page from the book to practice drawing a bug. Then I told them to draw their favorite bug on the color your own puzzles.  I had one created ahead of time for them to copy too.   I got some free jewelry boxes from a friend and put stickers on the covers with a picture of a ladybug and the children's names. When they finished their puzzles they put the pieces in the box to take home.      We then took all the bugs to play some games. I had them put a bug on the fly swatter and flung the bugs across the room and tried to make them land in a box. Then we divided the kids up into teams and gave some swatters and some the nets and told the kids with the nets to catch the bugs while the others swatted them towards them.  Then they we had a relay race with the kids walking like spiders using the spider legs. Then we waved the paddles at the tissue butterflies to make them fly around. The kids loved this! Some of them got their nets out to catch the butterflies too. Then we popped all the balloons by sitting on them or jumping on them.  I had a pin in the wall for the kids to use to pop the balloons too. The ladybugs came flying out and a lot of the kids stuck them to their faces. It was really cute.    I bought a butterfly cupcake cake. They take the cupcakes and arrange them in the shape of a butterfly and put frosting on top.  It sure looked like an easy to do yourself thing but I am not a baker so I bought it. It really was a toss up between the butterfly one or the caterpillar one but we all agreed the butterfly one was better. I found some spider rings at the dollar store and hid them around the house and under their napkins.    We had a ladybug hunt where i printed out different pictures of ladybugs hiding behind leaves and grass.  Then I had cards to pass out to the kids to find the ladybug that matched. It used a ton of ink from my printer and wasn't fully worth the effort and cost.  We do still pull it out now and then and it did help decorate the room so i thought I'd mention it.  We never had time to put together the big colorful floor puzzle at the party but it is also something the kids still play with at home occasionally.  I was still happy to do it together. I had planned to hide the puzzle pieces around the house for them to find and then put together.   The party spot kit also included a bingo game.  After playing the more active games bingo was a perfect wind down activity to transition into cake and gift opening time.  The kids really enjoyed it at the party and still play bingo at home together.  I made tote bags out of a large sheet for them to take all their stuff home in.  I bought some printer iron on transfer paper and printed out their names and some bug clip art to put on the front of the totes. I made the straps long so they could carry them under their arms and across their chest. My kids still have them and pull out the bug bag when they want to play bug party.  The party spot kit had coloring books and crayons for party favors too so the kids really went home with a ton of stuff! The fact they still play bug party at home makes me believe the party was a big success. They learned about good bugs and bad bugs and often remind me that ladybugs are good bugs and bees are bad.   I started the party worrying about my daughter and wondering if it was fair to have a bug party for her when she'd prefer a princess party. I'm so glad I did it - she really loved it - and so did my son! "