Ladybug Party With Live Ladybugs

If you want to throw an interactive birthday party that your daughter will never forget… a ladybug party is the way to go! This party was so much fun for girls, boys and parents too. Releasing REAL ladybugs by the hundreds is quite a site and will WOW your party guests! 

When I saw the idea of a ladybug birthday party I knew I wanted to run with the idea. My oldest daughter was turning 6 and my youngest was turning 1. Since their birthdays are only 3 weeks apart I wanted to do a dual celebration. (to make it easier on me- ha!) I started looking on Etsy for ladybug outfits and found two different sellers that could make tutus and embroidered shirts. Since my oldest was turning 6 I knew I couldn’t get away with a tutu outfit much longer. So I had to act on it once more while I could. You can’t see it in the pictures, but the shirts have their names embroidered under the ladybug.

The tutus turned out adorable, but just look at those legs! Yummy!!

I couldn’t resist not wearing polka dots and ladybug colors myself! I also made our headbands and hair clips too. It’s all in the details, right?!!

As one of the activities we had bracelet making. I bought ladybug bracelet kits from Oriental Trading that were a bargain. The girls really enjoyed making them and the end results were super cute! This is my daughter Haylie hard at work.

The actual party was held at a beautifully manicured park. I rented a few kid size tables and chairs to put under the gazebos. You can see the chairs were red. (of course) What you can’t really see are the DARK clouds all around us. We celebrated their birthdays the first week in August (rainy season) and for us here in South Florida that also means Hurricane Season!! We had a tropical storm rolling in the day of the party and let me tell you… I was a nervous wreck!! All of this preparation and excitement was in the hands of Mother Nature. After many many MANY prayers- the weather held out!!! It was honestly such a blessing!

The other fun activity we had was a bubble machine. Not just any bubble machine, but an industrial one. We bought it many years ago on Amazon and whip it out for lots of our parties. It blows TONS of bubbles. Anyone who played in the bubbles became a muddy monster since the grass was soaked from all the rain. Oh well. They had a blast!

In another gazebo, I had additional tables and chairs for the adults. These were the awesome centerpieces for each table. My mom actually made these. She is a floral designer and has a true talent for designing flowers. I was so happy with these arrangements. The little ladybugs glued to the flowers are so fun!

This was the cake for my 6 year old. It is all butter cream icing. We had a matching smash cake for the baby too.

I made cupcakes and mini cupcakes. The ladybugs are just red M&Ms with edible marker. Again, little details. They make a difference!

Trying to stick with the red theme… We made watermelon on a stick and skewers of strawberries and lemon cake drizzled with white chocolate. You can see those fun little mini cupcakes here too. The skewers were a big hit!

…But not as big as these ladybug pretzels!!!! How cute are these??!! Using red chocolate melts I dipped each pretzel and let it dry. I then dipped them into semi-sweet melted chocolate for the head. The eyes are white pearl sprinkles that I dropped onto the chocolate while it was still wet. I used a lollipop stick to dab little chocolate dots onto the wings.

I knew I had to make a lot of these since they are a one bite kinda deal. I’m pretty sure they were gone in minutes. Literally.

One other quick treat I made was chocolate dipped marshmallows with red sprinkles on a lollipop stick. Using colorful wrapping paper,  I wrapped up a rectangle piece of styrofoam I bought from the craft store and stuck the sticks inside. The ladybug plates I bought from Amazon as well.

Now forget about the outfits, the bracelets, bubbles and pretzels… THIS was the fun part!!! Releasing the hundreds and hundreds of LIVE ladybugs!!! Ok so I bought these little girls, called Ladies In Red,  from Home Depot!!! Home Depot sells live ladybugs online. They sell them in different size packages, but since I had never bought ladybugs before I think I may have bought a little too many. Oh well. I bought 1 pint of ladybugs and let me tell you THAT is a lot of ladybugs!!! They were packed pretty tight in their little mesh pocket. They are only shipped overnight to prevent them from dying and as soon as you get them you are supposed to lightly spray them with water and place them in the refrigerator until you are ready to release them!! Who knew??!!

Here are some action shots of the kids finding the ladybugs. I bought these cool bug catchers from the Dollar Store. The handle to the magnifying glass twisted off so you could store your bugs inside. Every child went home with one full of ladybugs they caught.

What we didn’t realize until later that night, after we got home, was that the ladybugs were flying into the girl’s tutus!!! Like A LOT of ladybugs. I kept seeing ladybugs fly across my face in the car ride home. I thought the kids were releasing what they had in their bug catchers. I didn’t think twice about it until I saw them flying around in my house! I couldn’t explain how these little things were making it out of those bug catchers? Then I picked up one of the tutus and saw them crawling inside the mesh of the skirt!!! Both skirts had handfuls of ladybugs still inside of them! So funny! We were finding random dead ladybugs around the house for weeks.

We had such a great time celebrating with all our friends and family. The kids made fun memories that they still talk about till this day (it’s been several years). I highly recommend using this as your next theme. Hopefully you picked up a few ideas and will let me know how your own adventure turns out!