Very Hungry Caterpillar Theme Food !!!

I wanted to have all the food that the hungry caterpillar eats in the book for the party. But to find good strawberries and grapes in december was really hard and also I was not sure how to avoid browning of apples, pears etc. So dropped that idea. And tried to 'caterpillar'-ise whatever food I was having for the party:)

First made these sugar cookies and decorated them with icing.  They are not perfect, but it works for the kids and me ;)

Rotini pasta with 'caterpillar topping' made of circles cut out of green pepper for the body, circle tomato for the head and olive pieces for the eyes, legs and antennae!!

Mini cup cakes from Publix which I decorated with 'caterpillar toppings' made of m&ms. To draw other details i mixed chocolate syrup with confectioners sugar and piped it:)

This is 'A very healthy caterpillar' made of cucumbers, tomato and olive bits !!!

The caterpillar gummies....

 

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Birthday Balloons Play!!

Putti's loved playing with these balloons on the floor of her room !!! 

                                      
Putti's birthday was on the weekday again and all these part years, we had her party at home and hence had managed to do it on the same day. But this time with her dad's new job and we deciding to do it outside, her party was on the new years eve. And since it was winter break for her at her school, I wanted something special for her day. But did not want anything elaborate as we still had some last minute work for the party next day. So, I planned this little surprise for her on the morning of her birthday.

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Putti is Four !!!!

It’s hard to believe, but its true. It has been four years since I heard the anaesthesiologist in the OR say “She’s beautiful” and four years since I saw her for the first time all bundled up. There was a certain calm and serene look on her face then which I remember so very vividly even till this day.

That has changed and all you can see on her face today is perhaps naughtiness.

Here's wishing our princess a very Happy Birthday from Amma and Appa. You are and will always remain special to us. May you grow up to be a wonderful person, a strong and beautiful girl. And on that note, Happy Birthday to this blog. The blog completes its fourth year too. Yay ! Thank you for reading us and being a part of Putti's growing years!

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Putti Invites you to her Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday !!!

Putti wanted a Very Hungry Caterpillar Themed Birthday this year. This has been a favorite book of hers eversince she laid eyes on it.
We have been enjoying making all the decorations for the birthday party. And since the invite is sent out electronically, there was least participation from Putti's side. Guess I need to do the paper invites from now on, she loves writing and making them.
Well, here's her simple, fun invite made from the image I found on google.

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Paint on stretched canvas

For the art theme birthday party, the main activity i chose was paint on canvas. That will make a wonderful keep sake return gift too. I gave each of the kid one canvas with their names and date written on the back. The big girls Aneesa and Sarah had questions like "what is this? why not paint on paper like we do in school?" etc. And when i told them that most professional asrtists paint on these canvases they were thrilled!! Also told them when its done, its ready to be displayed on wall, no need for framing, they were more excited.

And when i gave them aprons to wear "its like the ones in our schools " they shouted with joy. And were happier when i said they can take it home after they are done with painting!!
Later i showed a couple of examples what we were planning to paint that day like here and here. And then we went on to put tape on canvases. Since it is difficult for putti and other little ones to pull and cut their tape. I offered to help all kids to cut tape for them in the length they asked for. Aneesa made an 'A', while her little sister made some parallel lines with the tape. Abhi akka took mom's help to make a little house, a flower (looked like a windmill) and an 'A' too. Shakti went on making windows for each of her family member with mom's help. But putti made some random patterns.

And once all were done with tape, i gave them little containers with crayola washable paint and a sponge brush. I did not want kids to mix up their colors and end up in muddy brown so to keep colors and brush clean, I asked the kids to pass on their paint containers along with the brush in them to the next person. This made sure all the kids got all the colors and also the brushes stayed clean ! They all enjoyed painting.

 

Watching these kids having so much fun, the littlest kid almost 2yr shishir come wanted to join too. And he enjoyed his time with paint for  awhile. I had plans of making foot and hand prints of him on canvas, as he had never been exposed to paint/ crayon earlier. But he decided to pitch in with the other kids:)

And when all were done, we left them to dry and carried on with other activities and snacking. When it was time to leave, gave the kids their canvases and they peeled off the tapes. 

 

They were all excited to take them home.
 

I had been wanting to try paint on canvas with putti for a long time and now want to do more....

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Bread faces...

This was one of the hit activities at putti's birthday party. Kids loved the fact that they could eat their creations. Gave all the kids a slice of bread and cheese. Then offered them various toppings to choose from like peas, chickpeas, olives, mushroom, tomato, carrot, braccoli, corn etc. They loved making eyes, nose with these. It was cute how each of their bread faces looked. Some ate the toppings  and went on to create new face:)

   

  

Maybe if i had some noodles or spagetti boiled, it would have been more fun to use as hair.

