Avengers Assembled for Captain Luke America's 4th Birthday.........

Lucas Lynn at 4 Years.......

Fun Loving, Sweet, Cuddly & Very Protective

Goofy 

Our Little Monkey Man

Fav Foods: Mac&Chz, Chicken Nuggets, corn dogs, spaghetti & chinese

Loves Animals, especially puppies

buried in puppies

Loves Baths- takes 4+ a day!

Loves to help Cook

mmmm, popcorn

Dare Devil

Lukie's Best Friends at 4..... Griffen & Riggin

Riggin, Luke & Griffen 2012

Right before Luke's 4th Birthday he had surgery to remove his right inguinal lymph node as there was a mass in it, later found to be benign. Full post HERE.

When shopping for Birthday Party Supplies & presents, Luke decided to put the avengers toys back and get a blue Beta fish with red fins as his birthday present instead. He named him....... "CAPTAIN AMERICAN" of course!!!!

NOW FOR THE PARTY......


Lukie was adamant he have his birthday at Watiki Waterpark like Andy had. He has loved Captain America for some time. He was Captain America for Halloween right after his 3rd birthday which furthered his love, then the movie previews started and he was in little boy euphoria. Eventually he decided to be in love with all the Avengers, but Captain America will always be his all time favorite. 

When planning his birthday, I tried to see about not renting a room at the hotel attached to Watiki and instead doing a few activities poolside or out on the grass. This was extremely challenging and the cost was more than if we rented the room and got discounted wristbands. So that is what we decided to do. We reserved a room at La Quinta Inn & planned to begin swimming around 3, followed by a soup supper & cake in the room, some games and presents, then more swimming. 


Let the planning begin....






Motel rooms are small and crowded, and this one was not going to be the suite we got last time for Andy's birthday that housed 22 people. Even though there is limited space, it is in your best interest to have some activities planned to keep little ones busy and make meaningful memories.

 At Andy's birthday we did some activities before checking in and then a scavenger hunt in the room. I knew I wanted to do a scavenger hunt again. They hold attention, burn energy and take some time to play out, not to mention built in party favors!!













I always write my own clues....

"Thor thought he would lend you his HAMMER as well. To find it, you will need to LOOK INTO THE NIGHT!"

Thor's Hammer made from toiletpaper roll and Avengers pencil. 

Some other things they got were Hulk's molding dough, Avengers erasers to help erase Loki's evil, masks, capes & shields. 

I am super cheap, or the term we like to use in this house, "thrifty". So I print and homemake as much as I can. I found Frisbees for 25-50 cents in the clearance isle at WalMart for the shields. I measure the circle in the middle with the print on it, then printed Captain American's emblem and placed it over the Frisbee image using packing tape over the whole surface to seal it down. They turned out super cute!

For the capes I made them out of $1 vinyl table clothes. I could get around 4-6 per table cloth. I then drew a Superman emblem with the letter of their first names in the middle using Sharpies. I used a hole puncher and strung yarn through for the ties. They didn't last super long but most made it through the party. I didn't want to make the expensive cloth ones as I knew most of my guests were not the type to keep them after and we had spent quite a bit on the room already. My budget for birthdays is $150 including decorations, invites, cake, entertainments, favors and gift!!!!! I am usually pretty darn close, and have even been under before!!!

I also wanted to come up with a couple other simple activities to do. I searched the web, Pinterest, Blogs & my own personal collections of party ideas and early childhood curriculum. 

I decided on Pass the Parcel. This is a game where you start with a big present that is passed around the circle of guests while music plays. When it stops that person holding it gets to unwrap it. Inside they find a small prize and another wrapped box. This continues as each child unwraps a party favor & the boxes get smaller. 

I had my own scavenger hunt finding all these boxes to fit inside of each other and hold a prize. I ended up with 12 though. Lukie helped me wrap them all. He did a really good job and I will be calling upon him at Christmas. 

I had also printed some paper masks and paper playsets which I laminated.

We forgot to hand these out at the party & had to deliver them later, darn it!!


I had also traced Luke's hand and arm onto red construction paper as Captain America's gloves. These were to hold napkins and silverware. I left the pile at home :( 

I figured these activities could keep them busy for an hour after eating and presents. If we needed more, I would have them play an Avengers version of "Keep it Up" with the decoration Avenger balloons. I also had some cheapo generic Superhero 3D masks and decor I picked up for $.50 at Walmart in the clearance isle that were fun to walk around and try to grab things. 

Then there was the great cake hunt. Again, thrifty & creative, I HAVE to make my own cakes. My poor mother-in-law always offers to help with the cakes but I really enjoy doing them and always offer she make one for them to have when we open presents with them. Luke and I poured over Avenger cake images and considered a couple. Our favorites were...

We decided to do something like this, but no fondant, yuk.

It turns out it was pretty hot this weekend and I should have frozen the cake. :( It had started to get warm and melt before we were even done loading the van, by the time we got to the hotel an hour away, it was a sloppy mess. We decided to place the Avengers figurines on top anyway and say they smashed it in battle. The kids loved it and that is what really matters.

Invitations went out.......

I try to hand deliver as I feel it is more personal, however it is highly inconvenient this busy day in age with the conveniences of technology so quick at hand. So I also use picture texting and Facebook messaging to invite as well. 



We stopped for lunch with Grandpa and Grandma Tat our favorite China Buffet before heading to the hotel. 

Then we had to stop and get dad some new trunk at Target....

They were on clearance super cheap. We seen some party guests there and were in no big hurry as we had plenty of time, or so we thought......



When we got to the hotel and I was checking in, I was nearly tackled by my sister, brother, niece, nephew and mom who had driven 8 hours to come surprise us for Luke's Birthday!!!!!!! They had been looking out the window waiting for us for nearly two hours as they knew I had intended to get there after lunch to set up (ooops)!!!! 

They had a sign on our door accross the hall from theirs and everything. It was great!!!

The rest of the crew went down to swim and meet guests while I set up the room.........

All of a sudden the motel decided to switch to WHITE comforters from red!!! OH NO!!!!!   A dozen little kids with chili and cake with bright frosting, YIKES!!!! So after a moment of near panic, I found my extra table cloth, cut it in half and lined the beds where I was having the children sit. FEW!

Going Down...

Table on the mezinae. Sometimes you can't find one. 

my little helper

we scored these at sidewalk sales in the mall for $1.24-$2.49!!!

Thor's Hammers for scavenger hunt.

Captain America's Shields

Hulk's Practice Smash Putty

Soup Station for Supper

SWIM TIME!!!!

PARTY TIME!!!!!

scavenger hunt.....

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!!!!!!!

In the morning it was Luke's real birthday and we did his bday breakfast at the hotel's complimentary breakfast with waffles. Grandma Walker, Tiff, Braden Gage & Gabby were all there....

Happy Birthday Lukie Lynn!