Bits with the Belchers: Will's 5th birthday party

Superheros. Need I say more? I've been really excited about planning and executing Will's party for awhile. Probably since his last birthday. His 4th birthday was a CARS theme even though he was already into Spiderman (dressed as him for Halloween a couple months before turning 4) and the Super Hero Squad. He loved Cars 2, so I figured keep it young one more year then move on to superheros for his 5th birthday. And that's what I did.

So the superhero fan boy was already emerging then seeing the Avengers last summer only solidified that love. Enter mom. With an awesome superhero birthday party! Oh wait, new job for dad, time to move. Re-enter mom super duper busy the last quarter of the year and just not having time to craft for a super-awesome party. I didn't even get started 'til a few days before the party. I accomplished a few thing, though, certainly enough to make Will happy, but I didn't even have time to print food labels! I made up the names but couldn't follow through with the execution. Oh well, next party maybe. :)

My goal with this party was to craft items that could be re-used to decorate Will's superhero room. We'll still buy a few things (like bedding) but it'll be nice to have these personal touches and Will loves them all! On to the details...

First things first, the invitation

I like how colorful it turned out but I sure need to start making 4x6 invites, the 5x7 are much more expensive and you know most people throw their invites away. Shame, I could add them to Will's scrapbook

Next, a wreath for the door

I went back and forth between this cupcake liner and a balloon wreath for awhile. In the end, this was more budget friendly. More details on how I made it here.

The cake

Initially I wanted to do a superhero cake and incorporate all the guys from his party- spiderman, iron man, hulk, captain america & thor (basically the avengers movie plus spiderman)- but I do not possess the skill to create the superhero squad ship out of cake. My other idea was a tiered cake with all the guys represented. Uhm, no. I'm pretty sure that's more cake than we had at our wedding! So I decided spiderman...it's hard to say exactly who is Will's favorite but I know spidey is up there and Will can crawl walls just like him, so it made sense. Here's how the cake turned out...my fondant stretched in some places but overall I was pleased

The dessert table

'Cause cake is no longer all you get at birthday parties...though I still like it the center of attention :) I made one dessert for each superhero at the party, plus the number 5 sugar cookies. The bunting is made out of pages from Daniel's old comic books (he gave me permission since they're not worth money). I didn't know if glue or staples would be best so I checked online and found a better idea here. I plan to use this in Will's room. The silhouette is a long piece of cardboard (one plus to having just moved) that Daniel traced Nashville's skyline on then I cut and painted black. I decided to incorporate streamers like I did at Jake's gender reveal but used multiple colors to represent each superhero. Then added balloons, of course. Props to my mom who placed desserts on the table while I was tending to other last minute things...she did it exactly as I would!! Thanks to my parents for letting us borrow the table for this, it was the perfect size.

Iron Man whoopie pies- I would've done red cake with yellow icing, but I'm not a fan of red velvet, so I did yellow cake and red icing instead

Hulk cake balls- the chocolate sprinkles are meant to be his hair and I drew a mean face on each one but the food writer markers didn't work well for me and I had to use a toothpick on most of them

Thor mini cupcakes- my take on Mjölnir (Thor's hammer)- turned out a little broom-like to me, but fondant would've taken alot of time. Mini cupcakes really are the best size...perfect for those little fingers grabbing treats off the table

Captain America cookies- meant to look like his shield. I knew I wanted to make his shield a dessert (considered it for the cake) but didn't know how to execute it. Found this tutorial and went for it!(I know, too much white, not enough red, my bad) Unfortunately, I couldn't find star-shaped sprinkles and there was no time for royal icing accents. I also made '5' cookies....a few are topped with store bought cookie icing and the rest just sprinkled

Mantle Decor

I've always included the fireplace in the party decor with banners, balloons, toys, etc. but really wanted to make it pop this time. The family room with fireplace at our Birmingham house was right next to the kitchen and only separated by a half wall but the kitchen and family room here seem all-inclusive, so it lends to one, big, open party space. I bought a yard of superhero fabric- liked it better than the superhero squad fabric- and cut another piece of cardboard from a box and attached the fabric to it. I painted the W (found at JoAnn) and added ribbon to the edges. The frames were 1/2 off at Hobby Lobby and I added photos of Will dressed up- these will be perfect in his room! I made the banner below with my handy Cricut (paper found at HL), draped another bunting above and added balloons. I love it!

Other tables were decorated with super hero toys- I think this is a great inexpensive way to decorate, plus no worries if the kids decide to play with them! The SHS ship is directly below and Loki's head keeps coming off so we posed that table as if Thor defeated him. Thanks to my FIL and SMIL for loaning us the table and folding chairs in the hall!

I made SHS bottle labels for the water and mini Hawaiian punch bottles. I love making these and think that add such a cute touch to parties!

Food

We bought Firehouse Subs platters again (did this for Will's 2nd birthday- a "firetruck" theme). This time we chose them because they taste good and it would save me time in the kitchen.We also offered pb&j for the kids, salad, fruit, popcorn and pretzels. I had names for all of them, like "hero subs," but ran out of time to print the labels.

For activities I had several ideas, but only time for one and barely that. Thanks to my dad for blowing up all these balloons! The kids had to safely defuse these "bombs" placed by the bad guy...they received a treat for each one popped. I would've done water balloons, the weather was warm enough, but rain was scattered so this was the better idea. They also brought superhero costumes to play in or dressed in Will's. And all received a favor cup with pencil, notepad, an Iron Man gummy finger puppet and superhero fun sticks (they were candy cigarettes when I was a kid)