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Decorate party hats

I made these colorful party cone hats for the kids at putti's birthday party. I opened up an old hat and used it as a template to cut the cardstock, which made the job very much easy. Initially i had plans of letting the kids paint/ glitter glue on these.. but later dropped the idea as these would take long time to dry and kids may not get to wear them at party. Just for putti's hat i wrote '3' in glitter.

Instead gave markers and foam stickers in birthday theme. The kids happily drew various figures on the hats and then had a blast sticking the stickers. They all loved their hats! Later on all of them together made one hat for the littlest kid almost 2yr shishir :)

Kids busy decorating their hats..

 With their hats...

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Splish Splash Paint Cake..

I had to search all over the net for art theme cake, but most were either 'art pallette' or 'crayon' cake. Since putti is not yet familira with the palette, i chose crayon cake. But unfortunately the lady who bakes fish shaped cake for putti's bday last year said she will be out of town for holidays. And I dont know anybody else in my town who does costum design cake. So my only option was 'Publix'. Thats when i thought of this 'splish splash paint cake' As a trial i made one for putti's star birthday. First made dough in two colors and followed instructions here to get the nice pattern.

 

And after baking and frosting, i gave liquid food colors to putti and asked her to splatter the colors on the cake. She loves flicking the bristles. Later she insisted that she wanted to write too.. so i held her hand and wrote on the cake.

I took a picture of this cake to publix and ordered an exact one. They made this, loved the bright colors, but its not what i expected. But i was happy when everyone liked.

 

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3rd Birthday Party Photos

Putti

  

 FRIENDS

Cutting her cake..

Rest of the photos with details coming soon...

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Happy 3rd birthday to you putti...

wow time sure flies! It feels just like yesterday when i held the little putti in my arms for the first time and today she is 3!!! She is the reason behind this blog. She is the one who inspires me to continue this and gives me new subject to write about with all her plays. Wishing that her today's innocence be with her always. Be happy my child:) 

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Crayon cakes

I have seen lots of blogs posts about recycling those numerous broken crayon pieces which get accumulated fast at home. I made these as part of putti's birthday party favors. It was super easy. Hope the kids dont mistake these for some sort of candy, hence added a note saying "Crayons dont eat". 
Hope they like it.
 

  

  

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Sweet Crayons

Along with the usual chocolates, i wanted to add some sweet treat to go with the art theme. Inspired by these edible crayons, i made some sweet crayons for the kids. First searched for long, thin candies. And once i found them. I printed labels for them on construction paper. Later cut the candy to required size and wrapped the label around it. Used sticky tape, dint want to use glue. Trimmed one end sharp so as to mimick a crayon. And finally added them inside empty crayon boxes. I also added a note on the box saying "Sweet crayons eat them" !!

  

  

 

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Birthday banner !!

We decided its art party for putti this time, but i was wondering where to get art theme deco items from? And later thought i should involve putti to make one herself, that would be fun. We have made a board for her art wall earlier. I decided to work on same lines.
So first i tore off a few pages from our telephone mini directory and asked putti to paint them. I wanted her to use all the colors, but she was very adamant that day and wanted only 'orange'. And towards the end she did agree to paint them yellow!
While these were drying, she wrote the various alphabets on a white paper. Later i cut the alphabets. We then glued these alphabets onto the colored papers, punched holes and threaded them all.
How do you like this kid made banner?

 

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Happy Birthday Ratna Ajji (Grandma)!!!

Today is mother's birthday. Here is Putti singing birthday wishes for her grandma(ajji)....

Birthdays are not complete without party hats or cake, so she had to get a hat for singing the song:)

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2nd BDay Photos..

Ever since we got an aquarium to our home 3mnths ago, Putti has been in love with fishes. And you all know  when you saw her invites, its a Fish theme birthday for her this time. But, all I found in party stores were 'Finding Nemo' movie based supplies. But, I did not want those and it was a challenge to find these from the internet.
The party Deco had to order many of these online.
Putti's Photos in a fish frame that I found in thrift store..

After finding all the decorations, the hunt for customised cake started. Living in a small city, it was hard. None of the stores here do a fish shape and I did not want just those plastic toppings on the cake. Finally went ahead to try this lady Kathy who was recommended by many at our local moms forum. But was very apprehensive until we finally saw the cake, it was just what I had in mind. And it tasted great too:))

Fish cake and fish candle ...

Being a weekday, kept the cooking to bare minimum and decided to go for a Pizza party. Made some fish shaped cookies (my first try with decorated cookies). Also made some fish shaped spicy crackers, noodles, spring roll, etc...
BDay Girl Putti..

When cutting the cake..with her friends..
with dads..

In her room with friends..
with her gifts
Thanks everyone for all your wishes and Wishing you all a very happy new year!!!

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