Spiderman-Themed Birthday Party

Ok so first off, I PROMISE that I'm not going to go all "Mommy Blog" on you.  This is my space where I can indulge all my foodie-ness and I want to keep it that way.  However my older boy's 5th birthday party has been SO CONSUMING of my time, effort, and mental faculties the last few weeks, I thought I'd let you know how it came off.

Keeping the food as a central focus of course. ;)

When planning Kieran's birthday a couple months ago, it was only natural to ask Gavin what them he'd like for his birthday party.  Imagine my surprise when he insisted on a Spiderman theme.  Really?  Spiderman??  I like Spiderman, but I had no idea that Gavin was really into him.  Oh well, Spiderman it is!  Not that this would be a big thing on my part, because I totally was going to book one of those fun kids' places around here to host the party.  All I'd need to do would be get some cute themed favors, right?

And then I started researching.  And then I saw prices.  And then I maybe thought about crying.  And then I thought about smacking these HOLY FREAKING OVERPRICED places upside the head.  And then I'd resigned myself to the inevitable:

I am too cheap to spend THAT MUCH for someone else to clean up after my kid's mess.  I am going to host this party myself.  *gulp*

THANK GOD for sites like this one.  And Pinterest.  Can I get an "amen" for Pinterest?

So here's how it all worked out, when Gavin's friends arrived, we started off with crafting.  Each child had a little muslin superhero cape and a Spiderman mask to color however they saw fit.  Not only was this a nice activity to keep the kiddos occupied as everyone arrived, the crafts also made for AWESOME take-home gifts.

After crafts was games.  I decided to turn the concept of party favors into a game and made a little scavenger hunt.  It only took a few minutes but they really got a kick out of finding one of each item.  The next, and last, game was Pin the Web on Spiderman.  Yup, got a Spiderman poster and printed out a whole bunch of clip art spider webs for the little partiers to stick to the poster. 

And now what you've really been waiting for, LUNCH!!  Most kids like easy, fun party food like pizza or hot dogs.  And Gavin likes those too...but he's MUCH more likely to politely turn to me and say "I'll just have a peanut butter sandwich."  So I thought, why fight him on this?

I made A WHOLE BUNCH of little PB&J sandwiches, using this little gadget that I borrowed from my mom.  Tedious?  Yes.  But not too bad.  It only took about 15 minutes to cut out sandwich rounds from 2 1/2 loaves of white bread, which I did the day before.  And the morning of the party I spent maybe 30 minutes putting them all together.  And what could be cuter for a children's party than a platter heaping with little PB&J tea sandwiches?

About a tbsp of PB on the bottom, a tsp of jam, and a little smear of PB on top to "seal" in the jam.

Fit the press over the assembled rounds and push down to crimp the edges together.

Plenty of cute PB&J sandwiches for everyone!

Because I knew the sandwiches would take some time to put together, I decided to keep the rest extremely simple.  I fixed up our Rainbow Snack, which is just veggies arranged according to color, and Ranch dip.  I also had a few bowls of fresh strawberries, blueberries, and grapes.  Easy, easy, easy!  For drinks we had milk and lemonade, and iced tea for any parents who stayed to help supervise.

We are big fans of "Rainbow Snack"

I love fresh fruit!

Now for the cake, I was all set to try something new, but Gavin requested a pudding cake.  The only think I could think of was this one, so I made that for him instead of being adventurous.  He is the birthday boy after all!  And, inspired by an episode of The Pioneer Woman, I had little bowls of candies and let the kids decorate the cake before we did the candles.  Chaotic? Yes.  Fun?  YOU BET!!  And what a load off my mind to not have to try and create this amazing masterpiece of a cake.  They loved decorating it themselves!

My big boy poses with his custom cake.

Was this all the crazy, hectic, whatonearthamIDOING madness I thought it'd be?  Yup.  But soooo much fun. :)  And of course the planning and everything stressed me out.  But I saved some money doing it myself, AND had that bonus of having a happy little boy praising the decorations, complimenting the food, and thanking me for his Spiderman party.  Mission accomplished!!

p.s. If you are at all inspired by the candy-on-the-cake thing and you're doing a party for anyone under 7ish, do cupcakes and have the kids decorate their own little cakes.  There was a tense moment where all 6 kids wanted to be the first to put candy on and put on the most.  If I had to do that part over again, I'd do cupcakes.  Just an FYI.