Nothing says '3' like a Jesus - Super Hero party

I'm not even really sure how we ended up with such an interesting party theme this year..... somewhere mid summer Alex got the idea in his head that he wanted a Jesus Super Hero party and every time I asked him what kind of party he wanted that is what he'd say so I went with it.... until of course 2 days before his party when he told me he wanted a Blaze party - ha!  Too late buddy, too late!  

Between my surgery this year and work being a little nuts I took it easy on this year's party.  We decided on just family and neighbor friends so by my standards it was a small party - only 30 people. Ha!

I even opted for the Evite this year instead of "real" invitations & it was SO nice to keep that simple!

The party got off to a bit of a rocky start after this one woke up from his nap 20 minutes after the party started SCREAMING!  He tends to wake up a little on the grumpy side if you get him too quickly and I was so anxious to get the party started that I went into his room before he was fully awake.  And then he just screamed.  and screamed.  and screamed.  

His normal routine is that he watches a show when he wakes up so Daddy and I snuggled him for a few minutes while we watched Blaze and that seemed to do the trick.

Phew..... finally all smiles!

Before his nap I told him that when he woke up all his friends were coming over for his party and I showed him each of the juice bottles and named off everyone whose name was on them and he got the BIGGEST smile on his face with each name I read.

We really are so blessed to have such awesome neighbors and to have Brad's family in town.  He was so excited to see each and every one of them that came!

And let's not forget 97 1/2 year old Cookie Beek!!  It was SOOOOOOOOOO nice to have her at the party this year!!  She adores that little boy so much and he is just so tickled by his Cookie Beek.  He got so excited earlier in the week when I told him she was coming.  She has been in a nursing home for over a year now and she hasn't been to our house in at least that long.  So so so good to have her!!

Then there's Oma - I love that she showed up in full costume for the party.  Love this sweet picture of her and Kenna Girl!! 

And let's not forget about Annika-na.  This kiddo loves his Annika-na, which is so funny because we don't see them very often.  He knows the special bond we have with their family though and he just adores her. 

And of course, Mr. Butch.  Makenna adores him and it was so very nice to have all of them come.  Makenna always tells me he's the funniest guy ever.

Then there's this.  These are our people.  I'm pretty sure we live in the best neighborhood ever.  And we're lucky enough that we get to see half of these kiddos every morning at the bus stop.  We love you guys!  Thanks for coming to celebrate with us!

And might I point out that my mad photography skills not only have everyone looking, but have everyone smiling as well.  And it only took bribing them with cake.....

Such a silly bunch.

Love these kiddos.

And yes, that is Laila bean smiling at me.  I finally broke through to her.  All it took was a little game of peek crawling on the floor.  Who knew?  I love you Beaners!!

So, who is ready for cake??

Love this one.  Pure. Joy.  

Oh sweet boy.  Happy 3rd birthday.  We love you.  So Much!

Did someone say presents?

Can you say spoiled?!  He got quite the loot!  He was very polite with each gift and after asking - can I play with this now? and then thank you he moved right along to the next one.  

Alex, Vince and Jakey - his 3 year old neighbor buddies playing with Blaze - thanks Oma!!

What a fun party!  We really truly are blessed to have such great friends and family.  The neighbors all stuck around to help clean up after and by the time they left there wasn't much at all we needed to do.  Thank you!!!!  

So I don't forget...... here's the party prep I did and how things turned out...

Invitation:  Evite - free!! 

I went with the Meijer cake this year instead of Costco - I LOVED that I could order it online and just pick it up on Saturday - even with the picture on it.  I thought it turned out cute.  I added baby Jesus when we got home.  And only a few tears were shed at the party when they found out only ONE person could eat Alex's face.  Ha!

This is hard to see in the picture, but Makenna helped me chalk the front walk with "Jesus is my Super Hero" and some lightning bolts.  She was SUCH a big helper this year.  She was getting into it even more than I was which was fun.

When I originally told her what we were doing she told me she wanted to have a 50/50 raffle and she also wanted to have contests and give away bibles as prizes.  Bless your heart, Kenna girl!

She made some flyers and polled the guests to see if they wanted her to sing or dance on stage - ha!  She ended up dancing with Maddie at the end of the party to the song "Jesus is My Super Hero" for everyone.  

She did end up putting a bunch of candy in 2 little bowls and had the kids guess how many pieces of candy were in the bowl to win the candy.  Love her enthusiasm!  

Signs - I found some on pinterest & just printed them out and threw them in frames.

I found the capes at Target for cheap and since I didn't really have anything to decorate the mantle with this year, I thought this came together nicely.  

And that "A" - I made that for Alex's first birthday party and have busted it out each year.  #winning

The juice bottles are all super hero themed and I peeled the wrappers off and wrote each kiddos name on it.  This was nice so I didn't have to mess with messy juice boxes for the kiddos and once they finished their juice I just refilled them with lemonade.  

I got them at Walmart - probably could have gotten them cheaper on Amazon if I'd have planned ahead better, but they were a fun addition and Alex LOVES these so it worked out perfect.

I found these signs on Etsy and bought the digital version of them and then printed them out and threw them in a frame.  Quick and easy decorations.  

