Aw, yeah. Clara’s second b-day party was full of food, family, friends, fun… and worms (she picked the theme based on her deep love of looking at, drawing, and even dreaming about worms). So… worm to your motha!
We were so thankful to be surrounded by the people we love, the bean had the best time, and the 75 degree weather and sunny skies were the icing on the worm cake. Or should I say worm cupcakes. Let’s get this party (breakdown) started…
But let’s start at the beginning. Clara was born two years ago today. Wait, that’s too far back. Let’s just cover the party. Here’s the sunroom all decked out for the big day. Nothing too fancy, just some balloons and streamers from Target, a colorful tablecloth from HomeGoods, and lots of worm-a-licious food. But we’ll get to that in a second.
We decided to use the sunroom, the patio, and the carport for the entire gathering, which was about 30 people total (ten were kiddos under the age of four). Of course if it had rained we would have partied inside, but it felt especially wormy and fun to have kiddos running around outdoors in the fresh air. Having the sunroom (which is located right off the patio) for food and drinks was also really nice since we didn’t have to worry about finding actual bugs in the food (fake worms = ok, real bugs = not ok).
Here’s a close up of the table seconds before everyone arrived. Fun fact: the table is actually a secret book project covered with a tablecloth since we can’t reveal it on the blog – and also since we didn’t have room to stash it anywhere else. Haha. We figured we might as well put it to good use for now (we’ll be auctioning a bunch of book projects off for charity this fall once the book is out and they’re allowed out of the proverbial bag).
We set out worm-ish food with worm-related labels (made in photoshop and printed at home) like “worm crudités” (long skinny slices of carrots, cucumbers, and cheese), “puffed worms” (white cheddar cheese puffs), “salted worms” (pretzel rods), and “worm dogs” (hot dogs that we cut into fourths and boiled to make them all curly as so many of you recommended in the comments of this pre-party post – thanks!!).
See those pretty flowers on the table? They were from J-boom for Mother’s Day. Love my hubby.
Here’s a close up of the worm dogs. They were a hit among kiddos and adults. I think we moved more of them than we had people at the party.
All of the bowls and plates were just things we had in the pantry. Nothing really matched in shape (round, scalloped, rectangular, etc) but it all worked because it was white – which was actually a nice combo with the crazy-colorful tablecloth (bright platters and bowls might have been a bit much with such an in-yo-face pattern).
We also set out little cups of gummy worms. Hanging a few over the rim like they were crawling out was my idea of a good time. Oh yes, I live on the edge.
We had another small table for the pizza – which is always a party pleaser. We did our take on worm pizza by ordering one with worm-like peppers & onions and topping one with pre-cooked spaghetti. The other two (cheese and peperoni) had a label that said “dewormed pizza.” Oh yeah, we ran with this worm theme, baby.
Everyone got a kick out of the bird napkins (birds eat worms, right?) that we found at Ikea.
On the other side of the sunroom we set up a little drink station. See this table covered with another HomeGoods tablecloth? There’s another secret book project under there. Haha. As for what drinks we served, we went with some cute glass bottles of orange soda and Coke for the 20-ish adults and also had Izze, water, and sparkling water in the beverage tin along with apple juice and water for the kiddos. Oh and see those apples in front of the drink tin? We plopped a gummy worm on each one. Ha. They actually got eaten, too!
And check out those worm-like pink straws…
Since this room is still completely untouched, there was no wall art going on (we just plopped down furniture 16 months ago and haven’t done anything but shove book stuff in there since). So we taped up Clara’s monthly pictures from this year along with 12 fun worm facts on a nice bare expanse of wall above the table. John just googled around for worm trivia and typed each 4 x 6″ card up in Photoshop.
For anyone who wants to see the whole shebang a little closer, just click this photo for an enlarged version:
Oh and here’s the carport all snazzed up with pink & orange streamers. When it comes to bang for your buck, they’re pretty festive (and so cheap!). It’s hard to see in these pics, but we swagged them so they were sort of wiggly and worm-ish. And I proudly hung the fabric banner that I made for Clara’s first birthday on the half wall that looks back onto the patio. We brought a few chairs and a garden stool out from inside as well as all the sweet little watering can favors for each of our young party-goers to take home.
I can’t tell you how happy it made me to see all ten of those little watering cans lined up on that wall. As I mentioned here, they were each filled with a bottle of bubbles, a pink or orange shovel, and a stuffed snake-turned-worm that we found at Ikea for 49 cents (we cut off the forked tongue to complete the conversion). We also grabbed the watering cans at Ikea for 99 cents each.
