We had a birthday party for Jenna a few weeks after her birthday. It was a ladybug theme and we invited family that lives nearby. We figure next year she'll be old enough to want her friends at her parties. I've done a lot of party planning over the past few years with wedding and baby showers at our church - it's something I really enjoy doing. So when I planned on having a ladybug themed party for Jenna, I did research and found some really cute ideas I wanted to incorporate. Here it goes...

Look at that mischievous face. She's probably about to sneak some candy...

Before guests arrived, Jenna dressed up in her play shoes and sunglasses (upside down, of course).

Some decor and the birthday cake I made. It was my first big cake and so much fun doing! I'd like to make all the birthday cakes for my kids...we'll see.

The guests...Uncle Leon and Aunt Diane

Uncle Jim, Aunt Lois, and "cousin" John

Phil, Amanda, and other "cousin" Silas

Aunt Kelley and Uncle Brian

And of course, Grant

Opening presents

I made her party hat from supplies I had at home - I used a paper party hat that I had extras of from her birthday last year and covered it in black felt. Then I cut a small strip from our red Christmas tree garland to put around the bottom. I cut out a "2" from red felt, hot glued it on, and outlined it in my crafting glitter glue. Then just added a glittery pom-pom on top. It would have been nice if Jenna actually wore it longer than 10 seconds, but that's okay. :)

Singing Happy Birthday to her

Blowing out the candles...Daddy had to help her a little

Eating the yummy cake and ice-cream. She preferred the ice-cream over the cake though. We're realizing she's not much of a cake person, but she does love her ice-cream.

Some of the food...fruit kabobs. Originally I was trying to make them look like ladybugs...with a strawberry bottom and grapes for the head, but it didn't look anything like a ladybug...haha. So they're just plain old fruit kabobs.

My ladybug appetizers - the top ones are Ritz crackers with a cream cheese topping, small tomatoes halved, and olives for the heads. Then I took some of the cream cheese mixture and tinted it black to put little dots on the tomatoes. The middle ladybugs are Ritz crackers with mozzarella cheese slices and pepperoni wings with olives, once again, for the heads. The bottom plate holds lots of Oreo ladybugs. Wish I could say I came up with these ideas all on my own...nope.

Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw with the grandkids

The kitchen decor. We also got some red and black helium balloons and Drew drew black spots on the red balloons.

Our family

Grant was such a trooper throughout the whole party, even though he was exhausted. He finally fell asleep in Daddy's arms. Such a sweetheart!

Later that day we gave Jenna her gift from us - an art easel. One side is a dry erase board and the other is a blackboard.