A Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday

Yesterday was Graham's birthday party and I think he had a pretty good time! He is one happy baby and loved the attention, the people and it seemed like he knew he was the birthday boy! 


While I was in the States, I bought as much as I could think of to put together a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party. I came up with idea from the book and how much we love to read it as a family and how hungry Graham always is and then when I searched for ideas I was inspired by this party by Pink Pistachio and this party featured on Hostess with the Mostess. I also searched on Pinterest for other ideas and also a web search for crafts that teachers have used in their classrooms with the book. 


I went with lime green and red as the main colors for the party and tried to incorporate as much as I could from the book into the day. 


Here are some pictures....

One of my favorite decorations of the day and a project that took a long time was the caterpillar banner which had a picture of Graham from every month this past year. I made all the alternating green circles and tied together with green ribbon and then made the head. I loved seeing all the pictures of Graham and how much he has grown. 

 

On Saturday the caterpillar ate through a lollipop...so we had lollipop flowers in the grass.

I had every intention of making a cake for him but with John working so much and he wouldn't be at the party I didn't want to the added pressure to have the cake to do so I found someone on camp who did it for me. I originally wanted his head to be red but I still liked it and it was pretty tasty....and I had an insane amount of cupcakes left that John brought to work the next day.

Entry way with lanterns and the goody bags that had a thank you note attached with sparkly green pipe cleaner. Inside were fruit roll ups, Graham's favorite cracker...Ritz crackers, a lollipop, silly straw, bubbles and sunglasses. Most of the items were brought back from the States.

This is my sad picture of the food area. With John working and me being solo doing the party and still watching my two kids, I did awful at getting as much pictures as I would normally. But...you get the idea. I took off the huge painting that is normally there and did the wall in streamers and we had an assortment of food that the caterpillar ate through on his journey. I was going to make cute little food labels to help with the storyline but that project got cut....also not included was swiss cheese as apparently that is hard to find here....white cheddar did the trick.

Since the party had a large amount of bigger kids (all of Peyton's friends) I had planned a couple of crafts to keep them busy although the playroom and the toys outside were more of a hit. We had finger print caterpillar book marks and then also butterfly/caterpillar party hats (idea was from Pottery Barns kids). You can see Peyton's and Graham's hats in the next couple of pictures. It was not fun cutting the many circles for the caterpillars or tracing and cutting out the butterflies but it was worth it.

The birthday boy ready for cake! He was so excited and you could tell he knew what was about to happen!

I am so beyond thankful for these two little ones! Seriously two of the best kids (and such different personalities) and I can't imagine what my life would be like without them. Wish that Daddy could have been in our family picture though! How did I get so lucky....seriously!

Graham was trying to put his party hat back on his head....instead he got icing in his hair!

The big kids hanging out and eating cake...and showing each other their green tongues!

After the party...and after nap time....we opened presents. I thought with all the bigs kids, the craziness, that I just didn't want to add opening presents with all of that. I know it is different but I have been to a couple of parties where parents have done that here and it works. We were able to open them slowly, talk about who gave him what and it was so much calmer. Mostly Peyton opened the gifts and Graham loved the cards. And then afterwards...Peyton kept trying to play with all the toys while Graham watched!

A wonderful day celebrating with our friends here who all make life so much easier by their company! I wish I took more pictures but it was crazy with two kids, hosting a party and not having my other half.   Happy Birthday Graham and hope you had a wonderful first birthday celebration!

The Big Birthday Party

We have had a busy couple of weekends, starting with Peyton's big birthday party last Thursday. She has been talking and talking and talking about her birthday party and I tried so hard to make it everything she had been wanting. We felt so blessed to have all our new friends here come and celebrate Peyton with us and it reminded me that we are getting settled.

I brought over some ice cream themed party materials since I wasn't sure what she would like in the four months since we left. I was going to do Dora and I am glad I didn't because I think Dora has been replaced with any of the Disney Junior cartoons since that is all we get here.

We had lots of fun, a lot of craziness with all the kids and a good first birthday party here in Saudi! We had cake, ice cream sundaes and played outside with silly string!

Peyton's friend Gavin joined us and as soon as he arrived they were attached at the hip. They play so well together and I love that they have been friends since they were six months old. Gavin celebrated her first birthday and missed her second because they had just moved to Saudi and so it was nice to be able to have him there to celebrate with her this year. They are such good friends and so cute together.