Other than streamers and balloons, we just hung three paper lanterns that came in a pack from Target and some funny worm-like pink swirlie paper things that we found for a few bucks at Party City. Then we brought out a low table from the sunroom and made a little play station for the kiddos with things like bubbles, a puzzle from Melissa and Doug that has bugs/worms on it, a box of crayons, and a bunch of color-the-worm pages that I sketched before the party.
I just took cardstock and a gray marker and drew a few happy little worms for the kiddos to color. It actually went over pretty well. It was so much fun to see all those colorful scribbled worms at the end of the day.
Here’s a people-milling pic for ya. Is there anything better than a patio full of people you love?
Sidenote: Clara was kind of hilarious about the pizza. She took a big bite of mine and then moved over to her cousin Jake and asked for a bite of his and when we all stared laughing she went from person to person, requesting a bite of each slice (thankfully there were only two other people nearby so it didn’t turn into a giant germ-sharing fest). It was very “welcome to my party, now feed me” of her. At least she wasn’t asking us to bow to her and fan her with leaves.
The other crowd favorite of the afternoon (besides our sweet little pizza-mooching bean) were the dirt cupcakes. We just picked up tasty little 40 cent vanilla cupcakes from a local bakery here in Richmond (Ukrops), pressed them icing-side-down into crushed up Oreo cookies, and plopped a gummy worm on top. We also made some that were dirt free (just squished a worm into the white icing) but the consensus from the crowd was that the Oreo ones were the best since they had some crunch.
Here’s the birthday girl getting her special cupcake (she hand-picked that green gummy worm before the party) in her favorite yellow chair. We stuck two worm-ish pink candles from Target on top, sang our little hearts out, and blew them out fast (since she’s still mildly afraid of fire from a certain Hawaiian hibachi incident).
She did momma proud with her cupcake-eating skills.
We even remembered to try to take a few family photos. Of course we didn’t get any with all of us looking at the camera and smiling (what are those odds, one in a million?), but we did end up with some sweet candid ones (yes that is a random bubble floating by in the foreground).
Clara took the worm theme very seriously. For example, she took great pleasure in feeding them to me.
She and her daddy even got all Lady and The Tramp for this shot:
We all seemed to gravitate to the carport after a few hours in the sunroom and on the patio, and then we decided to open some presents. This wooden worm (well, actually it’s a snake) from one of Clara’s best buddies was a huge hit. The funny thing is that John and I played around with that exact same thing (from Michael’s) for this old Halloween post before we had any idea Clara would develop a deep, strong love of worms.
Clara was seriously smitten.
Here’s another people-milling shot in the carport. As much as we would someday love to convert that space to a garage, it sure is good for friends and family (and balls and balloons). We ended up bringing out our dining chairs with their slipcovers back on (so any rogue icing could just be washed off) and we did what we do best: hung out and watched those sweet kiddos of ours. Although there are only three out of ten kids in this pic, so there must have been a gaggle of them staring at a spider in the corner or dunking by the basketball hoop (a sweet gift from my brother Dan, which you can see two pictures up).
The general gist? It was a great day. We are so thankful for our friends and family and our sweet, happy little girl. I always cry at her party. Just can’t help it. She’s our little miracle (birth story here, sniffle sniffle). And we’re so grateful to have awesome folks like you guys to virtually attend our weird little worm party. Haha. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.
But perhaps Burger had the most fun, gazing dreamily up at all the leftovers at the end of the festivities.
He even got lucky and found a cheese puff under the table.
The End.
Oh wait, we made a little Clara video like we did last year – not to show at the party this time, just to have so we can look back on it (and watch it with Clara, since she loves the one we made for her first birthday). So here’s her last year in seven minutes. My favorite parts are her Britney Spears impression near the beginning and some Flash-Dance-ish ottoman dancing in the outtakes at the very end.
Love that girl. Love you guys too. Lots of mushiness flying around. Haha. What did you do this weekend? Any Mother’s Day fun? Any worm eating?
Psst- We have a bunch of outtakes for this month’s Clara picture in front of her homemade fabric, so you can check those out here on Young House Life.
Christi says
Happy Birthday Clara!
I used to LOVE LOVE LOVE rolly pollys (spelling?) and my parents would give me a coffee can for their home and a tray for their entertaining space. My 7 year old b-day party was a Madonna theme but I still love those little bugs!
Go Worms (and Rolly Pollys)!!!
