A Very Hungry Caterpillar First Birthday Party

A first birthday is a big deal! Even though the baby won’t remember, it’s fun and important to mark the occasion with a party. After all, you did it! You kept that tiny human alive for a whole year! Congratulations! You deserve to celebrate. When my baby approached his first birthday, I decided I wanted to have a Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday party.

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From Apples to the Hungry Caterpillar

The idea actually came from my cousin. I really wanted to do something with apples. So, I asked for some apple pun ideas from my friends and family and she suggested: “on the 1st day he ate through ONE apple” which lends itself to a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party.

Other fun apple puns:

ONE fine/bad apple
Couldn’t have picked a better ONE
Loved to the core!

As soon as I heard a Very Hungry Caterpillar, I had an image of my son dressed as the Hungry Caterpillar, munching on an apple in an orchard. So, of course, that’s why I did for his first birthday photo shoot! We also picked a LOT of apples that were used in desserts and as part of the decorations for the party.

My very hungry caterpillar first birthday photo shoot

The costume was hand made a gifted to us by Pine Stone Stitchery and I crocheted the hat myself.

A Very Hungry Caterpillar Party

I planned a lot more than I actually did. Honestly, I usually do. This time though, I had a lot of obstacles I can blame. N got an ear infection the week of his birthday and I was fighting a bad case of poison ivy on my arm. My attention was, understandably, diverted from the party. It still turned out great and we all had a great time.

I did make shirts for the family using iron-on printer sheets. The boys had Hungry Caterpillar shirts (N actually had 2)! For my husband and me, I made some “Survivor: Parenthood, The First Year” shirts to mark the occasion!

Hungry Caterpillar Decorations

I was working on a budget, so kept things pretty simple. Everything was Hungry Caterpillar or rainbow to go with the theme of that party. I also placed apples from the orchard around the house as part of the decorations (people also were able to grab these to munch on).

One of the main decorations was with balloons. I asked my parents and in-laws to help with these since I was in the kitchen a lot the morning of the party. Using some fishing line, they tied a red balloon onto my banister first, then alternating light and dark green balloons to look like the hungry caterpillar.

I had planned to make faces on the red balloons, but I think it was actually better keeping them plain since the kids wanted to play with them. We ended up cutting a lot down for them to run around with.

My other main decoration featured our monthly baby photos. I taped each on to a green paper plate. Then, I made a Hungry Caterpillar face on a red paper plate out of pipe cleaners and construction paper. Finally, I taped the plates to the wall to resemble the Hungry Caterpillar.

I also set up a cake smash background using a white cloth and some tissue paper pom poms in rainbow colors. I dressed him in a green cloth diaper, put a party hat on and let him at the apple smash cake I had baked!

The Apple Smash Cake

I’ll admit, I’m proud of this cake! I know a lot of people might think it’s easy, but I’m not great at baking and I usually screw these things up. This one came out exactly as I imagined so I am really proud.

I used a special baking pan designed to make sports balls out of cake and it was perfect! Just the right size and easy to use if you follow the instructions that came with the pan.

NOTE: The instructions recommended using shortening to grease the pan. I didn’t have any on hand, but using olive oil and then dusting with flour worked beautifully.

I baked a funfetti cake in this mold. It gives you two halves so I leveled them off and put them together using icing. Then, I carved a small depression into the top to make it look more like an apple. Finally, I iced it with red frosting and used a leaf decorating tip to add a green leaf.

It was the perfect smash cake for our Hungry Caterpillar party!

All the Food!

The party was a BBQ to keep the menu simple. We had burgers and hot dogs for the main meal. I also had a display of food that people could just grab when they wanted.

I also baked some cupcakes for everyone using the same funfetti cake mix that I had used for the smash cake. Cupcakes are easy to distribute and people can grab them at their leisure. Our parties tend to be very informal so I lie to have food out to grab. The cupcakes had to go with the Hungry Caterpillar theme, so I made a cute display!

Two other treats I made (that would also be perfect for the holidays) were my sweet potato bites and mini cheesecakes with apple crumble topping. These are both really good and are sure to impress!

I had planned a lot more food, but it would have been totally unnecessary. We had a great time with friends and family and everyone was well fed, even without the extra food!