Superman Party Part 2: Party Details & Activities

This was the invite we sent out (once again I've blurred out Jake's face at Josh's request).  I folded it so that when people pulled it out of the envelope only the Daily Planet masthead was showing to make it look more like a newspaper page.

This poster of Jake dressed as Superman was on our front door.  I used my projector at work to project the same photo from the invitation onto a piece of white paper and traced it.  The face was tougher to trace but it looked enough like Jake that people got the idea.  After tracing it, I painted the poster and then outlined with a thin felt-tip marker.  I then cut it out and glued it onto yellow paper along with the letters.  Jake really loved this poster and it is currently hanging in our garage because he wasn't ready to get rid of it.

When our guests first walked in we had these homemade personalized capes hanging from our banister.  I used this template from jollymom to trace the top part of the cape.  Then I cut them out of red felt (I don't sew).  My mother-in-law used her sewing machine to sew velcro on at the neck.  I then cut the yellow felt in the shape of the Superman symbol and used more red felt to cut out each child's first initial.  I used heat n' bond to attach these.  If you wanted to make these completely no sew you could get the adhesive velcro.

Once the kids put on their capes we took pictures of them in front of our telephone booth.  I was worried we wouldn't be able to find a refrigerator box but as luck would have it, a week before the party our neighbors were getting a washer delivered as I drove up.  I saw an empty refrigerator box on the delivery truck and they were happy to let me have it.  Josh and Jake had fun painting the box with a couple of coats of tempera paint.  Once it was dry, Josh cut the door opening and the windows.  Then I used my silhouette to cut out the letters for telephone from black cardstock and glued them onto white construction paper which I glued onto three sides of the box (the fourth was against the wall so I didn't bother).

Remember these comic book letters I made back in September?

I displayed them on the mantel paired with framed photos of Jake dressed as both Clark Kent and Superman.

In my experience 5-year-olds aren't known for their patience so I had Superman stickers, Superman coloring pages, and lots of crayons out on the tables.

The majority of the activities took place in our garage since we don't really have a yard so I wanted to make it more festive.  We have overhead storage in the garage so we decided to make a bunting out of extra comic book pages.  All you need to do to make your own comic book bunting is to take extra comic book pages and cut them into triangles.  Then hole punch the top two corners and string regular curling ribbon through them.  This was something I almost didn't do and I'm so glad I did because it looked really cool.  The picture doesn't do it justice. 

Since we hired Superman I ended up not making most of the games I had planned on, but I did make Pin the S on Superman.  Using the same method I used to make the poster for the front door, I made two posters of Superman.  Then I used my Silhouette to cut out the S symbols for each child with their name written on them.  We split them into two groups to speed the game up.  In case you ever play a game and need a blindfold, we used two of those little ear covering headbands you wear in cold weather.  They were perfect because they didn't need to be tied and they stayed in place.

As far as Jake is concerned, no home party is complete without a pinata so we had to have one.  This was one of those pull pinatas but our kids used their "super strength" and busted it wide open.  You can see our Superman and my super husband in the background.

In addition to the personalized capes we sent the guests home with Superman coloring books with this little thank you tag stuck on the front.

 

This party was a lot of work and we were exhausted when it was over but it was more than worth it.  Jake had such a good time and really appreciated all of the details.  I wish we had gotten more pictures but hopefully this inspired you the way I am so inspired by all of the amazingly talented bloggers out there.  An extra special thanks goes out to my favorite blogger Amy without whom I don't think I could have pulled this party off so close to having a baby.

I'm linking up with Whimsy Wednesday, Wake Up Wednesday, Wednesday Whatsits, Pin It Thursday,  Create It Thursday, Showcase Your Talent Thursday, Pin Junkie, Thrifty Thursday, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Weekend Potluck, Show Stopper Saturday, Best of the Weekend, Craftastic Monday, Monday Funday, Busy Monday, and Mix It Up Monday.

Superman Party - Part 1: The Food & Free Printables

Every other year I do an over-the-top home party for Jake (in the off years we have them at a place).  This year Jake wanted a Superman party and even though Jake's baby brother was 5 weeks old on party day, I didn't want his party to be any less exciting than the Cars party I threw for his 3rd birthday.  You can check out the details of that party here and here.   I did three important things to make that possible.  1) I started working on his party over the summer.  2) I enlisted the help of my husband and my amazing friend Amy (check her out here).  3) I hired Superman.  I had originally planned on making a bunch of games and having the kids complete all of the tasks to earn their capes but then sanity took over and I realized that I would have a newborn and putting someone else in charge of entertaining 20 kids was a really good idea.

Now onto the details.  Unfortunately I don't have pictures of everything and the pictures I do have aren't always the best.  I was nursing Luke right before the party and Josh thought he got pictures of it all, but he didn't.  :(   Hopefully you can forgive me and I will try to describe the things I don't have so you can picture it.

Let's start with the food tables.  I covered both tables with blue and red plastic tablecloths and used binder clips to gather them in the front.  Then I used two Superman symbols I made with my silhouette on the front.  Behind the table I hung red, yellow, and blue streamers from the curtain rod and attached some small Superman emblems to some of the blue streamers.

