Bug Birthday Party

Gummy worms everywhere! Hulagirl has fabulous ideas! How bout this, get a ice cube tray and some sucker sticks. In a blender blend a few pints if straw berries hulled and cut or heck just some defrosted frozen ones. Also the juice of one lemon and one orange. Blend. Pour the mixture in the ice cube tray and top with 2-3 blueberries. In the freezer for a hour. Take out
Insert the sucker sticks and but back in the freezer for 4-5 hours. When you take them out they look just like lady bugs! They are yummy too! Love birthday parties!

my friend did a bug party for her DS when he was about that age - one game that was a big hit (but noisy - be forewarned) was - she got a large strip of bubble wrap and put bug stickers on it (you could also just draw bugs with a sharpie marker) and the kids had to "stomp the bugs"

You could also just "bug-ify" standard party games - like maybe "pin the wings on the bug" or "pin the stinger on the bee" instead of pin the tail on the donkey

I am an early planner too. I can tell you that dirt cake is a big hit. Place gummy worms in there with other edible bugs and kids just love it, especially boys!! Tons of online recipes for dirt cake and ideas of what creatures to put in it!! Have fun! Have plastic shovels for them to eat their "dirt" with :) The actual dirt cake was in a plastic wheelbarrow that was in the sand/beach toy section at walmart.

I just took my 4 yr old to an awesome bug party - here are a few of the highlights:
-"dirt cake" ie chocolate cake with chocolate cookie crumbles on it, covered with plastic bugs (bonus - looks fabulous the LESS work you do on it!)
-kids all got bug antennae head bands when they arrived (so cute!)
-plastic kiddie pool full of dirt and night crawler worms (omg - the kids went nuts digging them out and reburying them)
-plastic bugs everywhere
-chocolate pudding in clear plastic cups with gummy worms and more chocolate cookie crumbles sprinkled on top
-ladybug craft station

Sounds like you'll have fun!

the dollar tree store has butterfly nets. those would be cute. and not sure what kind of cake your making but i was at a shower once where the dessert was cupcakes with frosting on them then crushed oreo's then a gummy worm looked like it was crawling out. although that might appeal more to 8 year olds than 3 year olds lol. you could do pin the spots on the lady bug or the antenna on the grasshopper. good luck

An alternative to one big cake is lots of cupcakes of different bugs!

Ladybug -- red and black icing
Spider -- black icing, "legs" from thin black licorice whips
Butterfly -- on top of cupcake, pipe a "body" of icing, then cut easy wings from colored fruit leathers and stick one on each side of the body
Caterpillar -- Pipe balls of green icing, add licorice antennas, miniature M&M eyes, etc. (just use storebought icing in tubes, nothing fancy)

The only tough part could be if the kids argue over who gets a ladybug, who gets a caterpillar etc.....

If you want more 'bug' and less 'worm' go online and look for some plastic bugs to put in your dirt cake or cupcakes.

You mentioned painting -- you could find some smooth rocks and let them paint a bug on the rock as a paper-weight or just a house decoration.

Maybe find small/plastic magnifying glasses and possibly put them on a string for each child to wear around his/her neck or as a party favor.

To calm kids down before cake, you could find a good bug book to read to them, a fiction one, of course, to keep their interest. Sorry I can't think of one off the top of my head. My 3 yr old is totally into non-fiction right now - bugs and snakes, etc.

Not necessarily for the party, but I just got my son a game called The Ladybug Game. It's not the most amazing game, but my 3 yr old likes it. I read reviews on amazon.com and have adjusted the rules of the game to keep me sane. But the game has ladybugs, a praying mantis, aphids, and ants. So kinda goes with your bug theme!