A Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party

It's no secret that I tend to go all out for birthday parties. However, right now I have declared we are only doing big family birthday parties for each girl's first birthday. After that, who knows what will happen. Thus, I have made each one a big deal. For Zoelle's first birthday the theme was cupcakes and ice cream cones. For Meridian's first birthday (which also was Zoelle's third birthday), I did a rainbow theme. This year I planned out the party to be for all three girls, in June (so that it is in the middle of the three birthdays). I also planned the theme way out in advance. The theme would be The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Our girls love to read! They beg me every day to read multiple books to them. We go to storytime once a week at our local library. We read every chance we can get. One of our favorite authors is Eric Carle. One of our favorite books is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  So it fit that we would choose this theme for our party. The key was how to pull off decorations and a cake that fit my perfectionist style.

        Note to self: Next time take pictures at the start of the party!

I found the dresses early (yay for that). Words cannot describe how incredible these dresses are! From the detail, to the sewing, to the fit, these dresses are perfect! I know you are all waiting to hear where I got them, Nelle*s Oh So Sweet Handmade on Etsy. Loved her! She was easy to work with, quick in her work, and like I said the dresses are beautiful. We will be using these again for upcoming family pictures. Thank you again Ellen!! :)

One of my favorite decorations had to be the hanging butterflies which I got the idea from this blog. The older girls pretty much colored those all by themselves, and I put them together. Unfortunately, the day of the party was windy, looked like rain, and not very nice out. So, our party got moved inside. However, we were still able to decorate and throw the party at my dad's work (thank you dad). The only bummer was the lighting wasn't the best for pictures. :(

For me the greatest part of the party is always the cake. However this year I was at a loss of what to do for the cake. I thought about making a simple one, or ordering one. But in the back of my mind I knew I wanted a tiered cake, I just didn't know how to do it. Finally a few weeks before the party was suppose to happen, we decided to order fondant decorations from Edible Details. I decided I wanted each thing that the caterpillar ate displayed (in order from top to bottom) on the cake. Brittany is talented! Everyone that came to the party could not believe the small detail she put into each piece. My girls were in love, I was in love, and more importantly my husband was in love (being he paid for it)! ;)

Our party was on a Sunday and on Friday night at midnight or so, I turned to Chris and asked him how he wanted to make the cakes. Yep, I was that unorganized! So after some discussing and running to the grocery store that is open all night long, we finally made up the fondant and went to bed around 3 a.m.. Saturday morning we got up with the kids, I ran over to my friend Tami's house to borrow pans (thanks again Tami), and we got cooking. The girls love chocolate, so I decided to turn to iambaker and modify her Best Chocolate Cake recipe to the girls liking (meaning I replaced the coffee with milk). Again, I have never made a 3 level tiered cake before, and I had never worked with fondant before. Thus, I had Chris do the majority of it and it was his first time as well (thank you honey)! After baking on and off all day, we finally assembled the cake late that night. It went perfectly! Well, besides a few little bubbles or rips, which were covered up by the fondant decorations from Brittany or the gumballs that we put around each base.

Xiomara was a dainty eater! Thanks to Meridian for the pretty artwork on the highchair! ;)

Overall, our day was wonderful! The girls could not stop talking about the cake and we all enjoyed time with our families. Thanks to everyone who made this day special for years to come for my girls!

To my girls: Time is going too quickly! Your daddy and I truly are seeing our three little caterpillars turn into beautiful butterflies both on the outside and in. We love you!