Age group(s) for this birthday party activity:
Preschool and Younger
Elementary School

Birthday party planning information:
Kids luv bugs, and surely the ladybug is a favorite!

Hang welcoming banners featuring ladybugs, or draw your own Big Bugs, on bright posterboard. (Use a plastic bottlecap to pencil in Spots, and let the kids fill 'em in with a black marker) Add Antennae, if you wish, made from black pipe cleaners.

If Red and Black crepe paper streamers doesn't seem Spring-like, how 'bout 2 shades of Green, with some smaller posterboard Bugs attached here n' there? Balloons might be red, and polka-dotted.

Arts and Crafts: kids might enjoy making bracelets with elastic cording and red n' black 'pony' beads.

Print big black Dots on plain Red t-shirts. A sponge circle glued to a 35-mm film canister creates an inexpensive Dot stamp that can be made in multiples, so that each child has one. Somewhere on the shirt, you might want to write "Ladybug.com: we were the First!" ;-)

Make some snazzy Antennae using inexpensive plastic headbands, chenille sticks, and pompoms.

(Check the craft and fabric sources for Ladybug beads, appliques, or buttons that can cause your natural creativity to Soar.)

Put on some music, and dance!

Play 'Pin the Ladybugs on the Flower', vs. Tail on a Donkey.
(Everybody wins; there's no Right place to be). Have an Art Party using Bingo markers; dot, dot, dot!

Read about ladybugs.

Food-wise: Pansies are an edible flower. Rinse and pat 'em dry, and use to decorate your caketop. Use an item like a ladybug Button or 2 ONLY if you can remember to remove them just before serving!!!

Alternatively, serious cake decorating artists can use a very fine-tipped brush to paint li'l "dots on a Dot" (the gumdrop candy people associate with the movies).

Cupcakes can be frosted with red-tinted frosting (icing colors sold in jars work best, with less needed to achieve red-ness, vs. deep pink). A line can be drawn down the back with chocolate brown icing. Stick one Hershey kiss on for a Head; attach 2 yellow eyes to that Kiss with li'l dabs of icing. Make the pupils on the eyes with the tiniest dots of icing. Make the dots on the Ladybug's back with some brown Mini M& M's. Push in li'l snippets of licorice lacing for Antennae.

The above can be modified for circle-shaped Cookies, using a Rollo or other chocolate drop-type candy...something with a flatter surface (top or bottom) than a Kiss.

Goody Bag fillers/take-home item(s): Lots of possibilities! Dots candy, mini M and M's, Dot-to-Dot and coloring books, Nature book, seed packets, small pots of Ready-to-Plant flowers, bug stickers, "nature journals" (small notebooks and pencils), crayons, child-sized gardening gloves...the idea(s) will come to you.

Other suggestions or comments:
Not everyone fully appreciates Red icing; some think the flavor can be a bit bitter. If you do elect to use it, Icing Colors tend to darken a bit with time. Mix the frosting, and have a cup of tea and/or a bubble bath or something, to give this reaction time to play out.

You might even do a Field Trip to a local nursery, and let each child choose one plant to take home. If the nursery knows you are coming, perhaps they can have an employee spend a moment telling the kids just how wonderful ladybugs are in the Natural order of things!

Some of these ideas are adaptable Beyond Birthdays; for example, a class or organization might take on a bit of volunteer Landscaping as a project, and then celebrate its completion with a P-A-R-T-Y.