Superhero Birthday Party

When I asked my son what kind of birthday party he wanted at the end of winter, I cringed when he answered, “A superhero birthday party.”

Basically, I knew nothing about superheroes: who they were, their storylines, Marvel vs. DC. Total newb. All I knew was that one minute my kiddo was The Flash, jetting through our tiny house at warp toddler speed. And the next minute, he was shooting fellow passersby with spider webs in the grocery store as Spider-Man.

After months of trying to wrap my head around the borderline insane world of superheroes (I mean, it’s so, so, so involved), guess what? I’m a total convert. I actually enjoy superheroes, which made planning this birthday party so much fun.

Because we have a large extended family and lots of friends who are basically family, we throw a birthday party each year to bring everyone who loves our kiddo together. For the first time this year, I made an effort to make it kid-friendly.

Through Amazon, I ordered these superhero capes and masks. They were incredibly well made, very affordable, and worked well as party favors. The kids got to pick their favorite superhero and run around as their chosen character for the afternoon.

I ordered an extra set of masks to go with our superhero photo booth so adults could get in on the superhero action.

I’m working hard to teach myself how to sew and threw together a quick table runner for our food table.

But my absolute favorite project for the party was the superhero bunting I created to hang behind the table. It was such a breeze, and it added the right amount of homemade fun to the space.

As far as party food goes, I’m entering a season of entertaining where I just want to make things as simple as possible for the sake of fully enjoying time with our guests. To that end, I set up a grazing board to greet guests with snacks as they arrived. I kept lunch simple with hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, baked beans, and a summer cucumber salad.

Because my son is old enough to understand birthday parties, this superhero birthday party was my favorite one to host yet. Weeks later, he’s still telling me how much he loved his party. In fact, we’re going on three weeks of “thank you for my party, mom” at bedtime.

Little things like that make all the stress of hosting a big gathering completely worth it.