Our Very Hungry 1st Birthday! {Part 3}

[Part 3} is all about the ppaarrrtttyyy! A couple days pre-party, we had our backyard sprayed for mosquitos so that everyone would be bug bite-free during the twins’ party. It RAINED all morning, during the party, and most of the afternoon, so we had the party inside instead. I had bought a bunch of decorations to decorate the backyard (which is much larger than our living/dining room area) so we used them inside for a VERY well-decorated indoor party! 

Amy made this great wreath for the front door for the birthday party. The wreath is still hanging on our door, minus the E.  The Very Hungry paper lantern caterpillar made his appearance at the party. We stored the twins’ birthday presents underneath him. I printed those great photos from Katie Buehler Photography for the frames on the mantle. 

We had all the guests sign this copy for the Very Hungry Caterpillar book with their birthday wishes for Eli and Emry Jane. (Yes, they have to share this signed copy. We shall see if they fight over it later!) The bug catchers and bubbles to the right were the party favors. The framed picture of the Very Hungry Caterpillar actually came from a student of mine during my first year teaching kindergarten.

I made this “I am 1. So am I.” banner, months before the party, to hang on our back fence. We hung it on the curtains, thanks to the rain storm at party time! The sign was just color cardstock and die-cut letters, but I think it turned out super cute!!

My absolute FAVORITE party decoration is STILL hanging in our house, even a month after the twins’ birthday. As those that read our blog know, I took a picture of the twins’ each month over the past year in a white onesie with a month sticker. I combined those precious monthly photos on caterpillars that I made from cardstock and hung them on our big mirror in the dining room. It is amazing to see just how much they grew each month. The Eli transformation between months 2 and 3– WOW!! And how DARK Emry Jane was when she was born, crazy! It’s so fun to see all those pictures lined up together and it made a great backdrop for our food table.  Auntie Amy also made those great high chair banners. I used leftover dot fabric to make the 1s. I put Emry’s green tutu on the bottom of her high chair, mainly so that I would not forget to put it on her for smash cake time!

My friend, Jamie, printed these free VHC food labels from Pinterest for me. There were a couple of foods on my menu that were not in the book, so I edited some of the labels to included the foods that would be on our table! My favorite was the “On Sunday, he ate Chick-fil-a nuggets” label. All CFA lovers know that the cravings for CFA are strongest on Sunday! How is the caterpillar so special to get those nuggets when we have to wait until Monday?! 🙂 These were printed on white cardstock. I glued two copies of each label together so that they would be two-sided. I also glued toothpicks into the middle so they would stand up in a piece of watermelon rhine on the table. Full picture coming soon…

Cake time!! A teacher friend, Tracy Best, made these great smash cakes and the caterpillar out of cupcakes (in another photo.)

Emry Jane preferred to massage her smash cake instead of eating it 🙂

Eli had a few bites of his smash cake…

… then he switched to watermelon and gobbled as much as he could!! My children prefer watermelon to cake?! Okay by me!

So many great presents!! The twins LOVE their Cozy Coupe cars from MaMarcia and Granddaddy Jer… and Emry Jane’s even says “Princess” on the license plate!

Big brother Noah taking the twins on a ride in their new red wagon from Nana and Papa!Oh, yes, and baby iPhones from Nana and Papa too! Plus, so many more for our other friends and family! These two are so very LOVED and SPOILED.

These are all the birthday photos that I took of the party but there are a few more that I want to share with everyone that my brother Dalton took with his fancy camera. Bear with me… I am going to share ONE. MORE. PART of the story! Read the final chapter, {Part 4,} by clicking here.