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Planning A Worm Themed Birthday Party

As we mentioned for a hot minute back in this post, Clara picked her party theme this year. What does she love more than monkeys, ice cream, firetrucks, and the mailman? Worms.

So the first thing on the party agenda was settling on a date (this Saturday the 12th, two days before her actual b-day on the 14th) and figuring out the guest list (our closest family and friends totaling about 30 people, ten who are kiddos under the age of four). Then it was the fun part. Invitations! We made three versions of them before picking our favorite (yes, making invitations is our idea of a good time). For the first one we used some shots from her 22 month photoshoot and although we loved the shapes and the fabric and that cute smile, it just didn’t have any worminess.

Clara Invite Alternative 1

So we played around some more and came up with this guy, who runneth over with worminess:

Clara Invite Alternative 2

As cute (and worm-ish) as we thought it was, we just kept playing around (yes, we’re nerds, and we only get to do it once a year) and came up with this more graphic – and just as wormy – alternative:

Clara Invite Final

Third time was the charm. Yes, we made chevron worms (maybe worms are the new chevron?). Of course we thought any of the options above would be great (and some folks might prefer #1 or #2 more), but we just loved those three little worms inching their way onto the number two with our smily girl in the middle of the number and the promise that “there will be worms.”

So we ordered just enough to send out to our crew, and even saved $15.77 thanks to googling around for a Winkflash coupon code:

Invite Coupon Code

It ended up being $1.58 per invite including an envelope ($28.54 for eighteen 5 x 7″ invites on matte card stock – not photo paper). Which isn’t  pennies, but definitely was a nice discount from the original price of $2.19 per invite. As for why we went with Winkflash, we used them for last year’s invite and were really happy with them. A lot of services offer templates for folded cards but it’s hard to find postcard-ish offerings that are completely blank (so you can upload your entire design without them putting a frame or some type around it).

And when they arrived? Love! They do such a good job- no weird printing lines or cheap-o feeling – we liked going with the larger size (5 x 7″) and the thick matte card stock paper. So that’s probably more than you’ve ever wanted to know about a two year old’s party invitation, huh? Haha.

Invite Here

But now for the party deets. Of course we’ll be back with a post after this weekend’s festivities, but just like last year, we thought a little sneak peek of our supplies might be fun (here’s last year’s). This is our table o’ stuff, some of which we had around already, like the yellow napkin dish ($2 from a thrift store a few years back!) and the fabric banner I sewed for Clara’s first birthday (we’ll re-use the runner I sewed too) along with a paper one I made for that party as well and some cute bird napkins we grabbed from Ikea about a month ago (birds like worms, right?). Some of the stuff is new of course, like the plates, worm-ish candles, some balloons and streamers, some paper lanterns, etc (all hailing from Party City or Target).

Invite All Stuff

Oh and see that pink arrow in the top left corner of the picture above? It’s pointing to this ice tray that we picked up at Ikea last month, because we thought we could even make some worm-ish ice. Or fill it with jello and make little jello worms.

Invite Ice Cube

So that’s on the agenda along with blowing up some polka dot balloons and some worm ones too (there is close to zero actual worm paraphernalia at Target and Party City, so when we saw worm balloons we couldn’t believe it).

As for all of the worm-related ideas, here’s what’s on our crazy brain dump list:

  • Make pipe cleaner worms to hide outside for a worm hunt
  • Make a grass runner with gummy worms (or plastic worms) on it
  • Collect paper towel rolls for some sort of worm craft…
  • Use streamers taped in little swags to look like worms (maybe across the beams in the living room and out on the patio somehow)
  • Serve apples with a gummy worm coming out and other worm-ish snacks
  • Cut peppers, cucumbers, and cheese into worm-like sticks and serve with dressing (worm crudité? how fancy)
  • Skewer grapes or other sliced fruit onto straws (less pokey for the kiddos than skewers)
  • Worm pizza (we’ll serve regular pizza for adults but put some cooked spaghetti on the slices for the kids)
  • Worm dogs (these are just hot dogs, haha, but we could make ketchup or mustard eyes and a smile)
  • Make white frosted cupcakes with oreo “dirt” sprinkled on top with a gummy worm (we thought about “dirt cake” or “dirt pudding” in a mason jar but it’s just too messy and hard to eat for all the 2-3 year olds)
  • Worm jello (we could just toss some gummy worms into jello sort of like a jello mold but instead of fruit it’s worms…)

Who knows what we’ll end up doing (definitely not everything!) but it’s fun to write down a bunch of things to see which ones stick. Oh and check out the favors I love so much that I assembled them a full week before the party. Nerd alert.

