The Mamminas: Spiderman Birthday Bash

On Saturday, January 19, our home transformed into Spider-Man headquarters for Lucas' 3rd birthday party with all his friends. I had soooo much fun putting this party together, and I have to give a HUGE shout-out to my mom who helped tirelessly (and long-distance, nonetheless) to help make my visions a reality! It turned out to be such a special day. Lucas was in complete awe over everything which makes all the work completely worth it. I think that once a year on their birthdays, all kids need to be immersed in whatever they are loving at the moment! And Lucas was!!!

So, here are the details...

First up, the decor

setting the stage with a web on the front door

i modified this tutorial from made to personalize it for Lucas

and i'm loving how so many of the decorations for this party can be repurposed for halloween!

spider webs cut out of computer paper, spray painted silver and sprinkled with glitter

i used this tutorial from A Fanciful Twist

loving my little man showing off his own spider webs!

beautiful gerbera daisies poised in bright blue water added cheerfulness

(as if there wasn't enough of that already with a house full of preschoolers at a birthday party! haha!)

my mom covered these paper mache letters from hobby lobby with spiderman comic pages, as inspired by the AMAZING spiderman-themed party of our good friend sohan. (that was for you, mom! haha!)

just paint the edges of the letters red first, then mod-podge the pages on, the seal with mod podge for a durable finish

craft table waiting for kids to come play...

i cut the masks from foam sheets using a template from a mask we already owned. then i hole punched the sides and threaded a length of elastic through, knotting it at the ends. (thanks, mandy, for your help with this!) i thought the foam star stickers were fun--kinda super hero-ish, but not too boyish or girlie. i had plenty of coloring sheets on hand too that i just printed off from the computer.

my sweet hubby brought home this HUGE piece of cardboard which i covered in wrapping paper. then he was kind enough to draw some buildings from poster board which we glued on. our "larger than life" spider man is just a sticker! :)

i decided it would be fun to send our guests home with silly string so they could make their own "webs" at their houses. our kids played with their silly string a few days later, and it lasted all of 5 minutes, but they thought it was the coolest.thing.EVER!!!

the outside of the cans were a little "loud" looking, so my mom helped me cover these with this cool scrapbook paper and some printable tags. now they fit right in with the decor. :)

Next, the food....

here's the dessert table

isn't the pennant banner ADORABLE? My mom made it using seam binding and a roller adhesive--it was a great way to use up the leftover comic book pages!

and the big spider web in the background will definitely make another appearance come October!

the white spider webs on the table were made by squeezing elmer's glue onto wax paper in the shape of a web and sprinkling with glitter while still wet. just peel/pry them off (carefully!) when dry...idea from redbook

LOVE how these cupcakes turned out!

the cake was a labor of love...

my first attempt at making homemade fondant using this recipe

and i combined a few tutorials on how to shape and decorate the cake, but this youtube video proved to be the most helpful. i love how he recommends to paint the fondant with the red food coloring instead of dying the whole thing--much less artificial coloring these kids are ingesting!

many thanks to my twin sis mandy for staying up with me into the wee hours of the morning finishing this! her artistic talents helped me make sure the webs were mostly even as well!