There's no such thing as a party at my house without Great Grandma's sugar cookies.  I made them into stars & crosses.  

And I served them on these super cute Fruits of the Spirit plates.  My kiddos love them!  I found them at the MOPS convention I went to a few weeks ago & I try to let the kids pick which fruit they want to work on each morning based on the plate they choose.  

For our craft this year I bought some masks from Oriental Trading and had the kiddos decorate them.  I also had leftover super hero flying things so I put those out as well.

Food was not fancy at all this year - we went with a bunch of snacky stuff and then got some Papa Murphy's pizzas.  Super easy.

I did put wrapping paper on all the tables to make things look a little prettier & then added these Pray, Believe & Strength stickers to it to make it more Jesus - Super Hero-ish.  

And finally, the party favors.  I found these SUPER cute "Little Bible Heroes" books at my MOPS conference, too.  I paired them with the super hero flyers & wrapped them up for each of the kiddos to take home along with their cape and super hero juice bottle.  

Another party in the books!  Happy 3rd birthday Alexander Brooks!  We love you SOOOOOOOO much!!!!

Happy 3rd birthday Alex

Oh sweet boy, how is it that we are already celebrating 3?!?!  I thank God for you every day and the gift that you are to our family and everyone you meet.  You have this sweet, silly, expressive, outgoing personality that brings a smile to everyone around you.  You are SOOOOO stinkin' cute and your goofy personality just makes you EVEN cuter!  I am so humbled that God picked me to be your mama.

Last night you told me that you would always be my baby - "I promise, mama" - which is good because in the last few months you've moved into a big boy bed, mastered potty training

AND gotten rid of your nuk!!

 Woot Woot!  Despite that, you are still my baby boy and you still love a good snuggle and all the bed time stories I am willing to read you.

 

So, what are you up to these days?

-You are a mama's boy...100%.  And this mama wouldn't have it any other way!  Daddy gets pretty bummed out about it from time to time, but I'm sure you'll switch over once you get a little older.

-Despite that, your favorite thing to do is play baseball with daddy.  You went for a streak where every day after work, you would put on your Brewer clothes and Daddy would take you in the backyard to play.

-You LOVE the Brewers.  You actually did great at the few games we went to this year - you love to watch the game

and you can't wait for Bernie to go down the slide.

 We even got to meet Hank the dog this year and you were SO excited and SO petrified at the same time.  You finally did calm down enough to go over and smile with him.  

You ask me all the time "Mama, can we go to brewgame sometime?  Can we watch Bernie go down the slide, can we?"  and when I say sure, buddy, sometime you say "yayyyyyy!!! in THE most excited little voice and with the most exited little look on your face.  I don't have the heart to tell you they didn't make the playoffs and it will be awhile before we'll make it to a game.

-You are into just about everything.  Your favorite toys are your Paw Patrol cars, Race track and Blaze but if Sissy likes to play with it, you like to play with it too.  You love to play with her Strawberry Shortcake figurines and her Shopkins.  And you LOVE to play outside with your friend Jakey, too!

-You love to watch Blaze, Paw Patrol and Daniel Tiger.  You will also watch any show that Makenna likes and this morning requested Sophia the First at breakfast time.  Ha!

-You LOVE to read.  You will sit and sit and sit and sit while I read to you, listening so intently and soaking it all in.  Your current favorite is the bible which makes my heart SO happy.  I pray that you will always have such a love and passion for God's Word.

-You get up WAY too early.  It started out when Mama decided she was going to try to get up early and read her bible before you kiddos got up.  I started out at 6am and I think I got 2 days in before you started waking up at 6:05 and coming down to see what I was doing.  The earlier I got up, the earlier you got up, always saying - "Mommy, I come read my bible with you?"  You'd sit on the couch and read back to me whatever bible story we had read recently - it's amazing how your little brain just soaks up everything around you.  Mama finally gave up on getting quiet time in the morning by myself and now you come into my room at 6am on the dot every morning and say "Mama, you go downstairs and read your bible now?!"  Nothing like being convicted by your almost 3 year old.....

-You are LOVING school.  You go 2 days a week and you love it there.  You are learning bible verses and lots of songs.

-You are also still LOVING Ms. Jamie's house.  She takes such great care of you and you have really settled into the routine at their house.  You and Rocco are best buds and your favorite things to do at his house are hunt for bugs and frogs and play with all his toys.

-You are a STINKER when it comes to learning colors and letters.  Eventually I'm sure you'll get it, but right now nothing is sticking.  Oh well.  At least you're cute:)

-You adore your sister.  You two really do get along great most of the time.  You love to chase each other in the mornings and you want to do whatever she is doing.

-You are still obsessed with your best neighbor boy Ben.  You give him a big hug every morning at the bus stop and really can't get enough of him.  Ben adores you and he even taught you how to pee in the woods standing up.  Now THAT'S a good friend!

 

-Your favorite person in the world is probably Grandpa.  You love going to the zoo to see him and anytime I mention his name, your whole face lights up.  

Little boy you are such a sweetheart and we love you so much!  You are so silly and you make us laugh every single day.  We love you Alexander Brooks!  Happy 3rd birthday!!

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