Invites Favors1

One of Clara’s favorite things to play with outside is our watering can (filling it with leaves, rocks, sticks, you name it) so when we saw cute green ones at Ikea for 99 cents we grabbed one for each kid (hoping they’ll like them just as much as our girl does). Then in the toy aisle we came across tiny stuffed worms for 49 cents each! Just kidding, they were snakes, but we cut off the pointy red tongues and voila: happy little worms. We also tossed a bottle of bubbles in each watering can along with an orange or pink scoop from Target (50 cents each). Brown tissue paper (aka: dirt) finished things off and gave us a spot to stick our scoops full of worms. We’re so excited for Clara to see hers. We’ve been hiding them all (I made them during a nap and stashed them all in the guest room) so it should be a pretty good time when she realizes that everyone gets a watering can, bubbles, a scoop, and a worm of their own at her party.

Oh and look at these candles we found at Tar-jay. Wormy, right?

Invite Napkins

This = a typical trip to Target. We thought grabbing two outside balls for kids to play with on the patio might be a good idea. And of course Clara picked her two favorite colors (orange and pink – which are one of the reasons we picked those colors for things like her invitations and her streamers).

Invite Target Balls

So that’s the deal with party planning. The basic gist is that I’m wishing we bought one more watering can, scoop, and stuffed snake worm so I’d get one of my own. I’m totally 30 going on 2.

Invites Favors2

Any party prep going on for you guys? Do you have any tips for keeping it simple and fun? We generally like to order food (something inexpensive but crowd-pleaser-ish, like pizza) so we’re not slaving over the stove all day. But cooking is my mom’s favorite thing, so she’d rather cook for thirty people and just grab ready-made invites. So there’s definitely more than one way to get your par-tay on. Can’t wait to share pics from this Saturday! And we’re building Clara something for her b-day. Something big. Ok, I’ll just tell you – it’s a dollhouse!!!!!!

Dollhouse Started

So excited to share the breakdown with you guys when it’s done (as expected, we’re just getting started so we’ll be working overtime!). And now for the general trite mom statement (but it’s painfully true). Oh my gosh,  how is my baby two already??? Dude, she was just turning one like three months ago.

Psst – You know $herdog loves her some Eminem, Snoop, Dre, and Biggie, but the new Karmin CD is uh.mazing. Seriously. Anyone else in love? I’ve been “YouTube in love with them” for a while (since this) and adored when they were on Ellen. Their new songs make me want to finish that dollhouse double-time (while pausing for a few obligatory dance breaks).

Comments

  1. Karen says

    So cute! I love the watering can gift bags.

    Did you know that if you cut a raw hot dog into strips before you cook it, they will curl up and looks just like worms?

    Reply

  2. Alise Hagan says

    Happy birthday to your sweet Clara — may the worms be with you!! My “baby” girl turned two this past Saturday (May 5) and we decided to do a weekend family trip to Dallas — seven hours away! — to see her favorite band, The Fresh Beat Band. The weekend was simply perfect and we got to be a little bit country (visiting the Fort Worth Stockyards) and a little bit rock-n-roll (the concert). We’ll have a small family party with a violet monkey cake (her favorite color and animal) on Mother’s Day, but the trip will go down as one of the best birthday shindigs we’ve pulled off. :-)

    Reply

  3. Carolyn H. says

    I have a dollhouse tip: If you build your dollhouse to either 1″ or 1/2″ scale, it’ll be easier to fit it with standard furniture and dolls and whatnot, since those are the standard dollhouse scale sizes. I know that sounds overly detailed for something that’s not that serious, but I remember that from my childhood. I had a dollhouse that was 3/4″ scale, and it was really hard to find cute little things to put in it that didn’t look too big or too small. (We ended up making almost everything, which was fun too.)

