Kid Party Idea For A
"Gone Buggy" Party

Caterpillar Cake
Line up several frosted cupcakes. Color coconut green with a little food coloring, shaken together in a plastic bag to coat. Top cupcakes with green "fur". Add gumdrop eyes, licorice legs and antennae, and candy spots.

Oreo Dirt Cake Bake a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Add Oreo cookie crumbs for dirt, and colorful gummy worms.

Make a large sign that says "Bugs are Beautiful" and put it on the front door. Or, use a Personalized Bug Banner to greet your guests in true "buggy" style...Hang handmade spiders from the ceiling with invisible thread. Halloween spider webs are great too.

Another great kid party idea for "buggy" decor is red balloons with black (ladybug) spots, or make easy balloon bees - yellow balloons with black crepe paper bumblebee stripes, add eyes and smiling face with indelible black marker and small construction paper wings.  Attach these colorful suction lady bugs to windows and walls.

Make colorful tissue paper flowers. Draw eight circles on two or three colors of folded tissue paper by drawing around a glass. Cut out the circles and fold them into quarters. Thread the point of each quarter onto a knotted thread. Sew a couple of stitches to fasten all the points together and cut the thread, leaving a bit hanging. Now open out each circle of paper and use the loose thread to hang up your little flower. Attach bug stickers or plastic bugs to the flowers and string throughout the party area.

Bug Party Costumes -

Each guest should get their own bug antennae when they arrive. You can make these from simple construction paper bug shapes glued onto paper headbands.  Or make it easy on yourself by having these Grasshopper Hats or Butterfly Masks available to your guests.

Baby Butterfly Costume
From: Celebrate Express

Grasshopper Child Hat

Butterfly Masks (4 count)

Finish off the buggy look with garden bug funtoos 

Lady Bug Child	Lady Bug with Wings Child	Ladybug Tutu Child
Ladybug Toddler	Lil Lady Bug Toddler	Little Lady Bug Toddler

If you dare, you can hire an entomologist or other insect enthusiast to do a hands-on kids's learning presentation with assorted creepy crawlies such as millipedes, cockroaches, etc. They are available in many areas for educational demonstrations and kids parties.

We've really outdone ourselves on buggy games! Our "Gone Buggy" Party Games Page has 17 unique themed bug party games and activities to make your party a real "buzz" of activity! Games include Exterminator, Bugbite, Spider Crawl, Ants and Spiders, Cocoon, Spin a Web, Bug Discovery, and more...

Bug House - You'll need a jig saw and some scrap wood. Cut a rectangle 3 x 6 inches or whatever size you like. Cut two squares the same width as your rectangle and round the top corners of each square. Drill a hole in the center of one square to put a cork in. This will be the entrance to the bug house.

Attach the squares to each end of the rectangle with wood glue and a couple of nails. Cut a piece of screen to fit over this frame and staple in place. Stick a cork in the entrance hole and you have a super cage for your little bug collectors.

Lady Bug Puppet - You'll need a red sock for each guest, fabric paint to make the ladybug's black spots, small colorful button eyes, and white pipe cleaner antennae.

Egg Carton Bugs - These are easy and inexpensive to make. Just cut an egg carton into individual sections. Have guests draw eyes on them and color them with markers. Add two pipe cleaner antennae and they're done.

You can even hold races with your funny bugs by placing a marble or jawbreaker under them and racing them down a slanted board or table. See more kids party game ideas on the"Gone Buggy" Party Games page.

Coffee Filter Butterflies - You'll need pipe cleaners of assorted colors, large coffee filters, water-based markers and a small spray bottle filled with water. Give each party guest a coffee filter and have them color it with the markers.

Once they have filled it with pretty designs, have them hold it up and spray it with water. Let them watch as the colors spread and run together. Place filters in a sunny spot to dry, then bunch it in the middle and wrap a pip cleaner around it. Leave a little extra pipe cleaner extended to make two antennaes.

Bug Rocks - Provide guests with smooth oval rocks that you've collected. Provide some acrylic paints and small brushes and let them create all sorts of unusual creatures. Paint rocks to look like ladybugs, butterflies, etc. and use as paperweights or place in your garden or plant pots.

Draw Beautiful Bugs - Get this easy and informative book: "Draw Insects" by Doug DuBosque and let party guests go buggy drawing insects with the very easy step-by-step instructions in this book. This is my favorite "make and take" kid party idea because it's so easy and personal and... you'll find everything from an ant to a walking-stick! (Great for making bug party drawings to hang up, too.)

Parasol Pretties - Get plain child-sized umbrellas in pastel colors and fabric paint and let kids paint ladybugs and butterflies on them.

Make a beautiful origami butterfly: http://www.littleexplorers.com/crafts/butterfly/origami/

If you'd like the kids to have some quiet time, rent "Bug's Life" and show it at the end of the party. Or read a story as the party is winding down. Here are some suggested books:

Eric Carle: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Quiet Cricket, The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Busy Spider

Insect Soup - Bug Poems by Barry Louis Polisar
Silly collection of poems about some unusual insects

Miss Spider's Tea Party, Little Miss Spider, Miss Spider's ABC, Miss Spider's Wedding, Miss Spider's New Car, etc. - by David Kirk

The Spider and the Fly - Tony DiTerlizzi
Captivating illustrations in black and white accompany the original tale by Mary Howitt - a Caldecott Award winner

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly - Nadine Bernard Westcott

Bugs Favor Pack

Easy Bugs Favor Pack includes mini ladybug beanie, daisy bracelet, ladybug popper, lip gloss ring, white dot favor bag.

A butterfly feeder, available in your local garden shop with the bird and hummingbird feeders, is a unique party favor.

Oriental Trading has tons of inexpensive Bug Toys & Novelties for your guests!

Fill your pinata with spider rings, plastic bugs, bug tattoos and bug stickers as well as wrapped candy. Then, for an unusual "gone buggy" twist, try hitting your pinata with a fly swatter!

If you plan to read The Hungry Caterpillar book by Eric Carle, be sure to serve some foods with holes cut out of them (use an apple corer) such as small sandwiches, watermelon slices, fruit and cheese wedges, etc.