My lovely little ladybird turned 4 last week and we celebrated on the weekend with a Ladybird party. I didn’t want to do a heavy red and black theme, so we decided to turn it into a Ladybird Garden party, going for a natural look and incorporating lots of pretty garden colours. Ella received a beautiful lavender fairy dress from her Nan which she wanted to wear for the party, so we used this as an accent colour alongside reds and pinks, but keeping the ladybug elements in their red and black.

Considering it is winter in Melbourne, and freezing, it was necessary to have an indoor party, so we decided to bring the garden inside! The dessert table was covered in artificial turf and our garden party grew from there!

Above: The dessert table, covered in artificial turf set the scene for the ladybirds garden; Wooden lady bugs dotted amongst the foliage; homemade cupcakes; Alannah Rose Lovely Ladybird Invitations; Ella’s Ladybird Birthday Banner

Above: Homemade gingerbread flowers potted in watering cans; sweet pink lemonade bottles with paper straws (from details details); the birthday girl

Above: Party Food – Potted Gingerbread flowers; Jelly beans; potted marshmallows and tiny toadstools; fairybread flowers, cupcakes; marshmallows dipped in chocolate, Yum!

Above: The beautiful two layer ladybird birthday cake was made by my very talented Mum! (thanks mum, so much it is exactly as I imagined x)

Above: little party guests enjoying the fare; pretty pom pom flowers adorned the roof of the kids party room for a garden feel; the children’s party table was set with ladybird antennae (homemade) for the kids to take home (plus ant antennae for the boys) and ladybird garden colouring sheets (free printable colouring sheet file available with purchase of our lovely ladybird invitations on request) and potted gingerbread flowers

Above: Also in the party room were the loot buckets – filled with plastic magnifying glass, ladybird clickers (remember those old fashioned metal ones?), lollies, blowouts and balloons – ‘fly me home’ were the instructions from miss ladybird; party games – a jar full of chocolate ladybirds went ‘missing’ each child was handed a net to catch the ladybirds and bring them home. They were then divided up and tied into the nets for the children to take home with their lolly buckets. This game was a big hit with the kids!

Other games included pass the lucky dip – my variation of pass the parcel – rather than wrapping prize upon prize into paper, I put individual prizes into paper bags which were passed around in a larger gift bag for the children to ‘lucky dip’ when the music stopped.

Supplier list:

Invitations and stationery – Alannah Rose – Lovely Ladybird Party Invitations

Stripey Straws – Details Details

White buckets – Holly Lolly

Flowers – gorgeous Kale, Rosehip, Roses and Magnolia leaves all from Camberwell Florist

Cake – made by my Mum! Ladybird sugar decorations from Cakes around Town

Nets – These are fish tank nets – I sourced them from a local $2 shop, and Cheap as Chips

White Ceramic Pots – Ikea

White Watering Cans – The Reject Shop

Lollies – Toadstools from Coles, Large marshmallows used on sticks in pots Campbells Cash & Carry

Mini Glass Bottles – These are empty Vittoria Juice Bottles – thanks to Sharnel and my twitter friends for the heads up on these

Special thanks to all my lovely friends and family – mum for all her help and the amazing cake, my husband for putting up with my bossiness, prue (gigi & lulu) for her inspiration, ideas and help on the day, Adrienne & Tim for the turf, and Kerrin for extra vases I needed at the last minute! Plus hugs and kisses to all Ella’s little friends that helped her celebrate and make the day so special.

Happy Birthday Beautiful Bella, I’m glad you loved your party, your smile and excitement bring me such joy! x