We celebrate milestones here at Signature Style, small ones, big ones, and when a small person has a big milestone, like my tiny intern turning one! Naturally we had to go all out and celebrate keeping this tiny, very hungry person alive for 365+ days with seemingly no permanent damage to either party. ;-)
Eric Carle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar has been Kate’s favorite book from the beginning. (I’m guessing it’s because she can really identify with the little guy.) So I had had the theme picked for several months.
I had so much fun putting it together!! Click through to see how it turned out.
Decor
Of course I perused Pinterest for Very Hungry Caterpillar ideas. After finding this adorable invite on Etsy, and loving that the very hungry caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly, I went with the garden theme and went crazy with paper flowers.
But not before we properly represented the caterpillar!!
There are a ton of paper flower tutorials on Pinterest. I used this one and have a few tips if you decide to go nuts with tissue paper:
- The folds don’t have to be perfect, just fold and go.
- A ruler or something hard to run over folds is a must.
- For the flower’s center, definitely cut half if not more. It looks better shorter than longer!
- I cut the centers as strips for several but loved the look of rounded-cut centers the best.
- I used this pin for the stem idea.
Food
The Very Hungry Caterpillar book makes for the easiest menu ever. We served everything the caterpillar ate with the exception of the ice cream cones and watermelon (we ran out of time!). Apple corers make it easy to cut the hole the caterpillar ate!
I did add open-faced miniature tomato sandwiches and chicken salad sandwiches for a little bit more substance. The hungry caterpillar was really in to fruits and sweets. ;-)
Activities
In addition to general merriment, I had two activities for the kids (and grownups). Watercolor painting cookies is all the rage right now so I made butterfly shortbread cookies with royal icing and we painted cookies. I want to do this for every major (and really all) event now!
More color and creativity with Very Hungry Caterpillar printables and coloring. These triangle crayons are PERFECT for tiny hands, easy to hold and not easily broken.
And for parting gifts, I found these adorable little seed pots and tiny gardening tools.
What She Wore
You can’t see it here as she face plants a cupcake but she wore the same tutu from her birth announcement photo (and that we used after the party to recreate the announcement image at her one-year shoot – THANK YOU GRACE!!!!)
We actually found a very hungry caterpillar dress! Thank you Gymboree for making that happen and Grace Hill for snapping this ethereal shot and her adorable one year photos!
Happy Birthday My Tiny Intern/Very Hungry Caterpillar! <3
I LOVE all of this and I’m so bummed we couldn’t make it. I am beyond impressed with everything you did-awesome job Natalie!!!!!! Love it, love her, love you.
Yay!! Thanks Jen! We missed you for sure!! When are we getting together?! Love and miss you!!!
Wow what an awesome party! I’m so sad that we had to miss it :-(
I love how you did a one year picture with the same props from her announcement photo! So very clever and fun to see how much growth she had this year! Happy birthday sweet Kate!