Anke says
Aw, this is so cute! Your post sparked a long discussion in my family about our childhood birthday parties. We had a vampire party, a pirate party, a gathering of knights party, a sleepover one with a feast at midnight, but there were never any worms involved.
You did such a great job!! I’m sure Clara will cherish the pictures and video in years to come!
YoungHouseLove says
Wow, those sound like some great parties though!
-John
Kim says
Happy birthday to sweet little Clara! Videos of her dancing always make my day, and I love her two-year-old video! She is such a cutie. Give her a hug and a kiss from all of her Internet admirers. Thanks for sharing pics of her wormalicious party.
Kimberly G. says
I LOVE the video! It actually made me tear up thinking of my own little guy getting bigger.
Stacy says
What a fantastic party! I love to ‘take a theme to the extreme’ when it comes to party planning, it makes it all so much fun, and so memorable!
Lena says
Happy Birthday Clara!!! You are one lucky little girl, you’re parents are awesome!!!
Great job on the party, it looked so cute!
jeannette says
awwww. the dancing at the end of the video made my day. happy birthday, baby grrl. don’t ever stop.
Michelle says
Awesome party! I love everything about it, especially the cute wormy food. Your video is super sweet too. Made me teary. My son turns two in August. Wish they didn’t grow up quite so fast!
Sherry from BC says
Looks like a fab party. Love the decorations…..I keep trying to peek under the tablecloths but haven’t been successful….ha ha! Can’t wait to see the dollhouse, is that coming tomorrow?
YoungHouseLove says
We’ll probably have that for you on Wednesday. The weekend festivities have slowed us down a bit!
-John
Pixi says
Please tell me that Clara has heard Peter Himmelman’s Sherm the Worm song? http://youtu.be/hLRuLhJUs18
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- so cute!
xo,
s
Eve says
Amazing video- I’m due with our first son in August and I’m constantly inspired by what you guys do with Clara! Love it, love it, love it!
Nicole says
Happy Birthday Clara! hats off to you guys for such a fun, creative, yet simple party! I love it. You are certainly an inspiration. :) Thank you for sharing.
Ally says
Since work slowed down, I was just looking at all the party photo’s again…sooo sweet :)
It’s funny what my eye catches…
$herdog, it looks like Homer Simpson may have inadvertently crashed Clara’s party…look right INTO the “random bubble” floating on your jean jacket…there is a face in it…it looks like Homer Simpson – WITH a wormy nose! HA! :)
YoungHouseLove says
I think I can see that – or kinda like a creepy skull. But let’s go with Homer Simpson instead. :)
-John
Kara L says
DARLING – DARLING – DARLING – DARLING – DARLING!!!! Such a cute, fun, perfect party! :-)
Amanda says
What a great party!! She is such a lucky girl!
Tracy says
Looks like tons of fun and what a cute theme! What really caught my eye though are your earings. They’re so pretty and I’m curious if you would share where you bought them??? Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
Those are her Clara earrings. Our friends at Towne & Reese named them after our Clara (all of their stuff is named for their friend’s daughters, since their company is named after theirs). You can see them here: http://www.towneandreese.com/earrings/clara-earrings
-John
Meredith J says
I’m totally wearing that same green Old Navy dress RIGHT NOW! WOAH! :) Looks like an A-mzing party, I wanan come next time!
Loni says
I loved your birthday party for Clara! Way to turn worms into such an awesome theme! I also adored her 2nd year video, it was so sweet watching her dance everywhere she went! Thank you so much for sharing your lives with us out here in blogland!
Deborah says
Such a happy party! I’m the mom of 23- and 20-year-old girlies (gosh, I swear it was just yesterday they were little), and I just want to pass on some words of wisdom (?) from the future. You will NEVER, EVER regret all of the thought, time, and effort you put into all of the special things you do for/with your precious, delightful little girl. It just warms my heart to see the pics and video of your Clara singing and dancing and playing away. I also applaud (loudly) the way you took her lead on the theme for her party! Not many parents would actually “run” with worms for a 2-year-old girl, but clearly it was PERFECT in every way that another Disney-princess party could never touch. Clara just reminds me so much of my first-born (back in the day, her song was, “Ice, ice, baby…”) in so many ways. I see the love and joy on the gorgeous faces of your sweet little family, and my new wish is that each of my girls finds this kind of happiness when their turn comes!
Amanda says
I loved Clara’s video! Happy birthday sweet girl.
I have to say, I am really big fans of you guys and what I really love best is how much love there is in your lives and in your home. You are really blessed!
