My daughter is a HUGE Hulk fan. Like, HUGE! She's just loves anything “Hulk Smash” and we watch “The Avengers” at least once a week. So, when it came time to plan her third birthday party, I decided to go with an Avengers theme. As the Patron Saint of Slacker Moms, I kept things VERY simple but still wanted to have a few special touches. As the official Cheap Ass of my family, I also wanted to keep it affordable. So, the idea of doing a swimming party with a superhero theme was born. Check out the rest of the post for tips and ideas from Melanie's Marvel Avengers Birthday Party!
I have so many fun and affordable ideas to share with you about this superhero/swimming party! First off, we hosted this at Melanie's grandparent's house since they have a pool and are the sweetest to let us come over. Also, I kept the guest list incredibly tiny. Just immediate family plus our next door neighbors and their kids. I cannot stress enough the awesomeness of keeping a party small to make it amazing. Less money + less stress = a much happier experience.
Next, I stuck with super simple decorations. Her party was weeks before our second child was due and I just didn't have the energy to go all Pinterest crazy. So, I bought this Avengers party pack and went from there. I also purchased these party invitations because they were SO cute! Because I bought separate invites, I didn't need the ones that came with the party pack, so I ended up cutting them apart and making them into a banner (I simply hot glued them at intervals to some baker's twine). I also snagged some extra thank you notes (the party pack includes some already) in the clearance aisle of our local grocery store and made those into a banner, too. The banner literally took me five minutes total to craft which is just about as much patience as I have for this stuff.
I picked up some tissue paper and made a simple tissue paper tassel garland in the Avengers colors (I used this tutorial). I paired that with an Avengers “Happy Birthday” banner that I picked up on clearance plus the two invite/thank you banners to make a wall of banners for the food table. We reused a wooden pallet table from our wedding, tied some tall PVC pipes to the back legs, and strung the banners in rows between the pipes. It made a nice, simple focal point with very little work! To finish it off, I used a piece of Avengers wrapping paper (leftover from wrapping her presents) as a runner on the food table.
I used the front door banner included in the Avengers party pack and just hung it as is. The plate, cups, and napkins were perfect and nicely heavy duty for the food. Melanie wore the “Might Avenger” medallion proudly (with a purple tutu and Hulk T-shirt)!
The biggest and most popular thing at the party was the food. I wanted to serve only Melanie's favorite things but I also wanted them to somehow tie into the Avengers theme. So, I ended up making up her favorites and then “renaming” them using the different character's names. Here's what I served:
- Hulk Hot Dogs (hot dog plus bun and condiments)
- Iron Man Mac-n-Cheese (homemade because I'm THAT MOM)
- Captain America Chips and Dips (Doritos and tortilla chips plus three store bought dips)
- Thor's Hammers (blocks of cheese with pretzel stick “handles”)
- Hawkeye's Arrows (grapes on a skewer with pineapple “arrowheads”)
- Black Widow Berry Cups (fruit salad made with berries)
We also had water and soda on ice and then cupcakes for dessert (instead of a huge birthday cake). I made everything in individual servings (so the mac-n-cheese was baked and served in mini pie tins and the berry cups were served in these cupcake liners). I wanted everything to be grab-n-go and really easy to clean up once the party was over. Melanie actually helped me make the Thor's Hammers and was so proud of them. And FYI, the Hawkeye Arrows and Thor's Hammers were absolutely THE favorites at the party – the kids had thirds and fourths of them.
I served all the food on plain white servingware from my Thanksgiving collection. The coolest thing that I did was use Avengers food tents to serve as labels for the different dishes. I made my own but here's some that I really love that you can buy. The older kids got a kick out of the names of the foods and it was such a simple thing to do to tie the theme together.
For the birthday cake, I skipped doing one big cake and opted instead for cupcakes. I used a box mix for the cake part but made the frosting from scratch and topped them with these purple and green sprinkles. I baked the cupcakes in plain white cupcake liners and then placed them in purple and green cupcake liners to display. The cupcakes were displayed on stacked cake stands and the top stand had the Avengers cake topper from the Avengers party pack.
The last little bit from her party was totally not a must do but man, did I love it. I did up canvas totes filled with goodies as favors. I bought some simple white canvas totes and used my Cricut to add an iron-on “Avengers Assemble” logo in silver glitter to the fronts. Then I filled them with the tattoos and blowouts from the Avengers party pack. I also picked up some Avengers pencils, prepackaged candy, some fruit snacks, and these cool juice bottles. The kids adored these favors and The only part I DIYed was the logo on the canvas!
Are you planning an Avengers party for your little girl?
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