    Reply

  4. Mrs M says

    At the same age, my niece used to say “cows” whenever we asked what her dreams were about! Weird.

    Reply

  5. alex says

    As for the balloons….we as adults would probably get a chuckle out of them, but kids…if you tell them they are worms, they are worms. I think you should keep them, guttery thoughts aside, they are adorable worm friends. Haha.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, we mentioned that in our brain dump list, but we thought it would be too messy for so many two year olds. Maybe at her next worm themed party in a year or two. Haha.

      xo,
      s

  8. Lara C says

    Just had a caterpillar themed party for my little guy (only 1, but some of the friends who came over were a bit older). We snagged a kids’ tunnel from Ikea and the kids loved crawling through it, and it was a fun shade of bright green! We also picked up one of the big leaf canopies while were were there and used it as an added bit of decoration…anything for a little fun for our “wiggle worm” (the original guide/theme for our party) Can’t wait to see what you do!

    Reply

  9. Kim from Milwaukee says

    You guys are adorable, and that girl of yours is the BOMB!!!

    Am I the only one who connected the ‘worms’ and ‘number two’ in a gross, disgusting way? Will your next post be about composting toilets, perhaps??? I’m grossing myself out now…and I love wormies.

    Reply

  10. Kim W Rily says

    So, what are you doin for Mother’s Day? Anything? Our anniversary usually falls on/near Mother’s Day so we get to celebrate one just a little bit the other in a big way. Since you’re having a big partay for her 2nd, are you doing anything for Mom’s day too? Or will you give Mother’s day stuff to your mom (assuming she’s there) then?

    Don’t wanna ruin any surprises, but it’s always “fun” sharing Mother’s day with another big thing that weekend.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We usually just go low key for mother’s day and father’s day- a nice breakfast cooked by the other person, a small gift, something sweet but not too complicated. We’ll see John’s whole family and my momma for the party on Saturday so we won’t have another family gathering on Sunday or anything, so it should be pretty chill.

      xo,
      s

  11. Jennelle says

    The worm-theme is adorable! Also, Clara is pretty much the cutest baby ever. She’s so cute, she makes my uterus hurt for one of my own… Haha.

    Reply

  12. Penny Smith says

    Well, I’d tell ya 2 years apart was perfect, so how about 3?? :) Close in age means more play value… And less issue in the teen years when older child is too cool for the younger stuff. Get to it, will ya? Lol!! How many people mentioned your having another one… I didn’t look. I was reading some older posts (I only just found you guys in e last couple of months, so I get caught up in past link ups a lot!) and you mention “future kiddos/bambinos a lot!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, hold the phone! We’re not quite ready yet (I joke that I’ve applied for an extension), but when the time is right for our family, we’d be overjoyed to expand the Petersik clan! John is 4 years older than his younger sis and I’m 3.5 years older than my younger brother and we’re very close, so I think there are lots of different “kid spacing” approaches that work for different families!

      xo,
      s

    • Penny Smith says

      READY?!?! Who’s ever ready?!? No offense meant. For sure. It is is just really nice having them want to play! If they entertain each other, you can get more projects done! Hee!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      John and his sis were 4 years apart and they played like crazy! They have video after video of the plays and dances they put on (yes, John was always the director and his sister was the talent). They even made music videos. They were really close growing up, so a 4 year age gap doesn’t deter us! I also had some pretty major complications with Clara so it’s a bit more than “not ready” in the common sense – I’m mentally just not able to take that on yet since we nearly lost Clara twice at birth – hope that makes sense! You can read Clara’s birth story for more info on that! Just need more mental healing time!

      xo,
      s

  14. Lauren says

    This is WAY cute!!!! I love the Ikea worms : ) And yes, I thought the balloons looked like something else too but I’m glad I wasn’t the first to say it!