Elizabeth says
Looked like a great party!! Precious video!! Happy Birthday Clara!!
Beth says
Clara is such a cutie! Yall are a happy bunch and it just radiates through your blog. Thanks for oversharing with the rest of us :) Happy Birthday Clara!
Amy @ The Button Casa says
I never thought that any kid could love worms like my youngest but I stand corrected. I would have never thought to have a worm birthday party though. I love all of your ideas, it’s so fun and festive. Happy birthday, Clara!
Jeannie says
Everything about this party is so adorable… Especially the birthday girl! Happy birthday, Clara!!
Reva says
Clara is such a sweet, adorable little girl! Happy birthday to her!
Betsy says
Now that Clara’s two, you’ll have to measure her height. My mom swears that if you double a baby’s height at age two, that’s the height she’ll be when she grows up. I guess it worked for me! (Verdict is still out on my cousins who are still growing…)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah – we’ve heard that! We’ll hopefully have an official reading once we go to her check up this week.
-John
Catherine says
Awww, loved your video! Clara is awesome!!
April says
Are you going to continue the milestone photos for Clara?
Loved the video. What a happy girl. My son is 9 months and it’s got me wondering if I could make something similar for his first birthday. Thanks for the great idea! Now let’s see if I have the follow-through…
YoungHouseLove says
We’d love to continue her pics, either monthly or quarterly (depending how much she still loves them- haha- here’s hoping!).
xo,
s
Kate says
That is the sweetest thing I’ve seen in such a long time! It made me tear up a little, thinking about just how lucky that girl is to have such a happy life and such great parents! And what a great way to highlight memories from the year. I hope I can be just half as creative when I have my own kids!
Vega says
Happy birthday,Clara. I wish you all the best. I love your B-party!
Nicole says
Who knew a worm party could be soooo stinkin adorable!?!?!
i love it!!! you guys never cease to amaze me!!!
and that video is soooo sweet!!! priceless. she will cherish that when she is older!
i am also so impressed by her vocabulary!!!
Elizabeth says
Happy Birthday Clara!
Steph says
John and Sherry, I’m not gonna lie, the worm hot dogs really gave me the heebie-jeebies, I think it would be a little creepy eating them! They are so wormy! Haha! Nice work!
Brenda says
You guys are doing everything right! You keep it simple and relevant and so filled with joy! Everyone seems so happy and that’s because you are doing it right! It’s fun to see :)
Kim S says
Happy birthday to Clara! Looks like you guys had a great weekend.
What software do you use to make these videos? I love how there are video clips mixed in with the photo montage. And I will chime in with many of the commenters above that said they got a little teary-eyed watching all these clips of your sweet little family. You are certainly blessed. :o)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Kim! We have used iMovie (it comes free on Mac computers) for other videos like last year’s but we used Final Cut Pro for this one since we recently bought it for a book video that we had to make. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Melody @CCC says
That video is amazing! Isn’t it nice to have technology to do fun things like that to capture the memories? Priceless.
Michelle W. says
Love love love the party! And I gotta say Sherry, you looked so pretty for your daughters day. Looking back on those photos is going to be so much fun and you’ll be able to say to yourself, “Wow, I kinda rocked my look that day”. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, you’re so sweet! Thanks!
xo,
s
Cassie says
If haven’t ever hit up a Stewart’s Shop (in reference to the orange soda), be sure to try their ice cream. It’s awesome. I [try to] have my Mom bring me back a half gallon every time she goes to upstate NY.
YoungHouseLove says
Mmm, sounds awesome!
xo,
s
Sherri says
Such a special day, and I’m glad we all got to come along for the ride. Could Clara be more adorable, full of life, and overflowing with happiness? Her cup runneth over, giving joy and receiving it. She has grown up so much in a year. She is certainly a beauty, inside and out. God bless her!
Amanda says
OMG! Love the party theme, decoration, colors and most of all the MOVIE!! So cute. It kind of makes me want to have babies!!!
Congrats to two years of amazing parenting!
Patty C says
Great party! I always loved themed parties when my kids were younger – Pirates, American Girl sleepover with dolls, sports. We even had a Jackson Pollick art party one year.
YoungHouseLove says
Oooh a Jackson Pollack party sounds amazing!
xo,
s
Jamie B. says
She is so adorable, I almost cried too! Happy Birthday, Clara. :) And thank you, Mommy and Daddy, for sharing her with us.
Lindsay says
K, seriously! I feel like I know you guys – that video was amazing and brought happy tears to my eyes; you guys are awesome parents! What a great looking party!!!
