After a month or so of prep, the big party went down this weekend. And I do mean big. At the end of the day, we had almost 40 people attend. I think I was trying to make up for the moderately pitiful 2nd birthday party Henry had last year. We were slightly homeless, staying with friends, until we closed on our current house...the day after Henry's 2nd birthday. We had a teeny tiny "party" which consisted of one guest and an ugly homemade cake with a plastic fire truck on it.
So this year, I went BIG.
I also have a pretty well known hatred for Party City, so I wanted to include as many handmade touches as possible. Mostly, because I have fun doing it. Also because it tends to be WAY cheaper.
Here's how it went down.
Invitations
I briefly considered designing these myself, until I got a great freebie from Shutterfly for 10 free cards. Sidebar - it is totally worth signing up for Shutterfly's mailing list. They send free and discounted stuff all the time. I found this adorable card as a part of the 10 free deal, but I needed 20 cards. I was able to cash in some Pampers Gifts to Grow points to get 10 more free. So the 20 cards cost me only $6 in shipping. DONE.
A 20 minute toddler photo shoot later, and invites were designed.
Sometimes I pay to have Shutterfly mail my invites for me (like when I wait waaaay to long to order my Christmas cards), but I wanted to personalize the envelopes a bit.
I downloaded this free comic book font to use as a guide. I probably could have used the font to print these straight from my printer, but I was going for handmade. I just typed the names on my screen and tried to mimic them as best I could. I used a black sharpie to do the outline and a yellow one to do tiny dots for that dot print comic book look. Not going to lie, by the time I got to card #15 I kind of hated my life, but it was worth it in the end. Tried to trick the Hubs into doing some. That didn't go over well.
Personalized Super Hero Capes
At only $5 each, these were quite possibly the best party favor of all time (she says, humbly). Here's the link to the tutorial to make your own handmade capes. If you're reading this before April 18th 2014, you can enter to win your own custom cape here.
They were a total hit with the kids. I heard reports that several of them refused to take them off even the following day. That is, except for my kid, who declared the day of the party that "Captain America doesn't wear a cape" and refused to put his on. Sounds about right.
This $15 Ikea chalkboard easel came in pretty handy.
The Cake
I am good at a few crafty things (hence, the blog), but frosting cakes is NOT one of them. It's just not in the cards for me, and I am woman enough to admit it.
The day before the party, I had my cake batter all ready to go and my two 9" round cake pans greased when I had an epiphany. BUNDT PAN! I just happen to own a star shaped bundt pan, which just happens to fit the star-burst super hero motif perfectly. Best part, no frosting skill required.
Oh, and my secret to yummy cakes? Betty Crocker. Yep. 9 times out of 10 when I make a cake, Betty did the heavy lifting. I find that the frosting is really what makes the cake, so that's where I spend my time. I do replace the oil in the box recipe with applesauce (1:1 ratio). It keeps the cake moist and cuts down on the calories.
For this cake, I used Ina Garten's ganache recipe. It tastes amazing and I get to secretly giggle that I just gave espresso to 10 kids. Muhahahaha.
Then, to make it look like a million bucks, I added the following:
- Cheapy red sparkly table deocration thingy borrowed from my friend Elizabeth (it was from Party City. I know, I'm a hypocrite. But at least I didn't have to get off my high horse to the store myself).
- Little People Super Heroes. These were in Henry's Easter basket 2 years ago, so cost me nothing. And they are stinking adorable.
- Sprinkles, because what kid doesn't like sprinkles?
Since we had 40 people attending, I also had a second white cake in a 9x13 dish to be sure I had enough. That one just got frosting and sprinkles. No additional flare. It was just the right amount of cake.
Decorations
To round out the party, I added a few more touches.
Food Table
Since we're talking about the cake, I'll go ahead and talk about the table. Can you believe that backdrop?! I mentioned in my DIY nap mat + tent post a couple of weeks back that I stumbled upon a Missoni duvet that someone returned and Target. The cashier couldn't find a barcode for it, so I only paid $10 for this king sized duvet. The zig-zag half became Henry's tent, nap mat, and the table runner in the forground. The back of the duvet has been sitting in my sewing stash waiting for me to turn it into a quilt. Since I haven't gotten around to that (because, although beautiful, quilts are a total bear. the last one I made took 9 months - the same amount of time it took me to make a human being), it became the perfect backdrop for the food table. I'm telling ya, I am getting a LOT of mileage out of that $10 duvet.
You may not be so lucky to find a bozillion yards of awesome fabric for next to no money. Zig Zag wrapping paper would also do the trick.
I found these super hero plates at Target, and Henry fell in love with them. You may have noticed by now that I am mixing DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Yes, I know there is a difference. And if this bothers you, I kindly invite you to get over it. They are 3 year olds. When you throw your own party you can have an exclusive super universe if it makes you happy.
We topped the food table with a $3 cheap table cloth from the grocery store. Some of the best money I've ever spent. I attached it to the underside of the table with blue painters tape to help prevent a small child from yanking the entire meal off the table.
I didn't bother with any cutesy labels for the food as all of the children at the party can't read. Saved a step.
We used the formal dining room as the table people could actually sit at to eat. We covered that one in another cheap table cloth and added some crazy stripes with streamers. I also added some of the left over Washi tape from the invitations. It made a really inexpensive table look kind of awesome.
Bunting
I cannot take credit for this. My sweet friend Elizabeth made this for her kiddo when he turned 5 and loaned it to us for the party. She bought inexpensive comic books, cut out triangles, and attached them to double fold bias tape. Genius.
Other touches
Fun paper straws, because, come on.
Streamers for the kids to run through.
And when in doubt, put the entire family in Super Hero shirts.
If for some crazy reason you want to see even MORE photos from the party, hop on over to Instagram and check out the hash tag #thehenrymanturns3
Hope you found some helpful tidbits in here! Please shoot me a photo if you try any of these or come up with any of your own. Then maybe you'll feel like this:
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