DIY Superhero Birthday Party Part 1: Planning

Do It Yourself Superhero Birthday Party

Part One: Planning

Before anyone thinks I'm really nuts, which I'm not discounting, for going all out on my soon to be 6 yo's birthday party, let me give you some of his birthday history.

My little dude turned the big one a few days after Hurricane Katrina hit, and we lived slightly north of New Orleans right where the eye sat for hours. So there we were, evacuated and living as refugees at the house of some wonderful friends, not knowing if we had a house, if my husband had a job, or if many others in our extended family were even alive. Not the most festive of environments.

Fast forward a year, and my little dude turns 2 when we're living across the country in New England, again in the home of another magnanimous person. We have no friends near us, he has no family at his birthday other than his siblings and parents, we're uncertain day by day as to where we're going to be living and pretty broke. Again, not festive.

He turns 3 in style with a nice party with many of our awesome friends, but not really any kids.  For 4 and 5, we've moved again, and most of our friends live too far to come down for an ordinary birthday. Throughout all, he has not once complained. He's a very kind hearted and generous little dude. But at 6, he should finally get the birthday party to make up for all the rest.

I let him make out the invitation list. We want it to be his friends and people he knows there, but he does ask his little bro who his friends are to make sure that they're invited too. (Told you he is sweet!) Then we spend an afternoon thinking up a theme, planning activities and designing the fun - all with his help and final approval (though I do tell him that once he makes up his mind and we start planning, he can't change it - and yes, he has tried).

Step One: The Theme
The first thing we did was figure out an overriding theme. Even if you want Superheroes or Scooby Doo, you still need a focus, an idea which all activities, decor, food, etc revolves around. If one were to have a Scooby party, for example, the theme could be the Case of the Disappearing Presents.

After hashing around several ideas that included mainly Batman, the Teen Titans, Robin, and other DC guys, we decided upon . . .

Superhero Training Camp
Sponsored by Batman

Step Two: The Invitations
Yes, even these are a DIY. We found the perfect jpg for the front of the card. Then I came up with our own text.

Calling all heroes . . .
Please come to my 6th birthday party / Superhero Training Workshop
To train to be the world’s best Superheroes!!

Birthday Superhero: child's name
Training Date: 01/01/2020
Training Starts: 1200 hours
Training Center:
123 Main Street,
Any Town, AB 12345
RSVP: 123-456-7890 or
youremail@something.com

Superhero costumes optional for both adults and children.

With a little messing around with MS Word, my printer, card stock and my paper cutter, I made some cute little cards. In the end, using Print Shop would have been simpler.

Step Three: Planning the Activities
Don't fret - I'll go over these one by one in individual entries. But all those brainstorming lessons learned in basic writing courses finally paid off. We spent about 3 hours throwing out ideas, looking up what others did on websites, and just going creatively crazy. After all that, we had about 40 ideas of activities we could do. So I set up some categories to lump them into.

Throughout this whole planning stage, every time I was overwhelmed or distracted, I would come back to the theme. How does this idea fit into a "Superhero Training Session?" It helped me narrow down our choices. No matter how cool the activity was, if it didn't fit with the theme, than we moved on.

What we ended up planning was, a basic itinerary for a training session:

•  Warming Up (games to play while the kids arrive)
• "Bat, Bat, joker" (duck, duck, goose). New kids can join the circle as they come.
• Bat-Tag, like freeze tag

• Gearing Up (creating the tools you'll need to be a Superhero)
• Recruiting a side-kick (making superhero felt puppets - these are really cool! Pic on right.)
• Cape decoration: picking your superhero symbol and painting it on your cape
• Mask: making what you need to keep your secret identity a secret
• Bat-a-rang deco: using colored sharpies and stickers to decorate boomerangs (made from blue cell foam and duct tape - see pic below)

• Physical Training
• Obstacle course

• Bat-a-rang toss: tossing your decorated boomerangs into a cardboard villain
• Capturing Catwoman with water (cats hate water!): Catwoman is painted on a piece of paneling board with little tacks on her fingernails, then tossing water-balloons at her (and possibly each other).
• Mr. Freeze Game: Red Light / Green Light, but instead of "it," Mr. Freeze uses his freeze gun to freeze those moving.
• Superhero Hippity Hop Race: a relay race with teams using Hippity Hops.
• Aquious Blaster Practice: using water guns

• Defeating the Villain
• Joker Pinata: I don't think heroes should be the pinatas. If you're going to beat on something with a baseball bat, it should be a bad-guy

• Fueling-Up
• Food & Presents

• Graduation from Training Camp
• Graduation Medallion: Cookie Bouquet type cookies, but instead of sticks, wrapping them in plastic wrap and hot-gluing wide ribbons to the back to make them into "Medal Cookies." The cookies can be large round ones with Superhero symbols on it.
• Certificate of Achievement
• Party Favors: I'm figuring, between the puppets, masks, capes, boomerangs, medal cookies and certificates, a simple bag in which to carry everything home will be fine.