    Reply

  18. Nikki says

    What a cute idea! I have two of those silicone ice cube trays from Ikea too. I bought them with the intentions of using them for jello for the kiddos. Didn’t turn out so well, the jello just would not come out…at least not in the shape of the trays (fish and flowers)

    Reply

  19. Holly says

    Really think you have a future landscape architect in your midst! Worm love…rock love…sand love…frog love…

    Reply

  20. Randa says

    Goodness, your girl is too cute, I could eat her up! Love that video. And love the random but hilarious worm fascination.

    You guys are such fun parents. I’m sure the party will be a blast, and it’s great that Clara is surrounded by such love.

    Reply

  21. Ashley says

    I’m sure you’ve answered this before, but which Ikea do you go to? Woodbridge is about an hour for us and I can’t imagine going more than once a year or so. It seems like you’re able to go pretty frequently, but maybe you’re just not as deterred by traffic as we are!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, we go to the Woodbridge one because we have family/friends who make it on the way. My BFF and John’s cousin Travis live right nearby, so whenever we’re going there (ex: for a birthday party last weekend) we make a stop.

      xo,
      s

  22. Heather @ What Does She Do All Day? says

    My daughter is a day younger than Clara! We’re having her party next week, though. It’s a Bee Day Celebration! I was so worried I wouldn’t find bee stuff, but I really lucked out. I’ll have a post up on the blog after her party. I hope Clara has a great time with her worms!!

    Reply

  25. Abby says

    I am actually doing party planning, too! And I was thisclose to buying those same paper lanterns yesterday at Target, but went with solid colors instead. The theme for my girl’s 1st birthday party is confetti/rainbow colors. The main thing I’ve tackled so far is ribbon topiaries. Next on my list is to make posters with “1” and “E” on them out of pictures (which I pinned from your Clara board nearly a year ago!).

    What a fun party Clara will have!

    Reply

  26. georgia says

    I love the worm theme!
    WHen i was a kid my mum came in to wake me up to find dead worms, and snails in my bed…. i had collected them and hidden them to ‘play with’ shes still traumatised by it!

    haha

    Reply

  27. Bethany says

    I just wanted to say that I LOVE Karmin! Nick actually went to high school near where I live (in Maine) and we have some mutual friends so it’s really cool that they’ve gotten so big and I love hearing when non-Mainers are listening to them : )

    Reply

  28. Londen says

    Oh my goodness, what a cute party idea!! Our baby girl is six now and still wants to catch worms when we plant something new in the yard. To me they are slimy, but she loves them.

    Reply

  29. Kristin C. says

    I can’t wait to see the dollhouse finished! My lil one will be 2 in September and I have yet to think about what theme I’d like to do this year =/

    Reply

  31. katalina says

    Hope clara has a FUN bday. I have one of those watering pitchers in hot pink– they are in the museum of modern art! clara can come and find some real worms in my yard–I love gardening but those huge worms scare me out —but the robins love them!

    k

    Reply

  32. Amy says

    The video of her talking about the worms is the cutest. Reminds me of my son (he’s 3), who sometimes walks into our room in the middle of the night to tell me there are dinosaurs in his room or that Captain Hook pushed his toys off the shelf. Her imagination is amazing and I love how you guys are embracing it with all of the details for the party. Can’t wait to see how it all turns out!

    Reply

  34. Amy says

    So cute!!!! I have to laugh because you and I are SOOOO alike when it comes to kid parties! My youngest daughter will be 4 on the 15th, and we are also having her party on Saturday. (A “fairy tea party” that she has been wanting. Much different from when my oldest was 4 two years ago and wanted a dinosaur party with a pink castle bounce house. We totally delivered and it was awesome!) So my dinning room table looks a LOT like yours – filled with all the “party things” I will need for the big day. All from Target, Party City, JoAnn’s and Michael’s. This nerd already started decorating today and has even made the party favors as well. =) Looks like Clara will have a GREAT day!!!

