Every couple of months when a new superhero movie comes out, my brother sends me photos of my nephews all dressed up in costume going to the movie on opening night. It happened with Avengers, Thor, and well, pretty much every superhero movie made in the past five years. I’ve always felt a little bad because K is missing out on all of the superhero action because we live 1000 miles away. Since it’s not possible to be in Kansas for every new movie, I decided to buy K a superhero costume and have a little party of our own to celebrate the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier on DVD and Blu-Ray last week. It may not have been a midnight movie viewing, but we sure had a fantastic time. I hope you love these Captain America party ideas!
Unlike my Wizard of Oz party where I had a ton of help from others, I decided that this would be my DIY Captain America party and broke out the sewing machine, paint brushes, and even the drill to get ready for the party. And honestly, I was thrilled with how everything turned out, and it was fun to know that I did it mostly on my own (with my husband’s help of course). And I think the kids had a great time, which is all that matters.
Now for the details.
Let’s start at the very beginning. Since the party was in my backyard, and I couldn’t have a welcome sign on the door, I decided to make one of those cute directional arrow signs with clever names for all of the different sections of the party. Things like Cap’s Concessions (food table), Heroes Hideout (tent), etc. And my favorite – Uniforms “On Your Left,” after one of my favorite scenes in the movie where Steve Rogers is running around DC and keeps passing his buddy and says, “On your left,” each time he passes.
Once the kids walked in, I directed them to a small table I setup with costumes I picked out for each of them. And with the costumes, a fun sign with another one of my favorite quotes from the movie – “If you’re gonna fight a war, you got to wear a uniform.” Each of the costumes was tied together with a Captain America name tag from my Captain America printables so that the kids knew whose was whose.
After the kids changed into their outfits, we ate lunch. I used Captain America comic fabric to make a table runner, added a Captain America poster in the background, and finished it off with some awesome American flag orb balloons on the sides. And man, those balloons were quite the hit at the party. If you ever need an activity for toddlers, just buy some balloons.
For dessert, I served cupcakes from my favorite local cupcakery, Lavender Moon, and Simply Sweet by Maria made me these awesome cupcake toppers to go on top. Maria also made a cute smash cake for the kids to round out the dessert options. I decided to throw the party last minute, and Maria was fantastic and still got the toppers and cake done for me with that short of notice!
I put the cupcakes into this custom cupcake display I made just for the party. I love how the pop of color looks against the metal background; it goes right along with the Captain America shield look I was going for. And that custom cupcake box is probably my favorite part of the entire table. I love using things other than traditional cupcake or cake stands to display treats. I just filled it up with yummy cupcakes and Captain America action figures to be the star of the food table.
On top of the metal box, I added the word Cap for Captain America’s nickname. I just painted letters and then mod podged Captain America stickers on top. If you didn’t know already from my back to school party letters, I love using custom designed letters as party decorations.
In addition to the cupcakes, I also setup a little station where people could decorate their own cookie shields using sugar cookies, frosting, and M&M’s®. Since we were dealing with toddlers, I decided to put the M&M’s in these awesome tubes I got from Pick Your Plum so that they could take them back to the snack area to decorate rather than rummaging through random bowls of M&M’s for their favorite color. Not only did it work for designing their shields, the littlest guests loved shaking the tubes, and the adults liked being able to take the M&M’s to go after the party. So I’d say that was a win.
Last but definitely not least, I made Bucky Battle Boxes, custom lunch boxes I created to hold lunches for the kids that would help them in a battle with Bucky. Things like All-American trail mix (red, white, and blue), fruit “punch” power juice boxes, fruit and veggies, and a little protein. And the best part? I turned the top of the lunch boxes into a Captain America shield.
We ate lunch in the superhero snack zone, aka a fleece blanket made out of Marvel Avengers fabric, and enjoyed the warm weather, hence the diaper only kids.
I didn’t come up with any specific activities for the party but rather setup two play areas for the kids to play whenever they wanted. The first area was an A-frame tent that I made using this tutorial and more of the Captain America superhero comic fabric. The kids loved playing in and on the tent, and I’m sure it’ll make an appearance in plenty of my parties in the future. And bonus, it was a perfect backdrop for superhero pictures!
One word of caution though, big balloons and A-frame tents do not mix. K ran through the tent at full speed holding his balloon only to have it pop on the way in. I’m not honestly sure if he actually knew what happened until he got out of the other side and saw the popped balloon. I guess things even go wrong for superheroes sometimes.
And on the other side of the yard, we brought down some of K’s favorite toys – his slide and crawl through tunnel to make our “American Adventure” course.
The rest of the party we just let the kids play while us moms hung out and chatted. That’s our favorite thing to do anyway. Once the party was over, I sent moms home with cute Captain America lunch boxes filled with movie munchies to enjoy while they watch Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And of course I had to include a box of Peanut M&M’s for them because we all know moms (and nannies!) are some of the most important superheroes out there.
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