Grasshoppers, Beetles and Flies – Oh My!!!

Naomi wanted another castle cake this year.  Actually, Naomi REALLY wanted another castle cake this year.  That’s all fine and good, except for the fact that I really didn’t want to make one. I wanted something a little less time consuming.  I also just wanted to try something different (I’ve already made 2 castle cakes, after all!)  So here’s my confession.  I (through use of the force – what else?!) convinced Naomi that what she really wanted this year was a bug themed birthday party.  Yup.  I sure did.  Goodbye princesses, hello creepy crawlies.  Once I had sold Naomi on the idea, she embraced it wholeheartedly.  We had bug bingo, pin the spider on the web (that one’s always a winner), a frog toss (not a real frog), antennae making and a bug guessing game.    

Here they are trying to toss the frog onto a lily pad for a prize.  Each lily pad had a different prize.  (Side note – the uber gross room we’re in is NOT my living room.  It’s our community room upstairs.  Our apartment is not nearly large enough to hold 9 rambunctious 6 year old girls.  While I’m grateful that we have a larger space available to use, I wouldn’t mind it being free from the nastiness to which it is sometimes home.)                    

                                         

Here are the girls playing bug bingo.  Note the bugs taped onto the girls’ backs.  Each girl was supposed to ask questions like “Do I fly?”, or “Do I have lots of legs?'” or “Am I red?”.  Then she tried to figure out which bug she was.  This task was met with varying degrees of success.  The ladybug figured out who she was.  The stag beetle did not. (That was Naomi.  Poor thing.)

                                         

Present opening and Heavy, Heavy Hangover….

              

Some beautiful bugs…

                                        

The cake…

                                 

The main reason behind my plot to change the theme of this birthday party was that I wanted to make a less labor intensive cake.  HA.  Whatever.  Why do I always do this to myself??  Someday I’ll learn.  Hopefully I’ll also learn that when I try to do piping after midnight, everything turns out a little wobbly…

Here’s Naomi before she blew out the candle.  I  had hoped to get a shot of her blowing out the candle but alas.  She couldn’t contain her excitement and blew it out before we were halfway done singing “Happy Birthday.”  Thinking I had at least two more lines of lyrics before I had to be ready I missed the moment.  Ah well.  She’s still pretty cute.

                                                                          

This is what Naomi has to say about herself as a six year old.  Note the similarities between her answers and Ian's answers.  It’s not every 6 year old girl who claims Pokémon as her favorite movie.  (Truth be told, I really think her favorite movies are the Tinkerbell movies.) 

                                                                  

It was a buggy blast of a birthday.  Naomi, you are a smart, sweet, wildly precocious, loving, caring, silly, fun, curious, imaginative, wonderful girl.  We love you so much and are so glad you are a part of our family!