Ladybug Birthday Party

Little Miss turned two last week! Time sure flies! And the theme for her party...ladybugs. She has two nicknames that I most often call her - monkey and my little ladybug...a monkey theme just wasn't girlie enough. So we went with the ladybug.

Luckily I already had a ladybug outfit for her with a ladybug hat. How handy!

A rule I've heard for kid parties and who to invite - when they turn 1, invite 1 friend - when they turn 2, invite 2 friends - 3, 3 friends - and so on.

Well, last year was all family and she didn't really care - but this year we invited her two best little girl friends. She loves the girls and they love her. And they all get along pretty well, so it was great. Anymore kids and I'm sure we would have had more meltdowns. So I'm glad it was just the three of them + mommies to help.

Every party needs balloons.

We painted the sidewalk with water and cheap brushes from the dollar store - they all loved this! It kept them entertained for a very long time.

We had giftbags for the friends (and to avoid a fit, Little Miss got one too) and inside was a ladybug shovel/rake set - so we dug in the dirt for bugs.

Then we decorated aprons with fabric markers. Little Miss loves to cook - so I knew she'd love this.

Adorned with new personalized aprons the girls got to decorate their own cupcakes. With 5 different colors of frosting and 5 different colors of sprinkles.

I'm not gonna lie - I'm super proud of this cake we had for the family party. I love it. I had the idea in my mind and really it was the cake that made me want to do the ladybug themed party.

I love the face with crooked smile. Sometimes mistakes work out for the best when decorating cakes.

I just used a box mix to make two 9" rounds - then layered with a bit of frosting in the middle. I wanted the ladybug to be a true red (obviously that didn't work out) - but after some research I've learned if you mix your red frosting and let it sit 24-48 hours the color will darken. And use Wilton icing colors for frosting, not liquid food coloring.

It's especially essential when trying to get red - the more red food coloring you add the more bitter tasting the frosting gets. Wilton has a "no taste" red dye that you can use a ton of if you want without getting a weird taste.


The six circles on top are grasshopper cookies covered in black frosting. The other circles I piped on freehand with a bag. You don't need a fancy frosting bag - a bread bag or ziploc works fine by cutting a small tip in the corner.

I also would never attempt to decorate any cake without this...

...a hot cake decorating knife. It has a flat edge and smooths things out super well. Keeping it in hot water before decorating makes the frosting much easier to work with!

Have you seen any great birthday party themes for kids? Or done some yourself? Please share!