We celebrated Jed’s birthday at our house just a little over a month ago and I’m finally getting around to sharing all of my crafty Pinteresting party planning. (Better late than never, right?)

We let him choose the theme. It took him about half a second to decide on bugs. For anyone planning a boys’ birthday party, here’s a little insect inspiration.

the invitations

Last year, I made the mistake of e-vites. Great in theory and for the budget, but turned out a few of the moms from Jed’s class never check their email and totally missed out. So this year, we hand-delivered straight to the cubbies — unless they never pick their kids up from school, I figured this was failsafe. Found these on Etsy from Olive & Star Paper Designs. They were wonderful to work with and did a super quick turnaround:

the food

With a 3-5pm party time, I didn’t have to worry about a full-on meal and instead went with filling, healthy (bug) bites. We went all out with bug-themed snacks and an a-MAZE-ing cake from DOUGH, my favorite client and bakery in Asheville.

the entertainment

If I could go back in time and teach myself balloon art rather than babysit, I would. In Asheville, a super smart kid who goes by Mr. Twister, has it made. He’s adorable, great with the kids and super talented. He made bug balloons for all of our guests including this dragonfly for me:) He even learned two new balloon bugs just for Jed’s party.

We also had a bug scavenger hunt. I bought mini-magnifying glasses and a bag o’ bugs online from Amazon and hid 144 bugs all over the house. I gave extra “points” for anyone who found and got rid of any real bugs;)

decorations

I didn’t do too much in the way of decorating. I used some burlap fabric I had leftover from a Baby Q that I hosted last year, which I used for the table cover and made this very nifty Very Hungry Caterpillar out of balloons. I figured with other bug balloons bouncing about and bugs scattered all over the house, that was enough.

And being close to Halloween, I was able to take advantage of a bunch of spider stuff out there, like for napkins and plates and our spider pinata. The pinata was probably overkill — had plenty to fill the two hours without it– but I thought I was self-editing when I held back on the two bug crafts I had planned. No one can say there wasn’t enough to do! In addition to the pinata candy (organic and low on sugar from this dentist’s daughter) and scavenger hunt bugs, kids brought home favor bags with Spiderman bubbles, glow-in-the-dark bug stickers and bug tattoos.

With disposable yet recyclable plates and a very helpful mother-in-law, clean-up was a breeze!

And, most importantly, everyone including parents seems to have a good time.