Happy Birthday Peyton...I can't believe you are three and we hope your party was everything you were wanting. We look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with you and so thankful for every day we have with you! Happy Birthday Pumpkin Pie!

A Shrek-tacular birthday!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Peyton's birthday today and we had a Shrek-tacular time with friends and family and felt so blessed to have so many people we love and have been such a support and encouragement to us during these past two years celebrating Peyton with us!

I had such a hard time coming up with a theme for her party, we started many months ago with Elmo, then went to Curious George and then settled with Shrek although she might a little more into Toy Story now! Such a kid!

So, I ran with the Shrek theme and was surprised how hard it was to find ideas and party goods but we worked hard and I was really pleased with how it all came together! The main colors were brown, green and then pops of aqua with the table cloths and some balloons. I am glad I went with the aqua because it helped the green and brown pop.

Of course the main way to incorporate a Shrek theme is in the food choices and names, I really took time to come up with various foods and name them and then made labels this week for them. We had: Leeches on a Log (celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins), Swamp Sticks (pretzel sticks), Princess Fiona Fruit, Worms in Dirt (two kinds of pudding with gummy worms), Donkey Droppings (chocolate rice krispie treats rolled into balls), Puss in Boots Kitty Chow (Chex Mix) and then pizza...Weed Rat Pizza (chicken), Ear Wax (cheese) and Pimple Pepperoni. I also had Swamp Scum (green kool-aid with gingerale) but forgot to take pictures of it!

Some other touches was our centerpiece of onions because Shrek claims that Ogres are like onions, they have layers. We also had Shrek ears for the kids to wear to be an Ogre for a day!

I had some other ideas I wanted to do but being pregnant and so sick cut into my planning energy so I had to nix some ideas like my, "Beware of Ogre" signs outside.

Here is the birthday girl waiting for her friends. She desperately wanted some balloons and I told her she couldn't have them until her friends came, we had the party and they left! So she was wanting them to hurry up!

A family of Ogres all ready to party! Peyton was not too happy and it was hard to get a good picture of all three of us.

One of the cutest party guests! I love him!

As our activity for the kids, I set up the table to make Gingy from the movie! They had gum drops, icing and sprinkles and sugar cookies cut out like gingerbread men. We originally intended to do actual gingerbread men but the dough and molasses made me sick causing me to throw away the first batch, John attempted the second batch and I got sick just smelling it so this morning I threw together a batch of sugar cookies and it worked out great. I think the kids liked the taste of them better anyways!

I had a very hard time determining a cake for the party because I didn't want to pay a fortune for a custom Shrek face or something elaborate and decided to go with green and brown with polka dots to add a girly touch. I ordered it from Kroger and was super pleased with how it looked! It was just what I wanted!

Last year Peyton cried when we sang to hear but this year she LOVED the attention and smiled...she occasionally hide her face but overall loved it and even clapped and cheered for everyone. She also did a great job blowing out her candles. Whenever she has hot food I ask her to help me blow our wind on it so I told her the same thing and she did great!

She was super ready to eat cake and when we were done tried to stick her hands in it! I managed to quickly stop her and got it cut. She ate it up and surprisingly didn't finish it!

Then it was present time and she was super happy! I don't have any pictures of that but Uncle Shawn got some so I will add them when I get them. She did great opening, occasionally saying thank you! She was on a roll until she opened a Veggie Tales movie and wanted to watch it NOW! We managed to divert with telling her to look under the present table for the present we got her...a Radio Flyer tricycle. It worked, I hid the DVD and we were good! She was a very spoiled little girl and got tons of nice gifts!

One of the last gifts was a University of Texas cheerleader outfit and as soon as she opened it she insisted to put it on and starting to take off her dress. So, she got naked, changed clothes in the middle of her party. I can't wait to get those pictures and show her when she is older! It was super funny and I loved it! Such a Peyton move! I want this on now and I don't care how it will happen!

We had a wonderful party and a wonderful birthday! I am so thankful that God blessed us with the opportunity to be parents to this precious little girl. I continue to pray for wisdom and guidance to help raise her into the woman that God has destined her to be and so excited to see what this year has in store and see her grow into the role of Big Sister! Peyton, we love you so much and hope you had a wonderful birthday!

As you can see, we had one very tired birthday girl afterwards! We let her watch her new Veggie Tales movie while we cleaned up so she could start to unwind for nap time then the whole family had nap time, watched the Texas game and just relaxed and played with our new toys!

Happy Birthday Peyton Pumpkin!