I’ve been throwing big parties since high school when my parents were cool with letting my brother and me turn their house into party central. I really caught the hosting bug, and since then I’ve loved planning celebrations for my friends and family. It’s fun for me to put together all of the little details, but those are just the icing on the proverbial cake. The best way to have a great party is to have great people attend, and we are very lucky to have wonderful friends and family who spend their precious free time with us.

Annabel’s party guests were greeted with hanging balloons and the birthday wreath that I originally made for Annie’s 2nd birthday and have personalized every year since.

party entrance

balloon wreath details
Free superhero printables found here

I mentioned this in one of my other posts, but once I figured out how to make the capes and cuffs, they went pretty quickly. I am glad I made everything because I’m feeling very comfortable with my sewing machine now. Would I make 30 capes and cuffs again? Um….let’s just hope James doesn’t want a Superhero party in a few years so I don’t have to make that decision!

capes

super wrist cuffs

When the kids arrived they picked Superhero names. I had a list of adjectives at the ready for them, which turned out to be a big help. I wrote their names on “Hello, my name is…” stickers. We had heroes like Courageous Cait, Magnificent Molly, Mega Meghan, and Brave Bella, plus some time-tested favorites like Superman Maddy and Captain America Adam.

choose your superhero name

Since Annie told me she wanted “pom poms everywhere” I made a small yarn pom pom garland in the party’s colors…because I have a pom pom maker (if you didn’t already know it by now, I am the queen of owning random stuff.)

Pom Pom garland

My mom goes to lots of flea markets, so I asked her to keep an eye out for cheap comic books. She found a stack for $5, and we used them for all sorts of things. We set a lot of them out as-is, and I took a few books apart to make fans and banners. Mike was like, “I cannot watch you destroy comic books!” They weren’t good ones, Mike! I accordion-folded full-sheets, then taped a few folded sheets together into these fans:

comic book fans

I used a paper cutter to make pennants out of the comic pages, then borrowed my cousin’s Cricut to cut out letters and shapes for the birthday banner:

Happy birthday Annabel!

comic banner

Time out to talk about Leah’s Cricut. That thing saved me so much time! How have none of you told me about the Cricut’s awesomeness? I never want to give it back to her (I will…eventually…when she comes to my house and takes it while I sleep). It cuts fabric! Me to Mike, “I want one of these for my birthday.” Mike to me, “What will you use it for?” Me, “IT DOESN’T MATTER.”

My mom found superhero cookie cutters on eBay, and she and my aunt made these amazing cookies that were colored with color gels.

Hero Cookies

I bought almost everything else from Oriental Trading, Birthday Express, or Amazon. The adults loved these puppets, although I think most of the kids were like, “…wha?”

Puppets!

I love candy tables…hop the kids up on sugar, then send ’em home! I bought all the candy (except the rock candy) from the Dollar Tree.

candy station

crushing candy

kryptonite (stay away, Superman)

I loooooved the fake crowbars I found, and they were a big hit with everyone (still on sale!):

I've been working out
I bought the headband from here for Annabel before she decided she wanted to wear a crown instead.

We also had a slideshow of Annie photos playing on our TV, and we had themed music playing on speakers throughout the house (you can listen here).

At the end of the party, I gave every kid a diploma from Superhero University.

superhero university diplomas

Amazing Annabel's diploma
It is good to save.

I know Annie loves attending parties, but it remains to be seen if she’ll enjoy planning them the way I do. I think so far, we make a good team – it was fun for me to bring her vision for this party to life. She’s already talking about the party she wants next year (Lego theme) but we’ll see if she actually wants me to do anything for it. She might be too cool for mom’s parties when she’s five.