The months leading up to Jack’s third birthday I started asking him what kind of birthday celebration he wanted to have. Jack was very fairly confident in his decision to initially have a Toy Story/Avenger themed birthday. As we inched closer to his birthday, he leaned heavily on Spider-Man. I decided that was the direction and got to planning.
His second birthday was a dud. He was recovering from a night in the hospital and an asthma/pneumonia diagnosis, and was just a trooper through it all (he opened a few gifts and we got him a few themed balloons). This year, I was determined to redeem his big day. Despite being able to celebrate with friends and family, and an already complicated birthday timeline (post Christmas), I wanted to make sure Jack knew how special his birthday should be. So, we took down Christmas on the 26th, and set up everything while he was sleeping on the 27th so he could wake up to his decorations on the 28th!
So how does one keep a low-key, immediate family only, birthday celebration, yet still do Spider-Man justice? A balloon garland, of course. I attempted a balloon garland for Jack’s first birthday and while I did it, the one I created this time around is far superior. In thanks to the electric balloon inflator. I will never attempt to blow up a balloon again with out one.
I stumbled upon Lushra, a company out of Dallas, TX during one late night nursing session with Lucy. I could customize the balloon colors, I ordered the electric inflator, and they had a very easy DIY YouTube video I followed – the key is to tie the balloons to each other instead of tying off individual balloons and killing your fingers. Then you simple twist the balloon duos together to great little ‘pods’ and then twist clear fishing line to string the garland. The overall process to blow up the balloons took maybe 30 minutes, and stringing the balloons and hanging maybe another 30 minutes. Literally the hardest part of the entire process was deciding how to hang it on our wall.
For Jack’s gifts, I used left over Kraft paper and black duck tape for the windows. I found all of our Spider-Man toys around the house and propped them on the table. We didn’t do anything special for food other than I made an egg-free funfetti cake (I attempted to use food coloring to get both blue and red layers, but it ended up looking more like a poorly made gender-reveal cake). Jack loved the cake, regardless of how it looked. The only other special thing we got for him was a fun Spider-Man themed t-shirt I found on Etsy that he could wear to school that day.
I’m so happy with how it turned out, and Jack absolutely LOVED it which made it all worth it. He’s already asking when is birthday is again so he can have a Batman birthday next time. :)
