Invitations: Using Red and Black Cardstock, I created a Ladybug which opens along the black line on the ladybug's back(like double doors open) Inside Center: Come to Our Garden For a Bug Ball to Celebrate ______'s 2nd Birthday We'll Waltz with the Butterfly's, Boogie with the Bees and Jitterbug with the Ladybugs! Inside on the left and right wing: Bee There: Date Fly on over to: Location Infestation Time: time Buzzzzz ME: RSVP, Head Gardner

Decorations: Tablecloth: For a ladybug-theme party, drape the table with a red paper and scatter it with mint or chocolate cookie spots. Plates: homemade ladybug plates: Simply decorate a red plastic/paper plate with licorice legs and antennae (or pipe cleaners, for a noncandy version). Four chocolate cookies make up the edible spots. Cups/Napkins: Red or Black Balloons: Red and Black Latex and a few Ladybug Mylar Balloons. 

Greetings: At the door, greet each child with a set of his own antennae, (made of a red headband, two black pipe cleaners and two black Styrofoam balls) and a black paper goodie bag decorated with sticker ladybugs or puffy paint ladybugs and the child's name.

Goodie Bags: Fill bags as they do each activity Centers:

1. Ladybug Beanbag Game: (Favor: Ladybug Frame) MATERIALS 1-yard piece of dark green felt Hot glue gun Squares of light green, red and black felt Dried beans Black colored marker Instructions: Cut a large leaf (2 1/2 feet long and 1 3/4 feet wide) from the dark green felt. With the hot glue gun, attach leaf veins trimmed from light green felt (a parent's job). Next, cut out five pairs of 6-inch-wide red felt circles. Glue together the edges of each pair, leaving a small opening. Fill the circles with dried beans, then glue closed the openings. Glue on black felt heads. Cut out black felt spots and glue two on one bug and four, six, eight and ten on the others, respectively. Draw wing lines on the bugs with the black marker. (Idea found in Family Fun Magazine)

2. Bug Hunt: (Favor: the plastic bugs they find) Need: lots of plastic bugs. Hide the bugs around the house or outside. Let the children find them. One with the most wins. Let them keep the bugs. Variation of the Bug Hunt: Fill a wallpaper trough with rice (you can dye it any color). Put in plastic bugs and let the kids tweeze them out within a timed limit.

3. Bee Boogie (all ages): (Favor: Toy Gardening Tool)  Make a large daisy type flower on a thick stem, cut out center of flower. Attach flower to a stake or stick that can be stuck into the ground. Need ping pong balls, can draw place bee stickers on them. Give each child 3-6 balls, depending on age group/ability, have them toss into the flower center. 

4. Stick the spot on the ladybug: (Favor: Stickers or Gummy Worms/Bugs) For this age group, you'll probably want to do away with the blindfold. 

5. Dance the jitterbug: It doesn't matter if the guests don't know the steps; just put on some tunes and let them make it up as they go. 

6. Craft: purchase plastic visors and stickers of garden items and bugs. Let the kids decorate them.  7. Craft: Make Watercolor Butterflies (coffee filters, food coloring in water, eyedroppers or paintbrushes, clothespins, pipecleaners)  Food: Cake: Use your favorite cake recipe to make a ladybug cake. Bake in 1- 1 ½ Qt. ovenproof bowl(stainless steel or Pyrex) or 1- 6-inch half sphere (30 minutes) And 1- 12 cup cupcake tin (bake for 10-12 minutes. Frost 1 Cupcake black (this is the head), frost 1 1/2 Qt. Cake Red (this is the body). Use black pipecleaners and small, black Styrofoam balls for antennae. Use Peppermint Patty's for spots, black licorice for line down back. (can use additional cupcakes for individual ladybugs frost red with licorice antennae, junior mint spots and shoestring licorice line down back.)

Ice Cream: Use small flower pots or clear plastic tumblers to hold chocolate ice-cream topped with crushed oreos and gummy worms. Can serve with a new, clean plastic garden shovel. (can be premade and frozen in tumblers, I'm not sure if a terra cotta flower pot is freezable)