The party

 We had H's birthday party today.  His actual birthday isn't until later this week.  I can't believe he'll be three ("free" as he says)!  We went with the Very Hungry Caterpillar theme for the party.  I figured next year he'll be wanting a real boy-ish kind of party, so I wanted to have a little kid themed party this year.  We didn't talk about the party too much beforehand, but he was very excited this morning when everyone came to see him!

 The food

I found these cute cards that go along with the Hungry Caterpillar book.  We had strawberries, plums, apples, snap peas, pears, little smokies, salami, Swiss cheese, and Trix cereal as "caterpillar food."

 We did a caterpillar cupcake "cake." 

Carrot/zucchini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  The littles all enjoyed it.

 It's my party!  

H was so excited that all of his buddies came, and that they brought presents.  

After a few people came, he started asking the others "What you brought for me?"  or "You bring a present for me?"  The kids all played very well together.  We did have to remind H to keep his excitement/exuberance in check.

 

 Clara Hartwell had a neat caterpillar tunnel that she let us use for the party.  Everyone had fun crawling through it.  C thought it was very funny to play peek-a-boo through it.

 Henry and Payton playing.

(Payton got stitches this week, so he had a cool karate head tie!)

  

We made egg carton caterpillars and clothespin butterflies.  

I wanted to have a little something for the kids to do.  They enjoyed it.  I was thinking that it would take about 20 minutes to do the craft, but they were all finished in about five minutes.... H kept saying he wanted to color his journal when he was coloring on the caterpillar.  I'm not quite sure what that meant.

 Look!

 Singing Happy Birthday.

We all gathered and Daddy announced that we were going to sing Happy Birthday to H.  H was excited and while we were waiting for everyone to come in, he started singing it.  He couldn't wait anymore!   He was trying so hard to blow his candle out, but just couldn't get his breath going in the right direction.

 

 Mmmm... cupcakes.

They were all so quiet at this time. 

 

 Presents!

H was ready for them!  He had practiced at Christmas.  He got cars, trucks, lincoln logs and a cardboard playhouse that you can color on.  

 

 

C was learning from H how to be the birthday boy - he's got a few more months until his first birthday.  

C actually slept through the first half of H's party, so he only was there for the best parts - cake and presents!

Whew!  

What a party!

(You can see the paper lantern caterpillar hanging behind us.)

I found most of the ideas for the party on Pinterest - many awesome ideas there!