Wow, I can’t believe how time flies.  As little Dub’s birthday approached, I knew his would have to be a superhero theme, but I wanted it to be less focused on commercial super heroes and a little more of a generic comic book vibe.

To set the tone, I set off to create a comic book – inspired invite. I coerced him into taking a Clark Kent/super man photo.  I just had him wear his Superman pajama shirt under a button down and snap on tie and then put on a pair of glasses frames I got at the dollar store. I went to work in PhotoShop and created this invite. I used PhotoShop action that made him look like a true comic book character.

Next, I wanted to make a comic book pendant.  I was very pregnant and on bed rest while planning the party, so I enlisted my mom for help.  I bought a comic book off ebay, cut the comic pages into triangles and placed them inside the fold of some red binding I had on hand.  Then she simply sewed along the binding and voila!  Dub liked this so much he asked to hang it in his room after the party.

Again, since I was very pregnant I decided to hire out the cake in the form of some amazing cupcakes from our local bakery.  I made cupcake toppers in PhotoShop and attached them to lollipop sticks I found at Michael’s in the baking section.

This was Dub’s first party where we invited friends, so I was new to the party favor tradition.  I asked all the parents in advance to send me a photo of their children so I could personalize each goodie bag with their photo.  I added free superhero overlays like masks and emblems from Lil Blue Boo in PhotoShop and they were a huge hit!

As much as I love having balloons to decorate for parties, I hate watching them pathetically deflate in the days following (my kids refuse to throw them away until the bitter end!)  So, I attached a balloon to each goodie bag for a festive display that our little guests could take home with them.  This was an inexpensive favor with big impact!  The kids were thrilled to take them home and I was just as thrilled to see them go.

I had to figure out how to entertain all these kids in our teeny home.  So I set up a superhero mask making station.  I pre-cut the masks in craft foam and bought self-stick foam stars and letter so kids could decorate them and add their names.

Next, I really wanted to create a photo booth. I bought some polka-dot wrapping paper that I just taped to the wall.  I made some photo booth signs in PhotoShop that matched the cupcake toppers, and printed them on 8.5×11″ sheets of white card stock.  I cut them out and taped them to the cardboard tube that comes on dry cleaning hangers – it was what I had on hand! Or, if you’re not the DIY type, you could buy some here.)

Dub and a very pregnant me in the photo booth.

My goal was to get pictures of all the kids at the party to put on the thank-you note.  What I didn’t count on was how shy the kids would be.  I had to beg to get them all to pose together so I could get my thank-you card shot! But I got it, and here’s how it turned out:

I designed the back like a true post card with a fill-in-the-blank thank-you message for Dub to personalize. I heard later that our little guests were thrilled to see themselves in the card.

So, there we have it! Dub’s 5th birthday.  For more superhero birthday ideas check out my Pinterest board.

I’ve linked directly to the customizable invites and thank you notes in my Etsy shop. If you would like me to offer free downloads of the cupcake toppers and photo booth signs I used, please let me know in the comments below!