Our Very Hungry Caterpillar's Party

We celebrated Joel's first birthday with a Very Hungry Caterpillar party on Saturday evening. It was a small family party and just right for our little guy. Four of his cousins were able to come, so it was a little busy in the house with 6 little ones running around, but a sweet time to celebrate with our family. The party was pretty simple, but I did manage to get a few things in the theme of Joel's FAVORITE book, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. I read the book to him at least once a day and he loves to put his little finger tip into each hole and to flap the butterfly's wings at the end. His love of this book makes my heart smile because as a child (an kinda now) I LOVED all things caterpillar and butterfly :).

We started off the party with a poetic reading of the book (ha!) and then all the kids had a chance to do a little art/craft project. I had supplies for them to make their own caterpillar out of paint, egg carton, google eyes and pipe cleaners. Nora and Kynlee who are both very detail oriented seemed to really enjoy the project, Kamryn and Levi quickly slapped some paint on and went out back to play. Meanwhile, The adults snacked on some sausage, cheese and pickles (all the food was from the book). When craft time was over we had a yummy dinner of some of Philip's homemade sausages (and some others that we had made) along with a fruit salad and some grilled veggies. After dinner we took a break from eating to open gifts. Joel had very little interest in opening presents, but he got some very cute new things. He has already been enjoying everything he received.

For dessert I made him a caterpillar cake and with the left over batter made some cupcakes with strawberries...I guess the caterpillar was still hungry after the 4 strawberries he ate in the book, because he ate through all the cupcakes as well ;). He had that cute stunned face during the singing but seemed amused by the candle. After a whole year of never giving Joel any sweets the his reaction to the cake was a little disappointing. At first all he did was poke at it. After we gave him a bite he did eat about half of his serving, but acted like it was something he'd had a million times. When everyone was done with cake we headed outsie. After some fun playing in the yard it was time to go. The kids all got one lollipop with a caterpillar on it as a party favor (they also served as part of the center piece).  All in all I'd say it was a success.

Here are some pictures of the party to remember what it was like:

after bath Joel had a little impromptu time with his beloved book :)

I cannot believe the party is over and I am still in denial that my baby Joel is one whole year old! It is so hard for me to believe that a year has passed since he was born...how did it go by so fast?! We are so blessed to have such a sweet, wonderful, loving family to celebrate with, and so lucky to have such a special son to celebrate! Thank you all for coming and loving on our baby! We love our family and we love you Joel!