When our sweet Sydney had her 3rd birthday, we decided to have a Ladybug Picnic at the Beach. This was the first time we did a birthday party outside of our home & boy was this a challenge. The amount of stuff required for a family of 5 to hit the beach is enormous! Not to mention all the stuff required for a birthday party. Birthday Party stuff + Family of 5 beach stuff = way more than I or my husband can carry! Luckily, we had the help of my husbands family!!!

The ladybug theme was really easy! Bonus was that the beach was randomly swarmed by ladybugs that day. Everywhere you looked, you could find a ladybug on the sand. Very Cool!

Invitation:
To make the ladybug invitation, I used black construction paper for the body & head, red card stock for the wings, wiggly eyes & a paper brad to attach it all. These invites were all hand delivered so I could make them bigger & not worry about having to fit them into an envelope.

Cake:
The cake didn’t turn out exactly as I had envisioned but still cute & Sydney still loved it 🙂

I used a boxed cake mix (again, I hope to make my cakes from scratch after I take my pastry class), filled a rounded bowl (for the ladybug body) 1/2 way & baked. I filled another smaller rounded bowl (for the ladybug head) 1/2 way & baked.

Once baked & cooled, I placed both cakes into the freezer for about 30 min. This makes the cake easier to ice and handle & it wont fall apart in your hands.

To decorate, I used red fondant for the body, black icing for the head, oreo cookies for the spots, red licorice for the antennas, and mini marshmallows for the eyes. The original plan for the mouth didn’t work out so we had to use the mini marshmallows.