Lots of ladybugs for our little lady :-)

I posted pics of these ladybug invitations a few weeks ago, well the ladybug garden party for our precious Elora's 1st birthday was on the weekend and there were lots more ladybugs! It was meant to be at our house and be an outdoor garden party, but a week of rain meant we had to change plans and we ended up having it in the hall of my old church. My mum and I spent a couple of hours decorating to make it look like a garden with flowers made out of balloons, lots of pretty butterflies, and lots of pretty pink and green colours and 1st birthday decorations.

Due to the party being indoors I had to come up with some last minute games and activities to keep 30 kids amused as it cancelled out the jumping castle we were meant to have and also meant we didn't have the swings, trampoiline, sandpit etc that are in our yard to use. So I made a ladybug pinata and despite him being very cute the poor thing got beaten to death and mobbed for lollies LOL. 

We also did some biscuit icing and decorating. I made butterfly, dragonfly and flower shortbread cookies and we also made ladybugs out of milk arrowroot biscuits. This yummy activity proved popular with some of the adults too. :-) 

We also had some standard party games that were ladybug and garden themed. We did pass the parcel with butterfly or bee stickers in each layer and the prize was a cute stuffed ladybug. We also did pin the ladybug on the sunflower and everyone got a particpation prize from my red prize box, many of which were ladybugs (bubble bath, lip gloss, sticky legged critters), there were also butterfly, bee and dragonfly things in there. 

The other thing we had to keep the kids amused was a ball pit that we hired. We had one for Bethany's first birthday last year and it was a huge hit so we got it again. It was supposed to be for the smaller kids but got taken over by the bigger ones for most of the party. Thankfully by the end the littlies, including the birthday girl, got a chance to play and loved it!!

We had lunch, which the birthday girl enjoyed!

And then it was time for cake, which was yep you guessed it.... a ladybug!

 Elora went all shy when people were singing happy birthday but she was also smiling and seemed to know it was something nice for her.

She seemed to really enjoy the party and I even found a pretty pink ladybug outfit for her to wear on the day! Ladybugs were everywhere!!

All the kids seemed to have a good day and went home totally worn out, including our own. We didn't end up opening gifts until later at home after both the girls had a sleep!!! Elora was very impressed with her pressies, although she has to fight off the big sister to get her hands on any of them!!

It turned out to be quite a big event, with lots of people and lots of effort put in, but I love throwing themed parties and seeing kids have heaps of fun. Jaden used to get excited every year as his birthday approached and people would look forward to getting invited (he is going to lazer zone this year, I just turn up and pay them, will be a nice change LOL)! I like to lavish love on my kids all the time but especially on their birthdays. I know you don't need a big party to do that but it's something I'm good at doing and so I do it!! I think this one was particularly special to me because it's been a tough year and it was definately worth celebrating that we have not only survived it but flourished through it!!

One unexpected result of Elora's party was that someone who saw the photos on facebook has hired me to do their daughter's birthday party in July. I have had many people comment over the years that I should do kids parties as a job but never really took that seriously, but when someone actually said, 'my daughter wants a ladybug party I will pay you to do it' I got really excited that my creativity has value to other people and am looking forward to maybe pursuing future possibilities with this. Not exactly sure where it will head but I have my first job as a party planner and that is very exciting!! :-)