I love making things, cooking, spending time with our wonderful families and REALLY love seeing my boys smile from ear to ear. That’s the beauty of birthday parties for me because it’s all of those things together. My boys are two years, two months, and two weeks apart (Cooper turned 5 in February and Finley turns 3 in April), which has made it nice that we could have a joint party for them. It makes it nice for my family that drives the 100 miles to come celebrate both of their birthdays together. So I ask what kind of party they want and then start scouring Pinterest!
My first big undertaking was the felt capes and masks that I made using each kids favorite color. I wanted them to hold up to the normal wear and tear of play. Because of that, I decided to break out my sewing machine instead of using glue. Knowing how rough my boys can play sometimes, I felt it was necessary to use velcro around the neck so no one gets horsecollared… The kids looked super cool in their capes!
Once I got all 12 of the capes done, I moved onto the DIY decorations. I found a wonderful blog that had done some of the work for me, which I was definitely thankful for! Over at Lil Ms. Stori, she had PDF files for the little action and big action signs. I was able to just slap my colored cardstock in my printer, hit print and then (the not so fun part) cut every single one of them out. By the end of cutting about 100 of them out, I was definitely wishing I had a Silhouette machine…. holy hand cramps from cutting! The small action signs were easily made into garland with some yarn and tape.
Lil’ Mrs. Tori also posted a link to the website she downloaded the comic font from, which was Badaboom from . I used the letters for all of the signage including the letters on the action signs, happy birthday banner and the superhero of Shippensburg sign. I will warn you, I ended up needing to use an exacto knife to get in the tricky parts of the letters.
In my scouring of Pinterest for ideas, I found some cool building backdrops that inspired me to make the buildings out of boxes and wrapping paper. I had a hard time finding black wrapping paper so I ended up ordering bulletin board paper to use. It was easy to use a guillotine paper cutter to cut different sized/colored windows to attach to the buildings.
I also used it for the buildings that I used for the cupcake display, the sky backdrop behind the display and the kid-sized “Superheroes of Shippensburg” picture backdrop.
My son Cooper and his friends, Mason and Nolan, had a blast running around in their capes!
I found pretty inexpensive superhero bags from Oriental Trading Company. The site also had a few other odds and ends that you could add to the bag like pencils, bracelets, etc.
They also had the fun clear buildings that can double as a centerpiece and a chip or candy holder! Just don’t fill them too early, unless you want your kiddos to try to eat all of the food:) Speaking of food, the last little touch I added was fun food labels. My oldest son and I got out one of his superhero books to come up with the names of the foods. Here are just a few:
I had a blast making things for the party and more importantly the boys had a wonderful time! Ultimately, that is all that mattered anyways! Until next year…..
Stevie is Momma to almost 5 year old Cooper and 2 1/2 year old Finley, a cat, Sammy, and pug, Napoleon. She is married to her wonderful husband Dan. She enjoys all things domestic (even cleaning if she is in a “mood”), but especially crafting and decorating. She creates everything from DIY gifts to practical life solutions!
Tori says
Awh!! Your party looked so cute!! I love the city buildings and those cute bags!!
Kathryn says
You did a great job! I went to Ship Univ….do you live in Ship?
Stevie says
Thanks, Kathryn! I came here to attend Ship and ended up meeting my (now) husband and ended up staying :)
Carolyn says
This is AWESOME!!! WOW! GREAT job!! Kudos!
Stevie says
Thanks Carolyn! The boys loved it!
Andrea says
So clever! love it!
Stevie says
Thanks, Andrea:)