Julianna's Very First Birthday Party {Finally}

Julianna's birthday party was this past Monday (Memorial day) and we had fun!

The theme for Julianna's party was the Very Hungry Caterpillar. I spent a lot of time researching and prepping for the party and I think it paid off. Everyone seemed to really like the theme (or they were being nice & said they liked it lol). For those of you wondering about the butterflies - they lived!

Monday was a long day (actually the whole weekend was long prepping for the party). We arrived at the Firehouse rental hall around 9am setting up the party ... and then the party started at 1pm ... and mostly everyone stayed until 3:30 or 4. We had quite the cleanup afterwards. It was a fun day but I'll say this - we are not doing it next year. I would rather just pay someone to cater & clean up next time. It was a lot of work bur was totally worth it because Julianna only turns one once! It was 90 degrees & humid so we did not get to really play the badminton or horseshoes like we had hoped for.

On the menu:

Bubba burgers, hotdogs, fruit salad, green salad, Wegman's mustard potato salad, Dinosaur BBQ Macaroni salad, 6 foot sub... and of course the hungry caterpillar cupcakes! (see pictures below)

The kids got to put on butterfly tattoos, colored in butterfly coloring books, played with balloons & bubbles... and they made Hungry Caterpillar thumbprint bookmarks.  We had story time - What book do you think I read? Yep you guessed it - the Very Hungry Caterpillar! And then we released the butterflies! The kids loved that.

I will say this too... I should have taken more pictures. I realized I did not take any good pictures of family and friends ... or of us with Julianna... or of the food... and the list goes on. I need to make a photo checklist next time so I don't forget to take the obvious ones!

Here are some pictures from the day ...

See the butterfly house in the back left corner... they were alive and ready to be free!

Closer look at the favors. I printed a thank you picture and attached to a bag of gummy worms and ring pops. (Gummy worms are kind of like caterpillars, right?)

I did a 12 month collage - 1 picture to celebrate each month of Julianna's first year!

The Hungry Caterpillar cupcakes. 100% of the credit goes to my husband and my mother in law for making those cupcakes & decorating them. My husband spent weeks coming up with the perfect cupcake recipe (lucky me got to taste them each time!)

Julianna & Maya checking out the floor of the hall.

Julianna still checking out the situation. She was really shy in the beginning and a bit overwhelmed with all the people.

Pretty birthday girl!

Story time. That's me reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to the kids & adults.

When we were done, we released the butterflies one by one. Some did not go so willingly. I guess they did not want to give up their safe existence and fresh daily oranges. I am happy to report they all made it safely to freedom!

Pretty neat.

My Aunt trying to get Julianna to hold a butterfly. It was probably best that Jules never actually got her hands on the little butterfly or she would have surely ate him or squished him.

Close up.

My god-daughter Bianca holding a butterfly. She loved it!

Baby Jake trying to grab a butterfly.

Costume change for Julianna's first ever "Cupcake". I made this "Hungry Caterpillar cupcake" onsie for her just for this occasion in order to not ruin her pretty dress. Here is the front of the onsie...

And here is the back...

We all sang Happy Birthday to Julianna - she had the funniest look on her face and didn't know what to think of everyone singing to her! I think she liked it!

Cupcake... Mmmmmmmmmmm

Maybe not! Arghhhh...

That's it. Like I said, I really should have taken more but ... you get the idea of our special day! I know it's a lot of pictures... and I hope I did not bore you! haha!