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Very Hungry Caterpillar

When my son was born, I struggled with being a full time working mom. Am I giving him enough attention? Am I around enough? etc. Full-on mom guilt! To try to overcompensate, I went a little overboard with his first birthday. His "favorite book" (what one-year old really has a favorite book) was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. I thought the theme would be adorable for his birthday!


Let's start with the food. My immediate reaction was to include all the food from the book. This ended up being more work than I realized, but definitely turned out so cute! Worth it if you have the energy and/or help.

Although the food served as decorations as well, I did have some other decorations worth mentioning. First you may have noticed the food cards in the pictures above. These were super easy to create and print at Vistaprint. I also had stickers printed to put on white favor bags that were super inexpensive. In the bags, I included a coloring sheet, bubbles, and some sour gummy worms. Yes, I know a one year old shouldn't have these but they are my favorite; more of a favor for the parents. I used paper lanterns to create the caterpillar to hang over the good table (apologies for the poor picture quality). Since this was his first birthday, I bought a fresh copy of the book and had guests sign it to serve as a keepsake from his party. And finally, I bought an adorable bib off of Etsy to tie the theme all together.