    Reply

  35. Stephanie says

    Posts like this make me miss photoshop. I used to have it. Don’t remember what happened. But I loved making things in there. There is definitely a learning curve but there’s so many options it’s hard not get sucked in!

    Reply

  36. Krista says

    So will there be any live worms there?
    I tried to look through the first couple of pages of comments and haven’t seen that question yet.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’re not sure if they’ll scare some kids (Clara’s cousin Elsa cries when she sees “buggies”) so we might play with worm friends after the party or on Sunday just with Clara.

      xo,
      s

  37. Gretchen says

    I hope that newly-sew-savvy mom will be making her up a worm of her own! How easy and so much fun. You could even use some of the cool fabric you used for her month photos.

    Reply

  38. RebeccaNYC says

    please remind me never ever ever to subscribe to comments on your blog again! 500+ emails were waiting for me when I got home!!! wow, and you responded to almost all of them…how do you do it? Well done on such a successful enterprise!

    Reply

  39. Melissa says

    Every time you guys set a new bar for awesome parties. Can’t wait for Monday’s wrap up post!

    It would be super cute to freeze some gummy worms in the ice cube trays.

    Reply

  40. kathleen says

    I’m planning my daughters first bday which will be in two weeks. Something special I am doing is recovering an antique ARM chair with pink polka dot fabric for a photo prop. The theme is shabby chic and I’m making it all myself and having so much fun. Have a great party, happy birthday little one!

    Reply

  41. Sara Thomas says

    Don’t know if anyone has already mentioned this: hot dogs cut into long slices and boiled for a bit have a very worm-like look. This usually creeps up on the internet around Halloween, but applies to your theme. The kids might enjoy eating worms for lunch. Have fun!

    Reply

  42. Amy says

    I love that video, she’s so cute! This is taking me back to when I loved Slimy, Oscar’s little worm pal on Sesame Street. :)

    Reply

  44. jennT says

    eeek!!! I love worms too! smart kid–without worms we’d all be doomed. I taught a VermiCompost Workshop last year and found my absolute favoritest worm picture at this site: http://www.happydranch.com/. right in the middle top row. oh geewhilly, that’s very likely the best picture on the whole interwebs!

    Reply

  45. Lila @ sweet and lovely crafts says

    I’m sure 100 people have already shared this link with you, but I’m too lazy to read all of the comments: http://www.instructables.com/id/Bowl-of-Worms-Anyone/

    I read on another website though, that it might be easier to make the jello in a 9×13 pan and then push a bunch of straws into the pan so they fill with jello. Put a plate on top of the straws to make sure that they stay submerged.

    I can’t wait to see your party. My sons second birthday is May 18, and I can’t wait to host it!

    Reply

  46. Nikki says

    How am I not surprised that Sher-Dog loves Karmin? I am also internet in love with them, which began with Look at Me Now and became a full on affair with their PG version of Super Bass. Swoon!

    Reply

  47. Angela says

    What a fun idea! I am in awe of your design skills- do you use special software for your awesome invitations or do you just have amazing photoshop powers?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Those are just worms made from the letter W in photoshop! Haha. We just drew a face on one, duplicated it, made them lots of colors, and lined them up!

      xo,
      s

  48. Lauren says

    Maybe Clara will aspire to opening a store that sells worm farms à la Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumber (“I Got Worms”).

    Reply

  49. Mara says

    Hello!!

    I love this post, thanks so much for making me aware of Winkflash. I design one-sided flat printable kids party invitations and I normally send my clients to http://www.zazzle.com for printing. Here’s a little tip I discovered… If you order the invitations as “postcards”, they’re way cheaper and then you can get cute colored envelopes at the Papersource. Yay kids parties!!!

    Reply

  50. Tiffany says

    First time commenting on your blog although I’m not stranger to reading it all the time! It is def one of my favorites. Your designs are amazing and so inspiring! Your daughter is just a doll as well<3 Her party will be a hit I'm sure.

    PS, Your concept of this party was just so excellent and I was actually wanting one of those buckets & party favors as well, like you. 27 going on 2 : )

    Reply

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