Kyle & Callie Medeiros Family: My Very Hungry Caterpillar

I must say that pinterest was my best friend in planning this party. As I'm sure it will be from now on when I have anything crafty or creative to do! It was so much fun to plan that I couldn't narrow down my *stolen* ideas very well. Here is how it turned out...

The invite:

When the guests arrived they first saw the gift table.

We decorated it with art that we did on Maci's actual birthday - a handprint caterpillar...

and a butterfly! The cute pull toy and caterpillar-in-the-box were gifts from Nana Robison. Perfect addition to the gift table!

Here's a view of the newly built treehouse (thank you Daddy!) and yard decorations...

I was excited at how the tables turned out :)

Thanks again, pinterest for these adorable ribbon topiaries!

We decorated the treehouse with colorful bunting and a tissue-ball caterpillar.

And we can't forget the birthday girl!! Brenda Maddox made her adorable shirt and I ordered the skirt on Etsy. Pretty cute little caterpillar, I think ;)

Posing with Mommy in the midst of the chaos!

Once all of our guests arrived, it was time to get the party STARTED!!

To kick it off I read the kids "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle.

Maci wanted to join in.

After we read the book, the kids posed for a quick photo opp. Thanks to the generous teachers at Caruthers Elementary for letting me borrow these adorable cut-outs. Picture perfect! A few kiddos didn't quite make it into the photo...

Then it was finally time to EAT! I based all of the food around foods that were in the book. This was one of the hightlights of the party for me, and I didn't get too many pictures.

Each food item had a sign next to it that looked like this...

On the party menu: sliced apples, fruit salad with marshmallow dip, PB&J sandwiches (arranged in the caterpillar below), salami, cheese, crackers, dill pickles, watermelon slices, chips, Fresno State sausage, summer spinach salad and BBQ Chicken skewers.

Yum!

Personalized water bottles make me happy for some reason.

Now enjoy!

For weeks afterwards Colby was asking to eat caterpillar food, so I guess that part was a hit :)

I can't believe she kept that itchy tutu on the entire time - what a good birthday girl!

After all of our friends got full tummies we did a craft. I had the kids make butterflies and caterpillars out of egg cartons. They painted them, added googly eyes, antennae and wings. They turned out really cute, but I forgot to get a picture of the finished product. Oops!

Maci wasn't so into crafting. But who would be when Daddy will take you down the curly slide instead?

Next up: GIFTS! Maci was quite a good girl and sat still and concentrated on each one. I won't post pics of every gift, but she got a lot of cute things!

One of which was a vacuum from Auntie Camille. She also got more fun toys, cute dolls and adorable outfits :)

After presents it was time for my little caterpillar to scurry off and get her butterfly wings...

So she could eat this AMAZING cake! As always, courtesy of her Auntie Christa. Pictures do not do these babies justice. Sooooooo cute!

My naked little butterfly posing before the devouring begins!

She wasn't quite sure what to do with it at first, so Mommy helped her get into it.

Before long, she knew what this was all about and quite enjoyed it!

She was even generous enough to share with cousin Asher!

And cousins shared an ice cream bite with her - cold face!

Spread your wings little butterfly...

Ah, now we all could relax and the kids could play to their little hearts content. Did I mention that the weather was HOT!! I mean it had been in the 70's for weeks and 3 days before the party we got a heat wave that brought us 95 degree temperatures for our outdoor afternoon birthday party. Thank goodness we have a lot of shade!