A Super 5th Birthday!

His shirt says it all!  This little man is FIVE!   Yes,  this past August Ace turned five and he very much was excited for a Superhero Birthday party with all of his friends!    How could  this mom say no?    There was so many fun choices of things to do for this - and well - I probably dabbled in a bit of all of them.  

THE CRAFTING

Let's get started!  First every superhero needs a cape (unless you watch the Incredibles and then capes are bad... but no one seemed to object so that's great!)   Now these capes seemed like a great idea, even when I knew my number was 20 for creating them.   NO problem... right?    Yes,  these capes had 20 steps to them... yes 20.  After the pattern was created I had to:  cut the front of the cape,  cut two halves for the backs of the cape,  iron on the embroidery stabilizing paper, attach the front of the cape to the loom, embroider each cape with a "BAM" or a "POW" embroidery patch (3-4 different thread changes each time), remove the excess stabilizing paper, cut all loose threads,  next I sewed together the halves (so each cape had all three colors on them), next 20 sets of Velcro were cut to size,  pin the two halves together, then sewed the halves together with the Velcro inside,  cut around the collar of each of them so they wouldn't pucker around the neck,  turn them right side out,  iron them flat, then top stitch in a contrasting color!  Whew!   Throw in a few trial and errors, hiccups with thread tension, bobbin reloading, and a bit of insanity - all this was accomplished in two weeks!  Ace's cape was special, he got to have a slightly larger cape that had both BAM and POW but also I found an Avenger's A to make as the center picture!  He loved it!  (I'd link to it, but the place I bought it from on Etsy already no longer exists!)  Fabric, embroidery thread, etc. was all obtained at JoAnn's. 

Now while the embroidery machine was humming away there was plenty of downtime while I waited and that needed to be put to good use!  I had a list a mile long and so often I was working on another project between switching out thread for the POW and BAM fun!     There was a lot of butcher paper art work.  I have owned for a few years this roll of paper.   I have used this over and over again and there is no sign of it disappearing anytime soon.     On my list of paper crafts for this party there was:  the "Calling All Superheroes!', BAM, POW, the Villain Lair, 'Beware Evil Lair', and the photography backdrop.   Several people said I was insane and said to scale back, but I just couldn't do it!   The Villain Lair was taped between the fence and the house in front of the back gate which was where our super villains hid out.  The sign was 6 feet by 11 feet - and after I sketched out my design from my inspiration found on Bing images,  my sign took about an hour to lay out the paper, sketch, and paint.   Also in case you're curious I painted using these Colorations Liquid Watercolor Paint (which I absolutely love!) I bought these over a year ago and they were awesome purchases.   They act like water colors (don't permanently stain) and yet their colors are super vibrant!   They made making the signs pretty darn quick!



These gals came over the night before to help me with some final details!



When I got weary of sewing or when I was tired of drawing/painting on the giant paper products I turned to the computer to work on some of those projects - specifically the items that I sent to the 1-hour photo printer.     I designed some signs to be hung around in the house, snack table, etc..

The City skyline I designed using a sheet of larger cardstock and then simply cut out various shapes. 
The windows are either punched cardstock or yellow post-its - nicely organized by Carrie!

This is what is in the picture on the mantel.  My little superhero as he's grown these past five years!

THE FOOD

We held the party from 3-5pm which was post lunch and before dinner so we were light on the snacks.    We had:  Laser Vision Sticks (carrots),  Wonder Dogs (little wienies wrapped in croissants),  POPcorn (in easy to serve cones that were simply coloring sheets from a Thor coloring book), Shape Shifters (the red and blue jello)  and for those that dare we had a bit of Kryptonite (lime jello) and to drink the infamous energy drink with a bolt of lightening and thematically colored!  

Ace's cake this year was themed to represent the city scape - using the sheets of premade fondant made by Wilton in black and yellow.   Overall it wasn't my favorite designed cake that I made for him, but it was pretty easy to accomplish using my exacto-knife and I also got to use the spray food dye to add some depth to the blue and generally it fit the theme quite nicely!   To add a pop of color the inside was dyed to match the thematic colors of the party.

THE GAMES!

Like most of the parties I like to throw I prefer a free flowing event.    So I try to create options for the kids to just run around and have a good time without a lot of stop and go.     Therefore,  I brought back a few of the options that were big hits at last year's party.    The photo booth and a beanbag toss made a return!    I took an example off of Pinterest (I cannot find the link) and took to designing a bean bag toss using a science project board.   Loving Husband cut out the excellent circles and I spent the next two hours coloring with sharpies (before abandoning that sloooow nonsense) and moving back to my aforementioned favorite watercolors!      I also sewed together 8 beanbags using some fun comic fabric. 

I also wanted them to be able to use their super strength with their super powers and so I obtained a set of the Melissa and Doug Bricks for them to knock down with their fists or the provide Captain America Shield!   This game was a favorite - and I was completely surprised - as assumed by the end of the day these things would go straight to the recycler from destruction.  Not one was destroyed.  Kudos to construction M&D!     The kids love to set them up and knock them down. 

Finally for free play I once again created the photo booth area with various props including a few masks of the Avengers, and I created some signs using some cardboard, spray-paint, and painting on various words.   The kids had a great time using the Fisher Price kid's camera again and were mostly happy to entertain this mom with her own camera a time or two!

The only organized activity that we had was Super Villains that came to disrupt the party just before it was time for cake!   Loving Husband and one of the other Dad's happily signed up to play the villains of the party and I got to work on making them their costumes - yes more sewing, but nothing too complex!     They burst into the party through the paper - with children scattering scared everywhere!   The eldest party goers were all for attacking the villains and most of the rest watched from a safer distance.  

After a few minutes of spinning the kids and zapping them (tickling) with their evil powers - they ran off scared so that the Superheroes could arm themselves with tools (crepe paper) to tie up the Villains!     More of the kids decided that part was fun an most joined in on tying up the villains before fleeing (Ace kept trying to untie them because he didn't want them to leave!) 

Overall it was an awesome party to watch all the kids run around and play! Ace received lots of nice presents and had a great time with his friends.   I am super thankful for the time LH gave me to accomplish all the prep work - and that I was able to accomplish it in spite of the time crunch!   Not too bad in executing everything in under two weeks!   

Happy Birthday, Bear!  We love our little Superhero!!

FIVE!!

***Courtesy reminder - if you wish to pin this to Pinterest PLEASE DO NOT PIN PHOTOS THAT CONTAIN FACES OF KIDS.  There are plenty of alternative pictures!   Thank you!!***