Sable's Party - Ladybug Picnic

Sable had her 2nd birthday party today, that's right - two parties, 5 days apart.

Yes, it was a little hectic.

No, I didn't keel over.

Yes, I nearly did.

This was one of my most favorite parties EVER to do. I made everything for this party, except the Happy Birthday banner that we put up for every party. You'd never know it based on these pictures, but the night before, my living room floor was literally covered in scraps of paper. I should have gotten a picture of it cause I'm not exaggerating. This party involved more cutting then I can say. My hand was warped into a claw by the end of all the cutting. I wish I'd gotten a bunch of better pics, but like I've said before - it gets hard to run the party and take pictures.







I was actually really proud of the cupcake tower. I do NOT care for baking cakes, which is why I usually buy them. But I'll make cupcakes and this time I'd decided to make a cupcake tower topper. Maybe it's just me, but I thought it turned out pretty great. I even made that ladybug on top, painted it and added the wire feelers.



The activites. We only invited relatives to this party, so there were just a few adults and 8 kids. Plenty I say! First they colored and cut out ladybug pictures.









Then they "put them in the grass".







Pin the spot on the ladybug.







I made ladybug costumes for each child, it was my lucky day when I found exactly 8 red shirts at the dollar store - two of which were just the right size for the two babies.



All the spots were felt backed with Heat n Bond, cut out, and ironed on. Each shirt had 4 or 5 spots, each spot had a backing paper - see how it's totally possibly for my floor to have been covered in paper the night before? Yeah, I made the shirts the night before. That's how I roll.
(The ladybug cake topper and the painted ladybug rocks you'll read about below were NOT made the night befoe. I'm not nuts.)

The kids went into the front yard for a ladybug hunt. I'd painted small rocks to look like ladybugs, and Jeff hid them in the grass. Each kid had a baby food jar with sticker vines on the inside.

Put simply, it was utterly adorable.







Sablebug.



Capribug & Romebug.



Mamabug.



Cousinbugs.



After the hunt I was frantically getting the fried chicken warmed up so I didn't get a good shot of the whole table spread. We had lots of picnic and red foods - watermelon, red ladybug jello (with blueberries on top), crackers and dip, pasta salad and fried chicken. Jeff's dad also brought a really yummy bean casserole.



Jeff had been teaching Sable how to blow for a few weeks.



Success! She blew them out all by herself.



Since many of the relatives there hadn't been at Capri's party, she had a chance to blow out candles and get sung to again.











As Sable would say, "Happy baby!"










Presents from Gramma & Papa are always good.







Especially when one's a tricycle!



OK, I'm proud of this one too. I found an American Girl doll bed at the Goodwill for about $3.50. I snatched it so fast I would have taken somebody's fingers off if there had been anybody else around. I made the pillow and blanket, to match the red headboard. Sometimes I'm really pleased with the things I create, this was one of those times.



There were goody bags too, ladybug spades & shovels, snacky goodness, flower bracelets, tops and of course red fruit roll-ups. Sable handed them out as her cousins left, she's getting to be far too big far too fast.

Sable's actual birthday is tomorrow, the 16th. She'll get her BIG present from Mommy & Daddy then.

Love ya boo-boo!