I have three year olds! Elsie and Delia’s party finally happened last Sunday, after a reschedule due to illness the week previous. They were such good sports about it — it’s hard to change plans at the last minute! We lucked out with much better weather and healthier, happier children, so it all turned out for the better (minus missing Grandma C, who couldn’t travel back AGAIN after being here two weekends this month already!).
We (re)rented a shelter at our favorite local park, right near the playground. I didn’t get many pictures of the kids playing because I was setting up food, but the playground was right there and everyone had fun. I also didn’t’ get pictures of the food (doh!), but we based it on the Very Hungry Caterpillar book — we scanned and printed the pages of the book to set in front of each food. Apples, pears, oranges, plums, strawberries, watermelon, pickles, lollipops, sausage, swiss cheese and lettuce for the leaf at the end. We also added turkey burgers and hotdogs — not in the book — to round out the meal a bit! It was a fun, easy-to-throw together theme!
Elsie swinging, her very favorite pastime. Along with her super-cute second cousin, Little B! After some playground play and some bubbles, we headed down to the beach to hang out while the grills got going…
My cousins and their kids! Two fabulous families!
Then we headed back up to the picnic shelter for lunch and cake! The cakes were made the week before (due to the last minute cancellation!), Elsie’s was frozen post-frosting (my first real attempt with a piping bag, woohoo!) and Delia’s cupcakes were frozen without frosting and done that morning. They both turned out great! The chocolate cake inside Elsie’s was super delish — it was a basic chocolate cake recipe from America’s Test Kitchen. Both girls chose their cakes from a search for “Hungry Caterpillar Cakes” on Google images. Hoo boy, there were some nice ones there! Delia fell in love with the cupcake cake in particular, so I had to track down the caterpillar & butterfly decorations at the Eric Carle Museum in Massachusetts.
A Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake. Chocolate cake, buttercream frosting. I roughly copied the butterfly in the book, added JellyBellys and piped caterpillars on the sides
Very Hungry Caterpillar Twins!
After cake we had some presents & passed out balloons, and then it was definitely time to clean up and head home for some naps! Look at these tired girls! Check out their awesome matching hats and shorts — in Eric Carle prints — thanks to Grandma Cynthia! All in all, a great party, a great day – -the perfect mix of special but fairly mellow. Hooray!
Related posts:
Your pictures are beautiful! The cakes turned out super cute, and I love the way you did the food. I would have loved to see a picture, but I can imagine it was awfully cute anyway. Happy belated to your girls!
I know, I am kicking myself for not getting pictures of the food! Oh well! It was not fancy, but it was fun. My girls liked it!
I love the tiny caterpillars around the side of the cake. Such a cute idea and a really good job!
What beautiful photos! And a great cake…my girls would go nuts over this! My girls are 4 and 7!
What a great theme idea! Nice party!