One Last Thing: Sources
Before I detail out how to do most of this step by step, let me give credit to the many sites where we found inspiration:
http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/batman_party.html
http://www.executivehomemaker.com/batman-birthday-party/
http://learningcontinually.blogspot.com/2009/02/cheap-batman-birthday-ideas.html
http://www.birthday-party-ideas-101.com/batman-birthday-party.html

Now I've got to go. I have still so much to do. And wait until you see the cake!!!

Pink Lemonade - All natural, no dyes!

This recipe came about because my oldest daughter loved pink lemonade growing up, but she's allergic to red food dye.  It was a hot summer, maybe 4 years ago, and my kids really wanted pink lemonade. So this was the result.

All Natural Pink Lemonade Recipe
Yields 1/2 gallon (2 quarts)
Ingredients

• 1 cup lemon juice
• 3/4 to 1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
• 1 pint strawberries, fresh or frozen - and they can even be too soft and wilty to eat
• 1/2 cup blackberries, fresh or frozen
• water

Directions

This is a great way to use up those strawberries that haven't gone bad, but are too soft to eat raw.

In a blender, add the lemon juice, sugar, strawberries and a bit of water. Blend until it's pureed. Pour it into a 1/2 gallon container.

In the same blender, place the blackberries and some more water. I usually keep a bag of frozen blackberries in the freezer just for this recipe. Puree the blackberries to a fairly smooth consistency. Add them to the container, and then add enough water to fill the remainder. Stir and drink.

It may get foamy, but the foam will go away. The strawberries add that pink lemonade flavor, but the blackberries really give it the color. And my kids don't miss that powdered pink stuff.

Very Simple, but very yummy, Potato Soup Recipe

For some reason I felt a little weird today, conscious of the act of dressing up my food and making it pose. Look, here it is in a bowl I never use for soup, like that dress I have in the back of the closet I never wear just to stay home.  I don't why, but it felt weird.

I'm always looking for foods that most of my family will eat. If 4 out of 5 of my kids will eat it, plus myself and my husband, then we have a winner. One of those is my very simple to make, potato soup. From nothing in the pot or on the counter to finish is less than an hour. Closer to 45 minutes.

And even my three year old eats it. Although tonight he protested the need for a spoon and simply ate it using the bread as a scoop.

Potato Soup Recipe
Ingredients

• medium yellow onion
• 3 pounds organic potatoes (I'll tell you why they should be organic later)
• 1 to 2 TBSP olive oil
• 1 to 2 tsp salt or bullion of your choice
• 8 to 12 oz Colby Jack cheese
• Corn starch (optional)

Directions

There will be lots of pictures with the directions, probably more than words. But hey, I've written two blogs in as many days. I'm happy with me!!

Slice up your onion into smallish pieces.

In a large pot, place 1 to 2 TBSP olive oil on medium/low heat. Put the onions in the pot and cover. You're pretty much going to sauté / steam them until they are pretty clear. It'll take about 10 minutes. Keep the lid on, but give them a stir every minute or two. You don't want them to burn, which is why you're using a lower heat, but you want them fully cooked before you start the soup. That way, you get the onion flavor, but the onions will pretty much dissipate in the soup itself. So you won't have that onion texture.

They are not done here. Still too white, not clear enough.

Now they're done. Can you see the difference?

While the onions are cooking, peel and wash the potatoes.  Now cut them into chunks like this:

Slice them in 1/2" slices in one direction. Put the rounded ends to the side to cut separately.

Stack the slices up, and cut those into three or four sections.

Now turn them in the other directions and slice into 1/2" cubes.

You may not be finished with the potatoes when the onions are done, but go ahead and put an inch or so of water in the pot with the onions and turn the heat up to medium / high. Add the potatoes as you finish chopping each one.

When all of the potatoes are chopped and in the pot, make sure the water just barely covers the chopped potatoes.  Add the bullion or salt (you're choice), and bring the mix to a boil, which it may already be doing. Once boiling, lower to heat to med/low and put the lid on the pot.  It'll take about 20 minutes for the potatoes to cook.

