Our Very Hungry 1st Birthday!! {Part 1}

Tis’ the eve of my sweet babies turning 13 months, so it’s about time that I get their #veryhungryfirstbirthday up on our family blog! If you are an instragram-er, you can check out lots of our birthday pictures by searching for that hashtag 🙂 {Part 1} is about the idea for a Very Hungry Caterpillar-themed party and the photo shoot that the twins had for their photo party invitation.

As a former Kindergarten teacher, Eric Carle is one of my favorite author’s of children’s books, and the Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of my absolute favorites of his books. We own at least one copy of every version of the story imaginable (bath tub book, baby board book, original story with the holes punched out, etc.) One night, Noah picked up that book in their nursery and read the story to them– the whole thing, without any prompting or encouragement from us. It was the sweetest thing ever and is definitely a special memory I will cherish forever. When I started looking through Pinterest for party ideas, Very Hungry Caterpillar (VHC) struck a chord. I thought of that sweet memory of Noah reading to the twins for the first time. I also thought it was very fitting because the twins are always very hungry. Done. Settled. Very Hungry Caterpillar-themed, the party would be. It was not until their actual birthday that someone shared with me that Eric Carle’s birthday is the SAME DAY as the twins. Of course, that made the birthday theme even more fitting and PERFECT.

In my Pinterest party-planning, I found some pictures of a paper lantern caterpillar so I knew I wanted to make one of those for pictures and the party. I also found a picture of a little boy eating watermelon, instead of a smash cake, in his 1st year photos. I loved that idea! I purchased their birthday party outfits from shops on Etsy (His: Stealing Kisses, Hers: Swann on the Farm) and made Emry Jane a top and tutu for the watermelon pictures. I also made the twins a matching bow and bow tie set from polka dot fabric that matched Emry Jane’s caterpillar dress. Katie Buehler Photography did an awesome job running with all my outfits, props, ideas and semi-cooperative babies. Here are the photo shoot pictures:  How cute are those two?! At the time these photos were taken (late May,) neither baby could stand up unassisted more than a couple of seconds so the props that Katie had were awesome! This was also the first time that they had had watermelon and they LOVED it. I purchased a VHC-themed photo invitation from the Periwinkle Papery shop on Etsy. I bought green envelopes from Hobby Lobby, printed the photo invites at Walgreens and mailed them to our guests 🙂

Photo Credits: Katie Buehler Photography and Periwinkle Papery

Continue reading {Part 2} by clicking here.