Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party

For Elliott's first birthday party, I decided to do a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme.  All of my kids love the book, and I had actually thought about doing it for Trey's first birthday, before we decided to have a joint party for Collette and Trey.  So, I knew this was my chance to have a Very Hungry Caterpillar party! We did a pretty low-key party with just our family.  There will be plenty of time for big parties with lots of friends as the kids get older.

Here is the invitation for the party:

We were planning on having the party inside our house, because there was a 85% chance of rain. So, we got everything set up inside:

I made a caterpillar with Elliott's monthly pictures, and displayed his photo books from the past year.

...only to come home from church and discover that it wasn't raining and the sun was shining, and we could party outside! So we quickly moved everything outside instead.

We did foods primarily inspired by the book, so we had hoagies (included among the meats and cheeses were the Swiss cheese, salami, and pickles the caterpillar ate), macaroni and cheese (which isn't in the book, but is always a favorite), watermelon, fruit salad, butterfly and caterpillar cereal treats, and our cake and ice cream.

Our friends let us borrow their bounce house, and it was a huge hit with the kids! Especially once they decided to use the hose and spray down the bounce house, so it was like a giant slip and slide! (It. Was. HOT. If we had air conditioning, we may have moved the party inside due to heat, but instead we just made the best of it. )

After lunch we did cake! I made a small apple cake with the caterpillar on it for a smash cake, and a larger caterpillar cake.  (And the "polka dot" candies melted in the extreme heat before we served it....oh well.  Real life, people.)

Unfortunately, my video camera was malfunctioning and I didn't have my phone, so in an Epic Mom Fail moment, I don't have a video of us singing happy birthday to him and blowing out his candle. I am so sad.  The good news is my video camera did start working again for the last, oh, 2 seconds of singing, and it did work to video him eating his cake.  But my computer is almost out of memory, so I can't upload the videos, anyway. Ha! But here he is, about to blow out his candle and enjoy some cake!

I love this one.  You can tell he is SO excited!

Ready to blow!

He was a little dubious about the cake at first, but it didn't take him long to really get into it! :)

He even wanted to share it with his siblings, and cousin Ethan (just 6 weeks younger).

He had fun opening his presents:

And showing off his new skill, is "one" finger, given in response to asking "How old are you?"

Hats and party blowers are a must for any party! 

(Cousins Tabby and Amelia with Collette)

Happy, happy birthday to our sweet little caterpillar, Elliott!