bats and birthdays

burrito's birthday is coming up and the planning is in full swing.

i have these great memories of birthdays that my mom did for us. i think they are memories primarily from looking at pictures of the events and not actual memories though. nevertheless, i remember great birthdays full of friends and families, in the backyard, with lots of sweet homemade games and cakes.

and if you have spent any sort of time with me, you would know that i am quite sentimental. maybe extremely sentimental. so when i began to think about burrito's first birthday, i knew i wanted to have a sweet backyard birthday party for him too. and we have. we did do a mcdonald's party for him one year (his 3rd) but all of the others have been at home.

now if you are a mom (or a dad for that matter!) you will know that there are definite pros and cons of having a party at home. it is definitely more economical, but the price comes more in the form of preparation and clean up.

and this year i spent some serious time considering having his party somewhere other than our home. he has had several friends have parties at local, fun places and so i think he just expected we would do the same. and honestly, i struggled a bit with the pressure of "keeping up with the joneses." but really, deep inside, i like the planning and prep that goes into throwing a party of your own. maybe not so much the cleanup, but definitely the planning!

so when i asked burrito this year what kind of birthday party he wanted he replied, without much hesitation, "a batman party!" this caught me by surprise because, as far as i know, the child has never even seen an episode (new or old) of batman. but i learned a long time ago, the boy knows what he wants and there's no reasoning with him! :)

so a batman party it is! i started doing some research searching the web for some batman party ideas. don't you just love the internet! what did people do without it!?!?! i found such great ideas, i thought i would post them here. all this planning has made me really excited about the party and i think the boys are going to love it!

so here's a picture of the invitations i made. here's the front:

and then for the inside, i pasted this picture of burrito and then below the bat date, bat place, bat time and rsvp.

see the shirt that he is wearing in this picture? i am making one for each child that comes to the party and my mom and i are sewing on some bat capes to the back of them. this will be their party favor to take home, along with a bat mask and craft they will do. don't you think this is way better than the junkie toys that the stores sell as party favors?!?! and i did this for so cheap!
so here's the plan for the party:
as the kids arrive (all boys, mainly from burrito's class at school), we will have the batman theme song playing. while we are waiting for everyone to arrive, the kids can do a bat craft. i'll have black foam paper precut into a bat shape, and the boys can glue on google eyes and then glue it to a popsicle stick. the craft can dry during the party.
once all the boys are there, i will explain to the kids that the riddler has stolen the birthday cake. it is their job to complete several activities in order to earn their bat cape and mask, so that they can catch the riddler and find the missing cake.
first game is pin the bat on batman (like pin the tail on the donkey). second we will play batman, batman, riddler (like duck, duck, goose). third is stomp out the bad guys. i will have balloons blown up and filled with candy with pictures of the different batman villains taped on. the boys have to "stomp out" the villains and then get the candy that is inside the balloons. finally, they will have to complete batman training academy with an obstacle course. this will be set up in the backyard and once they complete this, they officially earn their bat capes and bat masks.
the boys will put on their bat shirts/capes over their clothes and their masks. at this point, john will slip inside the house and put on a riddler shirt i've made for him. i will tell the boys it is now time for them to catch the riddler. john will run out into the backyard acting all crazy (this comes so naturally to him!) and the boys will have to chase him, catch him and set him down in a chair. i will give each boy a roll of toilet paper for them to wrap the riddler up in the chair. i just think a group of 5 year old boys will totally love this! i'm going to take a picture of all the boys around john (the riddler) all wrapped up in toilet paper and send a copy of this picture with the thank you notes we will send out later. after the picture, john will tell the boys where the cake is hidden and we will eat!
i am making burrito's birthday cake (which i love doing!). it will be a yellow cake with chocolate frosting on the side and then the batman logo on top with black and yellow icing. we will also have "joker juice" and "mr. freeze ice cream."
doesn't that sound fun??? i am so excited about it. i plan on taking lots of pictures of everything we do. we are just hoping for good weather next weekend so that we can enjoy all of those activities outdoors!