Flower and butterfly party my daughters almost share a birthday one was turning one year old and the older one 3 years old on august 3rd and 8th respectively..we live in a colony so the kids list was endless and over here half the kids were my friends children so mothers had to be invited as well..so here"s what i did (firstly i planned this months ago and prepared well in advance having to cope with two kids it was essential..)i hired the local community hall which is huge the size of any movie hall..so decorations had to be plenty.my good friend kavya helped me a great deal.the party colours were pink purple and yellow.for invitations kavya   had made a folding butterfly out of chart paper and stuck circular sequins on the body and the wings were painted purple..everyone loved it..i did the finsihing by outlining them with pink glitter and silver glitter..i made a long poem and wrote it out with a purple glitter pen (exhausting work)whichj began like "zaira turns one and anaira turns three,so buzz over like a honey bee,.....(i wont pen it downtakes too much space but my friends loved it)for flower cutouts i made huge cutouts out of coloured paper,chart paper and velvet paper(messy as it leaves dust),i didnt waste any paper what ever left over scraps came out i used them to make petals and tiny flowers and i used my old wedding cards (made of thick handmade paper in offwhite color to cut out shapes of butterflies and other bugs and used black colour glass painting marker (its a tube of thick black liquid which hardens like plastic)to outline them and painted inside different colours and lastly added glitter after the paint was dry..then i made leaves using the same cards ,the black glass marker made the veins look so real.. i made grass out of crepe paper and chart paper and so in the end the whole hall had grass on the bottom with differnt sizes of flowers and leaves  and it all looked like a garden...my mother had visted united states( u guys are so lucky)and got me nylon butterflies which i hung in the middle using dental floss and she has also got me butterfly and flower banners so i used one centre of the hall were all thsi was done and i had a plastic table cloth in the same theme on which al the gifts were kept and instaed of using that for the birthday cake table i used a round 3 feet by 3 feet plastic table with a white table cloth and bought beautiful plastic flower garlanded them into  hughe starnd and decorated it like a wedding table and stuck all the tiny flowers and butterflies i had made out of scrap paper..the bday cake was a huge vanilla cake shapd like a huge cartoon kind of a butterfly with a smiley   face..the icing was yellow,purple and pink,i downloaded it from the net and gace it to the local cake maker..it looked amazing and the baker thanked me co he got dozens of orders after that.. as soon as kids came in i gave them flower blowouts,eyemasks andcrowns.for activities and games we had three parts of the hall divided and each part had long but low tables one area was the greenhouse for which i got clay pots months in advance and painted them silver and after that dried i got my father (an artist) and me to paint flowers of differnt kinds on them ..this took one month..and on the day of the party i got from a local nursery plants for kids to plant..so on one table i placed these beutiful pots and lay one plant aside and got aprons for kids too so they were given their first lesson in planting demonstrated my my mother...and the pots were for their mother so the moms were given a chance to chose their pots...they loved it even the young ones enoyed it..i had stuck up a chart paper with "buttercup greenhouse" written on it on the wall behind the table , on another table i had got butterfly tattoos,face painting kit and glitter gloss,nailpolish and butterfly clips and braiding done by my lovely teeage cousin sisters kausara nd sakeena and named that area "ladybug parlour"all the kids got ready here i had the table done up like a regular beauty parlour...with tiny stools and on the table cloth heaps of bugs and butterflies were hung all handmade of course.even my aunts and uncles got their face tatooed with butterflies. another table was called the activity house were i had made along with my cosuin kausar..cutouts of butterflies and bugs and outlined them with glitterglue..the kids wee given heaps of crayons and color pencils. and i also stuck the back of each item.with double sticking tapeso the kids took these butterflies that they had coloured back home and stick them on their cupboards they all did and i still see them when we visit and feel so happy..it was so much work.. and lastly for i had 45 kids i got a bouncer so if the kids werent painting butterflkies or getting tattoes and nail painting done they could have blast on the bouncer which they did esplly my own daughter.. i also had three games..one was the butterfly toss i got plastic butterflies and put numbers on them and also had the numbers on small handmade butterflies given to all the kids and then all the kids under the age of 6 got to play this ..all of them held a sheet of cloth and i threw in the plastic butterflies and tossed the sheet until all but one butterfly was left and the person whose number  with the last butterfly one the game..(the kids had so much fun tossing..they didnt care who won..the prize was a flower shaped bag if a girl and butterfly drawing and color book if a boy.. the second game was a toss the straw game i got straws in four diff colours purple pink yellow and mauve and strew them all over the hall the kids all ages were to pick them all up and come to me they didnt know any more (the trick is not to tell them why just ask them to collectand the winner was the one with maximum sets that is two pink straws count as one set or two purple and so on..the kids had so much fun collecting the straws even one year olds could play.the prize was a butterfly glider.and for the babies one year and below i had sectioned out one part of the hall thrown a carpet and strewn the carpet with flower shaped cushions and plenty of toys all kinds to keep them busy.. food was all home made..but my mom got me the entire flower and butterfly partykit so i had napkins,plates,glasses.matching the theme i made flower shaped cookies in advance and then one nite before the party melted cooking chocolate and dipped and dried the cookies so they were chocolate coated and then when that was dry i used icing tubes to draw butterflies sitting on the flower..the kids loved them i made bowtie pasta in pasta tomato base sauce as it looked like butterflies with cocktail sausages..flower shaped fryums,icecream with gummy worms and oreos crushed over like dirt(both from america ),for the adults i made home made mince samosas(they are fried flour dumplings)chicken gravy with sheermal which is an muslim bread like muffin..soft.. the drnks were all kinds of soft drinks and juices in jugs with silly names in tags like grasshopper punch for a guava drink and beetle juice for coke..etc..sandwiches were made by using a cookie cutter flower shape and i put green food colouring in my cheese spread and grated chicken ham they looked and tasted great.on a bed of grated carrots.. return gifts differd for girls and boys plus diff ages got diff stuff..girls i got the butterfly handbags with flower shaped keychains,buterfly stickers,butterfly glitter clips,butterfly and ladybug erasersand a plastic butterfly wall hanging..boys got flower windmills.finger puppetscrazy balls.stickers eraser and pens with butterflies on them.2 yr olds got a flower shaped lego like puzzle,and the babies got booties with butterflies on them and butterfly shaped rattles.everyone got so much to take home..moms who participated got flower candles..everyone was astonished at all the decor food games and return gifts all in the theme and ofcourse everyone was asked to wear party colours and dress up as a flower or a butterfly or wear the motifs..my daughters wore frocks of flowers with their hair braided up with butterfly clips and bows and wings all from america..it was hard work as in india you hardly get anything esplly for a theme party..this year i hope to do a mermaid as ariel is the current favourite so hope to get plenty of ideas from this wonderful site from where i picked up so many ideas last time...