I really like to make the food thematic and this party was no exception.  I created a little logo for the food labels using the superman symbol but with a J for Jake.  We served Superheroes (deli sandwiches) and Power PB & Js.  To add a superhero touch to the PB & Js, I cut strips out of extra comic book pages and wrapped them around the PB & Js with a little piece of tape to secure them.

I always try to serve healthy foods so I made a veggie plate labeled Veggies of Virtue (oddly this is one thing I'm so bummed we don't have a picture of because it came out so pretty) by putting carrots, broccoli, red peppers, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes in lines on a white tray.   I also made a fruit salad using only green fruits (honeydew, kiwi, green grapes, green apples, and green pears) and called it Kryptonite.  We also served popcorn in little cones I made out of comic book pages stuck into an empty cheerio box wrapped in yellow paper with holes poked into it.

I used the same logo from the food labels to make water bottle labels.  These are so easy to do and add such a customized touch to a party.  It was the first time I've ever done water bottle labels and I will definitely be doing them for all of our parties going forward.

These were super easy to attach.  Just print, cut, wrap around the existing label, and attach with double-sided tape.  In addition to water we served "Super Serum" (lemonade) and we had some sodas in a red ice bucket behind them.

For dessert I made a mini cake for Jake that I frosted with blue and then used Sugar Sheets to make the Superman symbol.  This wasn't my best cake decorating job but Jake was happy with it.  He had these little Superman and Superdog (I didn't realize there was a Superdog) figures that he wanted to stick on top so that's what those are.  I grew up with the tradition of an extra candle "to grow on" in case you are looking at the cake and thinking I can't count.

Then for everyone else I made cupcakes with these adorable cupcake toppers.  I got the idea from several different blogs on pinterest.  I used my silhouette to cut out the little capes.  I haven't quite figured out the print and cut feature of my silhouette yet so I just printed out the symbols and then cut them out by hand.  A couple of days before the party while the boys were asleep Josh and I threaded the capes and superman symbols onto the tootsie pops and then the morning of the party we stuck them into the cupcakes.

If you are interested in a Super J party, here are the printables:
Food Labels 1
Food Labels 2
Waterbottle Label 

I'll be posting the rest of the party details soon so be sure to follow me so you don't miss out.


I'm linking up with Two Cup Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Made By Me, Create Link Inspire, Mad Skills, Whimsy Wednesdays, Wake Up Wednesdays, Wednesday Whatsits, Showcase Your Talent Thursday, Create It Thursday, and Moonlight & Mason Jars, Thrifty Thursday, Pin It Thursday,  Link Party Palooza, Weekend Potluck, Best Recipes, Best of the Weekend, Show Stopper Saturday, and Strut Your Stuff Saturday.

Superman Birthday Banner & A Free Cut File

Jake's birthday party is coming up this weekend.  As I mentioned when I posted about the comic book letters I made, he decided on a Superman party.  After debating between all of the amazing ideas I found on Pinterest, I finally decided that I wanted to make Jake's birthday banner with letters representative of the Superman symbol.  I was inspired by this banner by Carli at dimpleprints.

I wanted the font to be a little bit different so I set to work.  First I googled and found some fonts that made Superman style letters but the edges were kind of jagged so I realized I was going to have to start from scratch.  I sat down with my Silhouette Studio software and started the tedious process of making each letter.  Basically I made the outline of the emblem, added the letter and then resized and erased edges to make the outline of the red and the letter all one piece.  I also took the outer edge of my letter emblem, separated it out and used that to make the yellow piece.

Then it was time to set my Cameo to work cutting out the letters and yellow pieces from 12 x 12 cardstock.  Once I had everything cut out I carefully glued the red letter pieces on top of the yellow emblems.  I used the Tombow Mono Adhesive for this because I didn't want to risk the rippling you sometimes get with a liquid adhesive.  I wasn't perfectly lined up on all of them so I took my scissors and carefully trimmed any yellow that was showing outside of the red on the edges.

Once I had all of my letters I needed to attach them.  I simply used my hole punch to punch holes on either side of each letter and then threaded a blue grosgrain ribbon through them to connect them all.

Now, because we are friends, I don't want you to spend hours creating this banner like I did, so I'm going to give you my Silhouette files.  I haven't shared Silhouette files before so if this doesn't work, let me know and I will email them directly to you.

Superman Birthday Banner Letters: H A P P Y B
Superman Birthday Banner Letters: I R T H D Y
Superman Birthday Banner Letters: A 5th J A K E (this is the name and age I needed but I included this one anyway since it has another A for birthday and in case you wanted to play around with it)
Superman Birthday Banner Background (for the yellow part of the letters)

I'm linking up with Mad Skills Party, Create Link Inspire, Whimsy Wednesdays, Wake Up Wednesdays, Wonderfully Creative Wednesdays,  Made By Me, Moonlight and Mason Jars, Pin It Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Create It Thursday,  Pin Junkie,  Link Party Palooza, Show Stopper Saturday, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Inspiration Monday, Mix It Up Monday, and Create, Link, Inspire.