Penelope's Very Hungry Caterpillar First Birthday Party

Penny's party was a complete success! And thank goodness for Pinterest. Oh my, it made party-planning so easy! I'm super excited to share photos of the party.

First, the table/decor

I printed out illustrations from the book of various foods in the story and mounted them on cardstock and skewers. I'm not sure where exactly this caterpillar was hatched, but these foods are definitely not all in season at once in any place I know of! I substituted grapes for plums and tried not to feel too guilty about buying imported fruit. 80/20 rule, right? ;)

 

The party colors were pink & green

And here is the cake! I made the caterpillar's head to be Penny's smash cake and cupcakes for the other kiddoes. I didn't want to abandon our efforts to keep Penny sugar-free, so I tested a few different recipes and finally decided on this molasses-based applesauce spice cake. The frosting was whipped cream cheese with crushed pineapple. I used India Tree natural food dyes, and I wasn't really all that impressed, especially considering how pricey they are. It took a LOT of coloring to get these colors, which are still pretty muted, especially the green. Next time, I might experiment with berry purees or something else. Regardless, I think the cake turned out really cute!

super easy decoration from cardboard and yarn

 Party activities consisted of a craft...

We made fingerprint caterpillar bookmarks. This is the sample I made.

Josh helping Penny make her bookmark.

A dramatic reading of the book...

Can't you tell that Penny was just captivated by the story?

A game that had nothing to do with the theme, but was just fun.

We have these blocks with different careers on them, and each child pulled a block out of the bag to see what his/her future career will be!

 

Apparently, Penny will be a writer. I guess we'll see! We had lots of movie stars and rock stars at the party, as well as an astronaut, bus driver, zoo keeper...

Kids were greeted with caterpillar antennae headbands. Very few of them were worn for too long, but they were super cute! (and doubled as party favors, along with the bookmarks)

 

 

Invitations were inspired by the book

And, no first birthday party post would be complete without a thorough cake smashing montage.

Coordinating headbands! For more on Penny's dress, see this post.

                                                                  Getting into stuff!

Penny wouldn't wear her headband, so we used it as an anklet.

 

Overall, it was a great party and a great day! Happy birthday, Penelope!