Super Hero 1st Birthday Party!

“Better late than never” is becoming a popular phrase in our house.  Things outside of keeping my family and myself alive seem too trivial to worry about some days or are completely forgotten.  Like sharing Little J’s first birthday party. He is going on 17 months now and last week I had the realization that I haven’t even gone through all the 1000+ photos my photographer took at the party. So today I’m finally sharing the details from Jaxson’s Super Hero 1st Birthday.  Better late than never, right! ☺

I always knew I would go completely overboard on my firstborn’s first birthday.  And well, mission accomplished!  After all, the first birthday is not just about the child, but a celebration for us parents as well.  We survived the toughest year of new parenthood and came out on the other side better, strong, wiser and completely head over heels for this little human God has blessed us with.    I still can’t believe how big he’s gotten.  I look at him daily and am mesmerized by his happy spirit and strong-willed personality.  How did his teeny tiny baby hands become the chubby dirty paws of a little toddler?!  So fast!  How?!

Parties are no joke in my family.  We don’t just slap on a plastic tablecloth, put out some cake  and call it a party.  NO never.  With the help of my party planning partners in crime {my sister and my cousin}, we did not leave any detail unturned – dessert table, custom backdrops, photo booth, party favors, etc.   Scroll below for more details and a ton of photos….

Theme & Costumes:  When we found out we were having a boy in October, I decided right then that his first birthday party would involve costumes and super heroes.   I dreamed of having custom capes for each child and jazz up the heroines with tutus.  And voila!  I love seeing a vision come to life. 

First, I can’t forget to mention that my amazing mom made all the capes and tutus!  She’s the best!

For the capes, I chose a metallic stretch material in blue and red, which I knew would be a hit with the kids and fit most of the mainstream superheroes.  But the one solid color just looked too plain even with the metallic sheen, so I asked my mom to add a different lining to add some pop.  We choose to add fun polka dots, stripes and stars in various colors.  I loved the way they turned out.  I had to get one for myself to complete my Wonder Women ensemble.  ☺  For the little girls, they had the option to accessorize their heroic style with tutus. They were a hit with the moms and adult guests as well because….well, who doesn’t want to wear a tutu…am I right ladies?

Dessert Table:  Every party needs an anchor, a central point of focus or discussion.  And in my book that is always dessert.  My husband almost lost it when I told him I ordered a 3-tiered cake for Little J’s party.  His response was…{silence} followed by the angry eyes.  Ha!  But it turned out AH-MAZING.  Audrey at Facepop Bakeshoppe took a photo I found on Pinterest and make it exactly everything I wanted and more.   I also included cupcakes, cookies and an assortment of candy in illustrative colors of the 5 most popular super heroes – Green Lantern, Superman, Batman, Spiderman and Captain America.  Lastly, we added popcorn and cakepops to add dimension and fill in the space on the table.

The table backdrop is one of favorite elements.  We made it with red polka dot fabric, poms poms with graphic bursts and Gotham City type buildings for risers.  To this day, I am still obsessed with this table setup.

Kids Table:  We had approximately 25 kids in attendance in varying ages.  I knew we needed some activities to occupy them. Since its was Halloween weekend, we created a candy bag decorating station.  The table was lined with all sorts of decorating essentials (puffy paint, glue, stick-on graphics, etc.) as well as little themed knick knacks like pencils, stickers and other random Oriental Trading company goodness to fill their decorated bags.

Favors:  Kids walked away with their very own capes, tutus and all the dessert/candy they ever wanted!  

Food & Drinks:  I didn’t really focus on the food because with so many people and varying tastes and ethnicities, I wanted to just keep it simple.  We just catered a few things from a Chinese restaurant and ordered pizza with the kiddos.

As for drinks, aside from the usual juice and soda, my mom also supplied homemade boba teas!  Two kinds of tea and yummy self-serve boba!  This is always a hit at our parties.  Lastly, the water bottles also wore customs capes which were the cutest! ha!  I don’t think anyone even noticed them but I just love these little details. 

Photo booth:  What is a party without a good photo booth?!  I wanted the backdrop to have a more fun and whimsical look, so I went polka dots (this is a common accent with the capes and dessert table as well) which was hung on an 8ft. frame.  Guests were able to take photos with various props ,and of course, the buildings and pom poms added additional texture for the perfect party photo! ☺

Other custom elements:  We also made all the table linens!  I’m a crazy person and wanted all the colors and patterns to match.  So we made all the linens in blue, red and yellow for all the tables with polka accents on a few. 

The centerpieces were fun bucket “explosions” with tissue paper and word bursts in “zap”, “boom” or “Ka-pow.”

I feel like I’m missing so many details.  So many to recount!  So if there is anything you see in the photos that is not mentioned here, feel free to drop me a line!

Thanks for reading!  Till the next party…..

xo, Lydia

Location: Newport Coast Community Center

Photography: Bleudog Fotography

Labels: Etsy

Sweets: Facepop Bakeshoppe

Custom Backdrop, table linens, backdroops, capes & tutus: Homemade ☺