Mollie's Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party

Mollie was given the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar last October (I can't believe we hadn't read it before then!), and it quickly became her favorite book. I thought it would be a perfect theme for her 3rd birthday party. Little did I know, it's a pretty popular party theme, so I was able to find lots of ideas around Pinterest!

If you're friends with me on Facebook, you've probably already seen these pictures, but I wanted to share them on here too in case anyone in blog land is looking for ideas for a Very Hungry Caterpillar party.

I used a hole punch to punch out "Happy Birthday Mollie" on these paper circles, strung them on clear thread (you could use fishing line), and hung them from the ceiling. The ceiling fan made the letters spin, which looked pretty neat.

We couldn't have a Hungry Caterpillar party without reading the book first!

Mollie and Marie were so cute, helping me finish each sentence..

Then we made egg carton caterpillars.

The kids were all really into it and worked so hard..

I don't think I've ever seen Mollie smile as wide as she did while everyone sang to her..

Stu made this mini table and chairs especially for Mollie's birthday, and it was so perfect!! I'll post about them in more detail soon..

My parents gave Mollie the perfect present: 10 live caterpillars! They are shipped to you in these jars, and after a week or so, they all crawl up to the top, attach themselves to a paper disc right under the lid, and form cocoons. Once they are all in their cocoons, you take out the discs with the cocoons attached, and pin them inside of the "butterfly pavilion", a big mesh cylinder. after about a week, they'll come out of their cocoons, and you feed them sugar water until you're ready to release them. I just transferred them to the pavilion today, so we should have butterflies soon! It's been really fascinating to watch.

Finally we headed outside for a "bug hunt"..

Stu and my dad had hidden a bunch of big plastic bugs all around the yard and the kids had a blast finding them! A few months ago, we had a little treasure hunt at the 2 yr old library program we go to, where the kids had to follow a simple map to get to the pirate's treasure. Mollie loved it and I knew I wanted to do some sort of scavenger/treasure hunt at her party, but I wasn't quite sure how to tie it in with the caterpillar theme. I had several ideas swirling around in my head, but I finally decided to keep it pretty simple and set it up sort of like and Easter egg hunt...just with bugs!  

I was a little nervous leading up to the party, since I've never really thrown a kids party before. I guess I was just worried that the kids wouldn't really be into the activities I'd planned, but it really couldn't have gone better!