A LADYBUG PARTY FOR A LITTLE LADY!
When my daughter turned one I held a ladybug themed party. I made the invitations out of black and red bristol board - the body of the ladybug with the information written on it in silver pen had the wings attached to it using a paper fastener. I put spots on the red wings and they opened to show the information. The envelopes were black as well. For loot bags I used large baby food jars which I spray painted the lid red and used a marker to put black spots on. I filled them with Cheerios for the kids and Hershey's kisses for the parents. Each jar had a black label tied to it which read "A Gift from the Little Lady". The dark chocolate cake was baked in a metal mixing bowl (so it would resemble a ladybug when placed on the plate) and had red royal icing for wings - the spots were Junior Mints! All the cutlery was red and black, as were the plates. I managed to find some napkins with a red gingham border and a ladybug in the centre, and a ladybug decorated tablecloth. The decorations consisted of red and black streamers and bunches of red balloons with dots drawn on in marker. I also made my daughter a special birthday outfit consisting of a white onesie which I had fabric painted on ladybugs and in the centre on the chest wrote "This Little Lady is One!" I also used bristol board to make a huge ladybug which we stuck on the wall and on each of the ladybug's 12 black spots we pasted pictures of our daughter from each month - it was neat to look back at the year and see how much she had grown! Since the children weren't old enough we didn't have any games, but for older children the ladybug themed games are endless! Lastly we made the thank you cards which consisted of white card stock on which I painted a ladybug on the front and we stuck ladybug stickers on the inside and included photos of that person with the birthday girl! What was really great was how some of the guests got into the theme - my daughter received a ladybug sandbox from Little Tikes and the book "Ten Little Ladybugs"!
