My son
recently turned five and for his birthday he wanted a Batman themed party.
Needless to say I have been in all out party planning and prepping mode since
he made this announcement. This is also why it has been a bit quiet around here
lately – as there are only so many hours in the day and party planning can take
quite a bit of work. As I tend to fully embrace party planning and themes in
general, I had my work cut out for me. The party was great and everyone had a
good time. I consider this a success. Now I need to recover.
For the
batman birthday party I had a craft for the kids to do, games for them to play,
and plenty of favors to take home. Since I tend to go a wee bit overboard I
like to try and make most of the party stuff myself instead of purchasing
everything in store. When it comes to prepping for a party I like to put on my
crafty hat and see what just I can do.
I knew
that I wanted the kiddos to have a craft to work on while people trickled in.
Something that they could work on without a lot of adult help needed. So I made
all of the little boys and girls Batman Masks out of foam {.89¢ for a sheet of
foam at Hobby Lobby}. I looked at some dollar store masks for a template and
just kind of free handed it and then recreated it for a printable. I
cut out the masks and attached some elastic through a hole I poked through each
side of the mask. Then I let the kiddos decorate them with sparkly foam
stickers {I originally thought of glitter glue and puffy paint- but after
reflection thought that would have turned into one hot mess}. The kids loved
this and it was a great and simple activity!
I also
wanted all the kiddos to have their very own batman cape to run around in. So I
printed off a large batman logo and used it as a pattern to create a felt bat signal.
Then I sewed the bat signal onto a piece of black broadcloth fabric. Then I stitched
a seam on all four sides. I created a loop at the top where I strung ribbon
through it and stitched the ends so they would not slip through. A quick run
over the ends of the ribbon with a flame so that they wouldn’t fray and viola! –
a simple and inexpensive bat cape was born.
With
the capes and masks taken care of it was time to think of party games. So I
took to the internet and searched out batman villain images. I printed off
large 8x11 pictures for my “Vaporize Villains” bad guy Batman game {Garbage
bags torn open and taped to the wall to protect from silly string, large
pictures of villains taped to said garbage bags, and a can of silly string from
the dollar store for each child}. This was a BIG hit with the kids who loved
spraying the silly string.
The
second batman birthday party game also involved villains. It was more of a
hidden Mickey type of game; little pictures of batman villains were hidden throughout
a dark basement and the kids had to find them using their bat-signal flashlights
to collect a reward. The bat-signal flashlights were from the dollar store and
I used a sharpie to draw little Batman logos on each one. The kids really liked
this game and were thrilled beyond words to find out that they were going to be
able to keep the flashlights.
We also
played a game of freeze tag where you had to unfreeze people using the
bat-signal flashlights as well as a game of hide-and-go-seek using the
flashlights. I am a game person, so I enjoyed all of the games and it helped
keep a little order in what could have been a slightly chaotic morning.
Now for
the little things… I ordered Batman cupcake rings for the kids to get on top of
the chocolate cupcakes my son just had to have. My children also helped me make
little favor boxes out of cardstock paper we had on hand. I stuffed the favor
boxes with little superhero bracelets, lollipops, crayons, and little batman notepads.
Then we wrapped them in a strip of paper and placed the Batman party favor
printable labels on the boxes {We used the Avery Template 5294 for our labels}.
The
batman themed birthday party was fun. Tiring, but fun. My little boy had a
wonderful time as did his friends and that is what matters. Now I have to start
thinking about my middle child’s birthday and the Toy Story themed party he
wants…. Oh boy!
