Grayson's Very Hungry Caterpillar 1st Birthday {Part 1- the decor}

FYI- There will be tons, no really, a LOT of pictures!  Brace yourselves. :)

I started planning this party about a month before Grayson turned 1.  I got my basic idea for a Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday from this pin I saw on Pinterest.

I just loved the caterpillar made from paper lanterns and went from there.  Grayson also has a Very Hungry Caterpillar baby book, so it just made the theme even better.  But man, it was a lot of work!  I told my mom later I had a greater appreciation for all her work throwing us birthday parties when we were kids.  She said, "now you understand why we had alternated each year between friend and family parties!"  Oh boy do I!

Anyways, all the hard work and effort paid off.  It was so fun and Grayson had a blast. Here are the details!  Come back tomorrow for the pictures of everyone enjoying the party.

The Cake

Decorations

Pull string pinata

This was a great pinata for little kids.  There were a bunch of ribbons hanging down and you take turns pulling one off.  One of them releases all the candy.

Caterpillar plate art

My sis had this idea and Grayson "decorated" the green plates with shaving cream dyed green.

Caterpillar name

I used my silhouette to cut out the circles (from cardstock) and vinyl letters.

Birthday Balloon Wreath

I made it from this tutorial.  I'm especially excited about it as it's going to be the wreath we bring out the week of any family member's birthday.  So fun!

Hanging Caterpillar

And my very own lovely caterpillar lantern.

Colorful Circle Garland

I spent a couple days watching Love in the Wild and cutting out a TON of 2" circles from my scrapbook paper stash.  Then I sewed a lot of them together into 2 garlands.  The rest used throughout the other areas of the party to sprinkle on the tables like really big confetti.  I don't have a picture of the other garland that was above the food table, whoops.

Stations

Write a note to the birthday boy!  There was a section in his baby book for notes from friends and family, so it was a prefect addition for the party.

 I love the caterpillar plushie!

Guess How Many Jar

I used Skittles for "caterpillar food" and filled a jar with them.  Then guest wrote down how many they thought were in there.  Closest guess won the jar.

 The coffee table has 2 stations...

Caterpillar coloring!

Pretty self-explanatory.  Coloring pages and crayons- easy, simple, fun.  I downloaded the coloring sheet here.

Caterpillar Bookmarks

I loved these, they are so cute.  The kids use their thumb and red and green ink pads to make a caterpillar.  I got washable ink (super great for these little kids) and had baby wipes on the table for quick and easy cleaning.  Oh, and I cut out the plain bookmarks with holes with my silhouette.  Super handy!

too cute, no?!

Table Runner

I used some of the cut circles as a table runner for the food table. :)

Food 

 I l.o.v.e.d. the way the food table turned out.  It was my favorite part!

I used all the food the caterpillar ate in the first 5 days of the book. Plus a few other things. :)

How cute are those caterpillar kabobs?!

So, what do you think?!

Stay tuned for more pictures of the party in action. :)

linking to some of these parties