The Boy's Batman Birthday

The Boy is THREE! Can you believe it? Me either. He's pretty pumped too.

This was his birthday breakfast.

He's said for months he wanted a Batman party. The Husband wanted a party that wasn't at our house. (He also had the nerve to ask me not to bake anything. Has he ever even met me?? Baking things is my jam.)

We are party people. We enjoy a good party, and boy can we run with a theme. So when The Boy kept saying he wanted a Batman party my eyes glazed over with thematic ideas. I told him he could have a Batman party, as if because this is about him. I know one day my child will ask me if he can please have a regular, birthday themed party with no print outs and no thematic cupcakes. And that will be the day that I will look at him with lies in my eyes and tell him of course that will be fine. Until then, Batman it is!

The Boy loves to climb. He could climb to the top of his playscape ladder before he was two. He climbs our furniture. He climbs everything at the park. I am not even kidding you when I say he tries to climb our cabinets and fridge. So it was only natural that we took him to check out our local rock climbing facility to see if it was party appropriate. He loved it, natch.

He kept asking if he could go higher on his first try. "Three is a little young for a climbing party" the lady said, trying to talk us out of it. "Sometimes they freak out when they get up there and don't know how to get down." The Husband looked at her. "Can't we just climb up and get them? It's not a mountain." he said. I love him. So we booked the easy party place that was 1. Batman friendly 2. Not at our house and 3. Not age appropriate.

The day of the party finally came, and The Boy could hardly wait. He woke up saying "is it tomorrow yet, is it tomorrow yet?" We told him it was indeed, tomorrow, the day of the party. He beamed. We gathered our party supplies and headed to the climbing place.

We had a cityscape for the kids to take save-the-day pictures. 

Aren't our friends the cutest? 

I used wrapping paper to wrap some small boxes for tablescaping and cupcake holding. I will say I'm a little concerned about the inefficiency of how many lights stay on in Gotham City. 

My mother-in-law made the cupcakes, and I compromised with The Husband by just making the fondant batman cutouts on top. 

Superhero fruit snacks, suckers with capes and masks, and cupcakes. We also printed some batman coloring sheets and had crayons, which no one used. I framed The Boy's birthday interview with a few recent pictures for the table. 

I used the same batman fondant cutter (via etsy) to make batman imprints in the watermelon. 

Excuse the blurry pictures, but snacks were penguin shaped crackers (from Aldi) and 

      Catwoman claws (Bugles). Three adults said to me they'd forgotten how delicious bugles are.        
                        Truth. The characters you see are just laminated printouts via the internets.

 

                                   Drinks were Joker Juice (capri suns) and Gotham City Water.

Baby brother came dressed as Robin. Turns out there aren't a lot of maternity Robin outfit ideas out there.

All the friends got a black cape to take home (via The Dollar Tree)

Some were more excited about it than others. 

The kids climbed the rock walls with the assistance of some pretty cool staff members. That's The Boy in the middle, with the owner climbing beside him AND belaying him at the same time. He climbed to the top and rang the bell over and over. That's his cousin on the right. Some adults climbed too. 

                              There was a smaller climbing wall and ladder for fun......

That led to a huge 20 foot slide. 

There was also a lot of running around in circles, jumping off and onto mats, and rolling on the floor. Most of my pictures look something like this:

At the end of the party, the verdict was this: no major injuries, no kids stuck on the top of the rock wall, leftover cupcakes for the staff to keep, and only one pair of shoes left behind. (Anyone?) Better yet, we tired out the kids and sent ours home with his grandparents! Success on all fronts if you ask me. 

Happy Birthday, Batman!