A Very Buggy Birthday!

Birthday time has finally arrived at our house. We started with Ava turning 3 on May 14th, Mia turning 3 on May 15th, and Lamar will be 5 on the 24th. We held our bug themed party at the park today with some family and friends. We now have 5 very tired children who had a fun day! First I have to say a BIG thanks to all the people who helped us set up, clean up, and keep track of all the kids as they ran around the playground! Thank you, also, to all the people who came out to celebrate with us! Here are a few snapshots from out day!

One of the three birthday kids! I can't post pictures of the other two, but they were also wearing  bug shirts that I made special for the day. The girls each had bug head bands as well. They were all so excited for their party!

Here is our bug infested cake! This super easy cake design idea came from http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/bug-mountain-cake-685750/

We couldn't have a bug party without a bug hunt! Each child got a "bug mat" with 5 pieces of Velcro on it. Hidden around the park were bug cards (the pictures on the cards came from a free online bug bingo board). When a bug was found, they had to Velcro it to their mat. Once they found 5 bugs, they were able to trade their bugs for a prize! 

Our bee hive pinata was a hit! The idea and directions on how we should make it came from    http://pisforparty.blogspot.com/2011/05/diy-bee-hive-pinata.html 

Ava taking her turn at trying to break the bee hive!

W. taking the final swing before it broke! One thing I dislike about pinatas is everyone darting when the surprise falls out. I know that is part of the fun. But, I always feel bad for the littlest ones who barely have a chance to get in on the fun of finding the treats! We put together individual bags of treats for each child so everyone got the same thing. The pinata almost made it through 14 kids' worth of whacks! 

One of the activities we had set up was build your own bug! I cut Styrofoam balls in half for the body. I glued pipe cleaners to the googly eyes so there wasn't any glue involved for the kids and they could easily poke them into the balls. There were various sizes and colors of pipe cleaners, markers, and pieces of drinking straws. Everything could be easily stuck in the Styrofoam. The kids got really creative!