Superhero (Batman) Birthday Party - Part 1

As you know (if you've been following my posts! ;), SweetPea turned 4 a few weeks ago. And as mentioned HERE, my sweet, little, precious, delicate, flower wanted... a BATMAN party. *sigh*. But I decided not to dwell on the "gender appropriateness" of it and figured if that was what she wanted, that is what she was going to get.

I immediately hopped online and started searching for ideas. Thankfully I hit the jackpot and found a few fabulous websites with tutorials for putting together a ~Superhero Training Academy~ with a Batman-centric theme. They even had a bunch of free downloads for activities and decorations. So before I go any further, I will state that 90% of the ideas for SweetPea's party were stolen borrowed from Tip Junkie HERE and Designer Girl 007 HERE and I will do my best to give appropriate credit where it is due.

It started with a combo pack of Batman invitations and thank you notes that I found on clearance at Target. Only $2.38 for 8 invites and 8 TY notes! Squuueee!! If you've been following me for a while, you know I'm ALL ABOUT being cheap frugal! :)  

Following the lead of the Batman logo, I decided to go with a black and yellow color scheme. The dining room was staged as the main eating area for the kids. I bought black and yellow balloons and attached one to each chair. The kids were given one to take home at the end of the day - always a big hit with preschoolers! And I "splurged" on a $4 plastic Batman tablecloth from the Party Store to protect the dining room table but the rest of the decorations were all handmade.

Batman Party Decor - Table

At Target, in addition to the invites, I had also scored several packs of matching Batman paper plates and napkins - only $1.23 each on clearance - score! For drinks, I bought a pack of yellow paper cups at the party store onto which I slapped a Batman sticker (also purchased at the party store). Into each cup, I stuck a black straw that had been in a pack of orange and black straws I bought during halloween clearance. [Tip - Cut about an inch off the bottom of the straws so they won't be too tall for the cups or the preschoolers using them - less chance of tip-over! We do this all the time in restaurants!]

Batman Plates, napkins and self-customized cups

I made a fun banner using yellow cardstock I already had on hand (from my scrapbooking days) and the Batman Logo shared by the Tip Junkie. I printed the logo on regular copy paper and the "Happy Birthday" letters are stickers (again, from my scrapbooking stash).

Batman Banner/ Flag Bunting

Batman Flag Bunting / Banner

Batman Flag Banner

Batman Banner

I hung some more Batman logos from the chandelier along with some Batman streamers I found at the party store.

Scrap Paper and Batman logos hung from the chandelier

Along the sideboard, I lined up the Batman water bottles I "made" as take-home gifts for the kids.

DIY Batman Water Bottles

The yellow water bottles were another clearance find from Target - only 48 cents each!! I ordered the Batman vinyl decals from a seller on eBay (this was before I had my own Silhouette Cutter otherwise I could have made these myself!).

Vinyl Batman decals

DIY Batman Water Bottles

DIY Batman Water Bottles

As usual, I made cupcakes (I love Betty Crocker! ;) and decorated them with some plastic Batman rings I found on Amazon.

Batman Cupcakes

Hanging over the kitchen table, I hung a Batman-themed wreath that I made. The black wreath was another Halloween clearance item (only $1 from Michaels) onto which I hot glued printed out "POW"-like images from Living Locurto HERE.

Superhero Wreath

Superhero Wreath

Superhero Wreath

On the kitchen table, I placed all of the other snacks and munchies (don't worry, pizza was served before the cupcakes!). We had the usual fare... like some veggies with dip and tortilla chips and salsa. But I also wanted to try and stick with the black and yellow theme, so I made some white yellow chocolate dipped pretzels and decorated them with black spinkles.

White Yellow Chocolate-Dipped Pretzels

These are so easy to make. Just melt the chocolates in the microwave according to the directions on the bag, dip your pretzels in it (you can use any shape but I find the rods are the easiest and fastest to dip) and then add sprinkles. Be sure to add the sprinkles right away - you don't want the chocolate to set up or they won't stick. I've also made these with drizzled coordinating colors (ie - white chocolate with green and red drizzles for Christmas). Lay the "wet" pretzels on wax paper to set - they'll dry pretty quickly. I use the Wilton Candy Melts for this project - the vanilla flavor is so yummy with the salty pretzels and they have so many color options. You could probably even use food coloring in the white ones to customize your own color. You can find them at Michaels - be sure to use your 40% off coupon! :)

Supplies for Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

Dip the pretzel into the melted chocolate

I also put out some yellow M&M's (yes, I sat and picked out all the yellow ones from a Costco-sized bag) and mixed them up with a bunch of little black bat candies (another Halloween clearance find - Michaels this time).

(sorry, I forgot to take a pic of the whole snack table).

Leftover Halloween bats double for Batman

Lastly, I made some bat-shaped sugar cookies (using a cookie cutter I bought during Halloween clearance at Michaels). Yeah, clearly I'm no baker or decorator! I had originally planned on coloring the dough yellow, but totally forgot so I had to improvise with some yellow spinkles and black gel. Not the look I was going for, but I figured 4 year olds probably wouldn't care! LOL

Halloween Bat Cookie Cutter doubles for Batman

I packed them up in plastic bags as another take-home treat for all of the kids. I got the batman design from Tip Junkie, printed it out on regular copy paper and hot glued it on to the bags (before putting in the cookies).

Batman Cookie Goodie Bags

And there you have the food and decorations part of it! Whew!

In my next post, I'll discuss the activities - a Superhero Training Academy... stay tuned!!

**Update** See all of the fun activities from the Superhero Training Academy in this post HERE**

Linking up to these parties:

These Creative Juices
Bella Before and After
Between U & Me
What Allie's Making Now
Inspiration for Celebration

The CSI Project's Birthday Party Challenge