A Very Happy Buggy Birthday...

As most of you who read this know, our sweet daughter is our lil bug. It started out as Boog when she was in my womb, which came from Boogs, what my daddy called me. One day I said, "I love you Kenzie Bug" and the name stuck like glue.

To commemorate and honor her sweet namesake, I decided upon a Very Hungry Caterpillar/Ladybug theme for her 1st birthday party. Thanks to Pinterest and a few years as an elementary school teacher - here is the end result and some snapshots of the memories we made as we celebrated our little bug.

First, there were the decorations, little touches of bugs were everywhere we could put them. The flower banner was made by some friends for one of my baby showers and the construction paper bugs were made by my terrific 3rd graders (who were beyond honored to make things for MC's birthday). They love her so much that I kept getting little paper gifts for her the whole afternoon we made them. (The pinwheels and other details you see in other pictures are bits and pieces from my past and Hobby Lobby this year.)

Then, there was the food- picked directly from the book for guests to munch through like the caterpillar himself. (plus a few little extras- if you follow me on Pinterest you can find the recipe for the tomato/olive ladybugs). The food label cards were made by my wonderful husband scanning the book directly and printing them out for us to use. We cut out holes in the food using a strawberry huller.

Thanks to Papa for the food-coloring gel dots and to Nana for last minute food prep! They surprised us, and boy was I happy with their early arrival!

Then, there were the friends, family, and festivities. Our little bug was quite the busy bee playing hostess to all of her friends, both child and adult. She laughed, shared, and played to her hearts content. We took pauses to open up presents and to get to the sweet treat...

The cake. So, I had this idea to look up a reduced sugar, "more baby friendly" cake and icing recipe for her first big experience. Whether it was the pressure of so many people staring, the gooeyness of the icing, or the fact that she might not have liked it---the cake was not the most successful part of the evening.

Excited at first glance...

Then, not so sure after she finally tasted it with mommy's help.

I think she liked the one at the chili cook-off on her actual birthday better...perhaps she has inherited her father's sweet tooth after all. These pics might just prove it:

Happy Buggy Birthday, love.