A Butterfly Birthday party is a good choice for the spring and summer months. An intriguing combination of art, nature and good eats, this active party will be a hit with the school age set. True fun for that special day!
Invitations: For an easy DIY invitation, craft a butterfly shape from card stock. Refer to this template if you need inspiration. On one side include all the party details. Decorate the other side to resemble your favorite butterfly using crayon, markers, stickers and glitter. Fold the butterfly and tuck inside a colorful envelope. Butterfly-themed invitations are available on-line from Birthday in a Box. Another way to go for this occasion would be flower or garden-inspired invitations.
Decorations: Check party supply stores for butterfly-themed plates, cups, napkins and a tablecloth for your party. Create butterfly napkins by folding large square napkins accordion style (one-inch back and forth), then slide on a napkin-ring and fan open each side to look like wings. For a special touch make Fluttery Wonders out of colorful magazine pages and pipe cleaners. Then tie them on helium balloons with long strings of curling ribbon. Let the balloons float to the ceiling, so the butterflies can "fly" around the party area.
Activities: Visit a butterfly conservancy or a natural history museum that has a collection. Check the Internet for one near your area. If you go this route, all you need to add are the refreshments for a complete party experience.
Otherwise, choose two or three activities/games (with one more for emergency back-up). Rent a video about butterflies, or borrow one from your local library. Or paint a butterfly on each guest's check with face paint or put temporary tattoos on their cheeks or arms.
An excellent way to settle kids down while you are serving the food is with a paper activity. Family Fun magazine has two excellent choices for this party theme: Bug Party Coloring Page and Buggy Tic-Tac-Toe Game.
Games: A great warm-up activity is a butterfly hunt. Hide butterflies all over the backyard (or inside the home). Kids can keep the butterflies they find. A variation is to hide some special butterflies which will earn the finder special prizes. Before the party buy several small items to use as prizes and assign them a number. On several of the butterflies write a number that corresponds with the prize. When a child finds a butterfly with a number they get the prize that matches that number.
Another perfect game for this theme is Butterfly Cocoon Wrap. You will need 2-3 new rolls of toilet paper for each team. Divide guests into teams of three to four players. Each team will choose its caterpillar - the one who gets wrapped. Give the other team members a roll of toilet paper. The team that uses all of its paper first wins. Tip: Buy inexpensive single-ply rolls for this activity.
An outdoor game of butterfly tag is a fun way to work off excess energy. Keep a close eye, so no one flies too far away.
Crafts: Have paper butterflies out of construction paper or card stock ready for your guests to color, stamp, sticker or embellish with glue, beads or glitter.
Food: Butterfly-inspired foods are a must for this event. Cut Jello jigglers with a butterfly cookie cutter. Serve butterfly-shaped mini ham and cheese sandwiches. Put out healthy snacks, such as baby carrots and celery with ranch dressing. If your group needs more sustenance add Butterfly Crunch. A perfect drink to complement this spread is Frosty Fruit Punch.
Cakes: Your guests will love to decorate their own butterfly cupcakes with bowls of frosting and items to create butterflies on top. Include jelly beans, mints, candy-coated chocolate, licorice strips and mini-pretzels. Another way to go is to create a Butterfly Cupcake Pull-Apart Creation. And if you are feeling more ambitious Wilton has three options for you; a butterfly cake made from a butterfly cake pan; butterfly mini-cakes and a butterfly flight cake crafted from heart pans and cupcakes. Check them out.
Favors: Send the butterfly kids home with butterfly or flower shaped lip gloss kits, bright nail polish, butterfly-attracting flower seeds to plant at home, butterfly stickers, flower pens or bubbles. Squares of netting wrapped around the party favors and tied with a pretty ribbon always make a fun goody bag.
No comments:
Post a Comment