My little superhero has been "planning" this party for months on his own, telling me that the cake should be a red heart with Avengers stickers all around the sides and a toy Nick Fury on top. I didn't quite do that, but his cute little ideas definitely helped inspire this party.
For the invitations, I put to use the goods from this photo session and tried my best to put it all together in Photoshop (links below for fonts and graphics). I really wanted it to look like it came out of a comic book. What do you think?
The decorations were pretty simple to pull together, really. Enough white butcher paper to cover the table, some bright cups, plates, stripey straws, and some nicely designed Iron Man napkins. I wrapped every smallish-sized box in the house (including boxes of pasta, with pasta still inside) with more butcher paper, and glued yellow "windows" to create skyscrapers. The windows aren't exactly straight, but hey, I was in a hurry (as always). I loved Will's idea of putting a toy superhero on the cake, so not only did we do that, but we scattered them all over our table cityscape as well. Heroes are always in the city, fighting crime, right? I found "BANG" and "POW" graphics online to add a little pop to the scene. At the last minute, I had the idea to put some newspaper on the table since Clark Kent and Peter Parker work for the newspaper, but since I don't subscribe and I was out of time, I had very little to work with. My son, Ben, however found a great newspaper article he had stashed away that featured Spidey. Perfect! We had Hulk stomp through the grapes, and Iron Man protect the strawberries from any bad guys.
Of course, I had to include tissue paper pom-poms...what's a party without them? So I had some red and aqua blue ones floating over the table. Since my husband loves superheroes as much as Will does, we happened to have a couple framed prints to hang on the wall, which I personalized with a comic-style speech bubble. Then I added a few blasts of yellow stars to finish off the wall. The console table in the other room was covered with superhero books and masks.
What do you feed little superheroes? Captain America star-shaped watermelon, Hulk grapes, popcorn, pretzels, Iron Man strawberries, raspberry sherbet and a patriotic cake (topped with toy superheroes and other fun things).
Since our party guests were just little guys, I had to think of a very simple craft for them to work on as we waited for everyone to arrive. Hey, how about super shields made from paper plates? Yes! I stapled a strip of red elastic onto the back side for a handle, and then provided a pile of superhero stickers for them to plaster all over their shields. Success! They loved it, and it was nice that they could do it on their own while I was answering the door.
Superhero Training was next. Each hero had to display their shield throwing skills, toss "Kryptonite" through a hoop, and detonate bombs (black water balloons). They "Hulk-smashed" the "city" with big, green fists, and shot down a bad guy (a Loki figurine) with "webs" (Silly String). When their training was complete, each one received a gold medal to show off their bravery.
We always end birthday parties with the "fishing pond." Kids love it! Old-fashioned games are the best. Wooden dowels with strings and clothespins attached are the "fishing poles." We cover the railing with a blanket so the kids can't see into the pond, and they fish over the railing for a surprise. My older kids sit on the stairs below and help the little kids catch a treat bag to take home. Inside the treat bags there were patriotic butter mints from the party store (perfect for Captain America!), blue Hershey's kisses "bombs", red licorice "laser lassos," and "anti-Kryptonite" rock candy sticks (because Kryptonite is a bad thing for Superman...this builds his immunity to it).
Such a fun day, watching Will soaking up every minute of his dream party. I hope this gives you lots of inspiration for your own superhero party!
P.S. Fonts I used for the invitation and decorations found here and here. Here are the PNG files I found for the yellow explosion stars, BANG, BAM, POW, KA-POW, and speech bubbles one, two, and three.
