Welcome to the Bug Bash!

This year for Zach's birthday, we hosted his first friend party. Although he begged to have it at Chuck E. Cheese, Craig and I held firm and hosted it at home. Zach picked bugs as the theme, which is fitting since he and Evan spend lots of time hunting bugs in our yard.
I found some cute bug party printables at the Frog Prince Paperie on Etsy. I loved the fun colors and design, and it made coordinating the rest of the party easy.

We started the evening with some fun in the backyard: corn hole, ladder toss, soccer goal, and bug headband making.

After game time, we had a simple, kid-friendly dinner of sandwiches, veggies, fruit kabobs, cheese and crackers, and mini-mac and cheese bites. Then we headed back outside for a game called "There's a bug in my shirt" which entailed dividing the kids into two teams, passing a bug tied to a ball of yarn down your shirt, out the bottom, then handing it off the next kid in line. I found the idea online, but I wasn't sure how it'd go over. It was surprisingly fun for the kids!

We wrapped up the evening with cupcakes and mini-dirt puddings for dessert. The dirt puddings were definitely a hit (thanks to my sister for the idea!). I made individual servings of the pudding in small plastic cups, which made serving and eating easy and less messy. After opening gifts, we sent the kids home with bug houses and butterfly nets as party favors.

Zach really enjoyed having his friends sing Happy Birthday to him, and his favorite parts of the party were the desserts and playing games with his friends.

He asked if he could have a party like this every year...unfortunately the answer is no. We'll do big parties every five years maybe, with family parties and the occasional birthday outing with a couple of friends in between.

A big thank you to Cassandra Pence Ostermeier for taking some of the birthday pics!