I asked my daughter what kind of theme she would like for her thrid birthday and her reply point blank was a butterfly birthday party! So away we went with the planning and preparations.  For the party invitation I used my computer. I found a brillant picture in the clipart section and enlarged the picture. I then wrote on the picture Butterflies are pretty and fly so free flutter over to ------'s birthday she is turning three" I also asked everyone to reply to the Mom-arch which I thought was pretty clever and everyone got a kick out of it!! I used cardstock paper to make the invitations more stable and then added anoother piece of cardstock behind the invite to give it more life and color. We used butterfly stickers on the envelope and then hand delivered to all out little friends.  I hit the local dollar store to see what they had in stock and because it was summer they had an amazing assortment of butterfly items. I purchased a lot of butterflies and hung them all over the yard to give the feeling that you were in a garden of butterflies. I also attached them to the patio umbrella rod. I purchased a few butterfly flags and hung one at the entrance of the house with a bunch of balloons to let our guests know that they had arrived at the right house. I hung the other two in the yard on the fence and over by the food station. I picked up a great tin flower pot that had butterflies already painted on it and then made up my own flower arrangement with purchased flowers from the grogery store. This acted as the centerpiece for the table. I hung up balloons all over the fence to act as filler. I also had purchased butterfly garden accessories and put them throughout the flowers. All items were purchased at the dollor store.  I had a woman come over to do facepainting on the kids and of course they all wanted a butterfly face it was adorable. I made each of our little friends some butterfly wings made from wiring for the shape of the wings and pink flet wrapped around and attached with a gluegun. I used glitter glue for added decoration and put on some jewels for extra sparkle. My daughter had on a butterfly tiera purchased at Claire's to make her standout being the birthday girl.  For a craft I purchased some 5x7 picture frames and a bunch of foamy sticker cut outs of butterflies dragonflies flowers and catapillers. Everyone had a great time putting the stickers on the frames to take home. I also made sure to get a picture of all the kids so later when we sent out the thank-you's I put the picture in for them to add into their frame.  We played a game called cocoon. I filled up balloons for each child to pick one. Before I filled them I put in catapillers and one balloon had a butterfly. I attached them to those balloon sticks so I would not have to tie them. Each child picked one and with the help from their mommy untied the balloon to see what they had inside. The Child with the butterfly won the prize. I gave her a pack of crayons as a gift with a bunch of butterfly pictures to color.  For lunch I served hotdogs because all kids love hotdogs! Fruit and veggies. I served juice and icedtea for drinks. For the cake I made it myself. I made a round cake with two layers(chocolate). Between the layers I put strawberry mouse. I decorated the cake with yellow icing and on the top a made a big buttferfly to cover the cake top with just enough room for my daughter's name. I served it with a scoop of vanilla icecream.  After cake we opened gifts and then gave out the lootbags filled with tons of butterfly items: stickers pencils erasers coloring books headbands hair clips. I added some lipgloss and some candy too. They were a hit!! Everyone got to take home their butterfly wings and of course their craft picture frame. For thank-you's I used the same clipart picture for the invitation and we thanked our guest for coming and for their gift. I inserted the picture I took of them in their wings and facepaint as well. I had such a great time planning this party and my daughter had a smile on her face the whole time so I knew it was a hit....what ever will I do to top this nextyear!!!   "