Kari the Sweetest Memory says
This is the cutest party and so creative! I love the worm hot dogs and bright colors. So cute.
Sydney says
Happy birthday Clara!!!
Jen says
Happy birthday to sweet little Clara!
Looks like such a lovely and cheerful day. I adore all of the cheerful colors and the theme for the party! You do a fab job at anything you DIY. :)
And just like last year, the video was super fabulous. It gave me happy chills.
xoxo,
Jen
Jen says
P.S. Happy mommy’s day Sherry!! <3
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Jen!
xo,
s
Connie says
How adorable!!!!! And look at Clara wearing a big girl dress. : – )What a coincidence, my daughters 8th camping party had a pink, orange, and brown color theme.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, that’s so sweet! Hope it was an awesome party- camping sounds like a fun theme!
xo,
s
Haley says
Well that video made me cry! I love John’s new ‘do. Y’all are such a cute family, and you’re making such fun memories.
You mentioned auctioning book projects for charity, and I know that you’ve openly supported St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the past (I work there, so it stuck out haha). Did you have a focus for your giving?
YoungHouseLove says
We haven’t worked out a charity (or group of charities) that it’ll benefit but we’ll definitely keep you posted! You know we love St Jude’s!
xo,
s
Jeanne Wagner says
The video at the end made me all misty. What a great way to mark her year. I love everything about the party, especially the colors. You can’t NOT be happy just looking at them. :) Oh and I love worms too. haha
p says
hi guys. i was catching up on J&S posts i missed and saw your printer troubles. *sniff sniff*. what you’re describing is generally a printer or router driver issue, or a network setup issue. i have an hp photosmart c4280 all in one and it works wirelessly with 2 macs, as well as 2 other win machines in the house – win 7, win xp. the only hiccups it ever has is scanning somethings to the win 7. but that’s a win 7 x64 issue (love you microsoft).
epsons are great, but they’re designed to be photo printing printers (coming from a company that specializes in professional photo printers) and so the ink will be much, much more expensive. the hp ones are workhorses – we’ve had hp printers for 19 years now without issue (i don’t work for them, i swear! haha).
anyways, to try and resolve your issues:
1. check to see, do your computers/any other networked devices occasionally drop the internet/network connection or become slow on the network connection? that’s a sign that your router software might need upgrading. if you go to the router manufacturer’s website, you’ll see if there are any software updates/driver updates. if there are download them and install onto router according to instructions. make sure to BACK UP all your network settings on the router and copy onto text file, before you do this, because when you update the software it will wipe out the network and you’ll have to reset the network. goes much faster if you have the info for each field backed up.
2. check the printer page on HP to see if there are new drivers. HP has been decent about releasing new drivers to keep up with new operating systems. BUT the printer division is one of the most profitable areas for HP and they keep releasing new printers, so beyond a certain point there isn’t incentive to keep releasing drivers for older printers. not sure how old your printer is or what OS you are using on your mac. my mac is on leopard (OS X 10.5.8) and works flawlessly with the 4280 printer i have, even though the printer was released a good 3 years before this OS. so… yeah.
3. finally, after you’ve done your driver/software upgrades, if you’re still having issues, you can do this –
a) go into the printer’s setup menu and delete the network and any other network settings you have there. power off the printer. leave off for a couple of minutes. then reboot. insert all the network information again. does it work better now? if so, something might have just gotten corrupted in the network settings file on the printer.
b) if a) above doesn’t work, you can do the tedious task of wiping out the whole network on the router and resetting a whole new network cos sometime s the network structure on the router is what gets corrupt. in that case you “reset” the router to factory settings and then establish a network again. sounds more complex than it is. it’s not hard, just tedious to then enter the new network password etc on all your network devices. if you google your router you will find detailed instructions for doing each of these things online. (or if you email me i will do my best to help).
note: if you end up doing the #1 thing on this list – upgrading the router software — it will have automatically wiped out your network and reset the router to factory settings. so then you won’t have to do all the wiping out business in step 3. you’ll just have to reestablish the network and put in passwords on every networked device.
hope that makes a sliver of sense. i’m thinking aloud here so it might not. e back if you need a hand or have questions. i’ve unfortunately had to do this in the past and thus lived and learned.
congratulations to clara on turning 2! and to you both on 2 years of wonderful, love-filled, joy-filled, grace-filled parenting.
be well!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much for all the tips!!! We’ll have to see if we can get this baby back in the saddle!
xo,
s