Meanwhile, grate the cheese.  Grate more or less cheese depending upon your preference. I usually use the whole 12 ounces.

You'll know when the potatoes are done when the water gets really starchy and the potatoes start to "melt."  Remove the pot from the heat, and add the cheese and stir until melted.

At this point, it's done.

If you like a thicker soup, you can add a little corn starch to thicken it up. The corn starch will lump up if you pour it in. I used a wire mesh, but a sifter will work fine too. One to two tablespoons will thicken it up fine. Just sprinkle a bit on top, and then stir.  It takes a minute or two after you add it for it to take effect.

Now, why I use organic potatoes. I was going to explain the whole thing, but just google "potatoes non-organic" and you'll find out.

Banana-Bread Bread Pudding

I'll get a better picture tomorrow.

No, there's not a mistake in the title. It's Bread Pudding with chunks of Banana Bread! My latest creation, and it turned out so yummy, we had it for dinner. (okay, we also had other things for dinner, but it really was good)

The unwanted heels of banana bread.

The idea of this dessert came from the problem of dealing with the heels of bread. I make a batch of banana bread or pumpkin bread, and no one wants the heels. They're dry and sometimes a little overcooked. So I started saving the heels and storing them in zippy bags in the freezer. The idea is that once I save up enough, the weather cools down from this intense heat, and I find bread on the discount rack at the grocery, I'll use it to make bread pudding. So happens, that these three events occurred this week.

I've reduced the size of the recipe I actually cooked, because chances are that you are not cooking for the small hoard I live with. I don't think you really need 15 lbs of pudding!

Banana-Bread Bread Pudding Recipe with Grand Marnier and Rum Sauce

Bread Pudding Ingredients

• 3/4 pound stale bread
• 1/4 pound banana bread heels (that's the heels from about 1 loaf)
• 4 eggs
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 butter (1 stick), melted
• 3 1/2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 TBSP cinnamon
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped

Bread Pudding Instructions

Slice both the stale bread and the banana bread heels into small 1/2" by 1/2" chunks.  Remember, the banana bread is more dense than regular bread. It will look like you have much more normal bread than banana bread. (Of course, you'll have much less than this. I'm working with 2 1/2 pounds of bread here.) Once sliced, set the bread aside.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Make sure that an oven rack is in the middle. Grease a 9" by 13" baking pan. I also lay a piece of baking parchment on the bottom for easier removal. Put a little grease on that too.

Break the eggs into a very large mixing bowl and whisk a bit in order to break the yolks. Add the bananas, butter, milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. (I'm assuming that they are already melted, mashed and otherwise prepared.)

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, mix on medium until well blended. It should look like the picture on the left.

Now you're going to add the breads and nuts. Think of this process as a layering, like when you make a trifle or 7 layer dip, only here you're repeating.  On top of the liquidy stuff add a layer of bread (a few handfuls), a layer of banana bread and a sprinkling of nuts. 

Then using the whisk, dunk it into the gelatinous goo. Keep repeating until you run out of bread and nuts, trying to pace yourself so that each layer will have some of each. Then swish it around the goo and let it sit a minute to absorb some.

For this next part, I use gloves since I hate scrubbing raw egg out from under my nails. Using your hands really is the easiest way to do it. With gloved hands, grab handfuls of the gooey bread and place it in your prepared pan. It will puff up a little while baking, but not much.

The top one has been used, the bottom one has not. It's about done.

Cook on the middle rack for an hour to an hour plus 15 minutes. You'll know it's done when you insert a toothpick and it comes out without gooey chunks sticking to it (see right).

Meanwhile, while the pudding is in the oven, let's start on the sauce.

Grand Marnier and Rum Sauce Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 TBSP vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup Grand Marnier (or other liqueur)
• 1/4 cup dark rum
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

 Grand Marnier and Rum Sauce Directions

In a medium sauce pan, put all of the ingredients but the butter. Simmer on low for about 45 minutes, until you can no longer taste the alcohol. Of course, if kids aren't eating it, you can stop simmering whenever you want. It will be a lovely amber color. DO NOT let it boil. You don't want your sauce reaching any kind of ball stage.

Remove it from the heat and add the butter, giving it a stir until it melts. Let it cool.

Bread pudding, like cheesecake, is best if given time to sit, like overnight. But I admit, this stuff was pretty darn good right out of the oven.  I'm hoping there is some left for Friday when we're having friends over for dinner.