I’m excited to finally share Owen’s bug birthday party! Back in July, we celebrated our insect-obsessed “fly” guy turning seven with the best creepy crawly themed party. I’m not exactly a huge fan of bugs, but a bug birthday party ended up being surprisingly fun to plan. Check out all the “buzzing” details from his insect celebration!

Owen’s Bug Birthday Party Decorations

Just like I do with every party I plan, I picked out a color palette: aqua, yellow, and shades of green with a pop of red. I wanted his bug birthday party to have a picnic vibe, but I didn’t want to use the typical red gingham. So I used yellow and white plaid instead, with yellow buffalo plaid napkins and a yellow plaid pattern on his cake.

A bundle of crepe paper in green colors made a perfect grassy table runner. I simply cut strips of the paper to look like grass and then used my favorite technique – hot glue – to attach them to a paper table runner. (Tip: butcher kraft paper rolls make perfect inexpensive disposable table runners!)

We had a bunch of plastic bugs leftover from Owen’s 3rd birthday party, so I made sure to include them in the party decor by scattering them on the table and gluing them to the favor bags. I did purchase some new ones, a bag of plastic ants and a set of very large plastic insects, because this party needed bugs galore! I placed one giant bug on each plate, and it was the perfect touch for the creepy crawly theme! Plus, they made a great birthday gift for Owen too.

Plastic store-bought bug toys weren’t enough for me, so I crafted some DIY bugs too. I made a few with honeycomb tissue balls, paper, and balloons.

Lately, my favorite way to decorate a party table is with paper placemats! And it’s so cheap to do too. I created a placemat design with insect illustrations for Owen’s party in black and white, so that it could also be a coloring sheet. I printed them at Staples on 11×17 paper, which is the perfect size for placemats.

Bug Birthday Party Food and Treats!

As soon as Owen decided he wanted a bug birthday party, I knew what I wanted to do for his cake. Somehow I wanted to decorate it with yellow plaid, and I wanted it to have dragonfly toppers (his favorite bug). I found garden dragonfly stakes, which were exactly what I envisioned for the cake toppers. To get the yellow plaid look, I painted the pattern on white fondant with yellow food coloring and wrapped it around the side of the cake. This was by far the most challenging thing I did for his party, and I don’t think I’ll ever try wrapping fondant around a cake by myself again – an extra set of hands would have made it so much easier!

I also knew that this party needed cookies from my talented friend Pam at Cookies All Day. I knew she would do an amazing job with the theme, and I was so right! Her cookies were awesome and Owen loved them.

For the other snacks at the party, I made gluten-free chocolate bark that I decorated with M&M candy “bugs” and a gluten-free Chex mix.

For the favors, we gave colorful butterfly nets and little bug toys.

I know there are SO many photos in this post. But I love taking photos of every detail at the children’s birthday parties, so I can remember it all. Which is why I’m sharing even more photos below. Feel free to keep scrolling to see about a billion more pics from Owen’s super 7 bug birthday!