Tobin is obsessed with all things Superhero. He loves Hulk, Spider Man, Super Man, Ninja Turtles, all of them. So, for his third birthday in early March, a Superhero theme was sure to be a hit.
Luckily, there are a lot of really creative people who have done Superhero parties, so I had a lot of inspiration to draw on. If you Google “superhero party” you will end up with many, many helpful hints.
Food & Drink
We had our party in the morning, so we served fruit, water, “Power Punch” (lemon-lime Kool-Aid), Spider Man-themed Cheez Its, and the cake and ice cream. I found that Duck Brand makes Spider Man Duct Tape, so William wrapped some around the label of each water bottle, instantly making them cool. I also added a label with “Power Punch” over the Kool-Aid label. Each child got a Superhero cup.
Because the Incredible Hulk is Tobin’s favorite, and there aren’t that many ways to decorate with him, I made the cupcakes in Hulk colors. It’s just a yellow cake mix with gel food coloring in purple and green. I used my favorite Reynolds brand foil cupcake wrappers because I can just plop them down on the cookie sheet and don’t need to use a cupcake pan.
Originally, I was going to draw the emblem of several Superheros on top of the cupcakes. The only one I could successfully draw was Spider Man’s web. Plan “B” turned into writing the comic-book fight words like BAM and POW! I like how they turned out though!
We also made a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Which promptly split into three big pieces after it was assembled. No problem! I told Tobin that Hulk had SMASHED the cake and it was all part of the theme! I used a piece of white posterboard to create a thought balloon and wrote the birthday message on it (sticking it into the cake with two straws taped to the back).
Decorations
We kept decorating to a minimum:
- Avengers-themed plastic table covers (the only thing I could find with Hulk), and a solid red plastic table covers to throw over all the surfaces.
- Balloons in the Superhero colors (blue, red, yellow, green, white, and black)
- Red and blue containers from previous birthday celebrations, to hold different things.
- Napkins with red and white stars and stripes designs (these were at the Dollar Store and were sort of Captain America-ish).
Activities
With the help of my family, we made the children Superhero capes with the initial of their first name on the back, cuffs, and belts to wear at the party. We used felt, grosgrain ribbon, and fabric glue and that was it. All of it was no-sew, and we free-handed the patterns. The only cape we measured at all was Tobin’s so it wouldn’t drag the ground (all the other children are older/taller than T). The cuffs had stars and the belts had lightening bolts. The kids all really liked them. Next time I will probably sew them as I didn’t love how the fabric glue held them on. This is the tutorial I used to make the capes.
We had a little photo station where we stuck a blue plastic table cover to a wall, taped white clouds to it (cut from posterboard), covered a piano bench with the blue plastic, and had the kids “fly” in the sky so we could take a picture.
We printed out some of the Superhero Villains and taped them to two of the balloons. The kids then “shot” the bad guys on the balloons with silly string until they were “dead”. The silly string will weigh the balloons down pretty quickly. If there were more kids, I might have had them each kill a bad guy, but there were only a few kids, so they shared bad guys. The kids also blew big ol’ bubbles.
Treats
I wasn’t going to do a treat bag, but the Avenger pack of treat goodies was cute, so I caved. I also found some Spider Man washcloths (the kind that expand in water) at the Dollar Store so I threw those in there too.
We kept the party simple and banked on the kids having fun with the Superhero costumes and running around in the yard. It worked, and Nicholas and Tobin have played with their costumes several times since the party.
Have you done a Superhero party? What was your favorite part?
