Ladybug Party (1st Birthday) We had a ladybug birthday party for my daughter who was turning one.  It was the perfect theme for a spring party. I made handmade invitations out of red and black cardstock.  The invitations were in the shape of ladybugs and I attached wings with ribbon.  When you opened the wings, the invitation read: "Little spots and polka dots, that's what ladybugs are made of, our little lady Kira is turning one, Won't you come and join the fun?" Party at our hive: address, Give us a buzz if you can't bee there.  Hope to spot you there! On the envelopes I added ladybug stickers and wrote: This little ladybug is dancing with glee... because you're invited to a birthday party!  When you entered our door for the party, I hung a huge poster that said:  Welcome ladies and bugs! I cut a bunch of ladybugs out of construction paper and used them on the sign and throughout my house. I also made a banner that read Happy Birthday Kira using poster board and ladybug cutouts. I decorated my staircase with black, red, and white curling ribbons and crepe paper and filled the staircase with red, black, and white balloons.  We had red and black balloons all over the house, and I found an amazing ladybug balloon at one of the local party stores which I attached to my daughter's highchair. I made paper garland using red and black construction paper and hung it all over the house. I hung red and black crepe paper on the ceiling in the main party room and used plain red tablecloths to decorate the tables.  My daughter wore a ladybug dress with a matching bow! She matched the party perfectly. We had a ladybug pinata, and I made ladybug cakes and cupcakes using a Wilton star tip.  The cakes and cupcakes were so easy to make, and I received so many compliments on how good they looked. We served easy finger foods since we had a lot of party people who were under the age of four. We had a veggie tray, a fruit tray, and a sandwich tray. We had ladybug plates and napkins.  For party favors, I made my own party favor bags using white lunch bags and a red ladybug stamp/ stamp pad with red and black curling ribbon.  I filled the children's goody bags with the usual: bubbles, play doh, crayons, coloring books, animal crackers, and some coloring pages of ladybugs that I found online.  For the adult goody bags, I decorated empty baby food jars (which anyone with a one year old probably has tons of) with ladybug stickers and ladybug fabric on the lids.  Inside each jar, I enclosed a piece of paper with a poem:  Here is a gift, a special present just for you, and just like me they will grow too, place them under the sun and beautiful flowers you will see, Thank you for celebrating my first birthday with me."  I enclosed a little packet of wildflower seeds in each jar.  I also had labels printed with ladybugs for mini hershey bars that said " Happy first birthday Kira" with her birthdate. "Thank you for celebrating my special day with me".  I found these on ebay and they were very easy to attach using doublestick tape. They looked great.  I had all the guests write down birthday wishes for my daughter in a journal that I will be able to keep forever and add on to it every year.  I also found a ladybug website that had facts and folklore about ladybugs.  I condensed the information and made my own sheets which I embellished with stickers and had laminated at Kinko's.  I had the sheets out on the coffee table for people to read. For thank you cards, I decorated plain white cards with foam ladybug cutouts that I got at the local craftstore and enclosed a picture of each person with our little lady. The only thing I wished we would have done, but didn't have time to was put together a slide show of pictures of our daughter's first year that we could have shown on our tv (oh well, there's always next year!!!)  I had such fun planning this party and had received such good feedback from everyone who attended. The red and black color scheme was great, and everyone appreciated all the planning and hardwork it took.  I can't wait until next year when I can plan my daughter's second birthday!