Yesterday we celebrated Ranger's 14th birthday! FOURTEEN!!! Didn't he just turn seven?!? They are sure growing up fast, but I am really enjoying this new season of family life with teens. Our older boys are turning into such amazing young men!
The birthday boy didn't have any special requests this year so we actually weren't going to do a theme, maybe just take him somewhere special, but I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to "Assemble" an Avenger's themed party, focusing on Thor, inspired by his graham cracker creation this past New Year's Eve!
Saturday was packed with hockey games, practice, and lessons from 8am-3pm then my husband and I attended a dinner/fundraiser for our parish's home for homeless pregnant and parenting teens from 5pm-10:30pm, but we were able to stop at the store for some supplies before driving home. Surprisingly it all came together and ended up being a perfect theme for our teen!
.: pop•tarts :.
I asked our oldest son if he had any suggestions for Thor... He replied, "Ummmm, Pop-Tarts?" Great idea! We don't usually buy Pop-Tarts (when I buy toaster pastries I opt for the Nature's Path or Trader Joe's brands) but we went with official Pop-Tarts for the birthday boy. Sean picked out the S'mores flavor and it was a hit. The birthday boy found the box on the kitchen counter in the morning along with a quote from the movie. Even though the "entire box" was for him, he still shared some of them with his siblings!
.: "This Drink... I like it!" :.
"ANOTHER!"
After Mass we came home and I got started baking the cake and pulling together some other fun treats for the day while the older boys played Marvel Super Heroes on the Wii. Just before dinner Sean drove him back to town for his free birthday coffee. Thor really liked coffee, right? ;)
.: Avengers Popcorn Bar :.
I decided to put together a snack and popcorn bar for our movie night, incorporating popcorn add-ins for each of the various Avengers!
I made up some food labels on the computer while the cake was baking and Chiquita drew some images to add as well! (She also printed and colored the birthday card pictured on the table next to his cake!)
Avengers Popcorn Add-Ins:
Thor's Hammer: Silver Marshmallows with Pretzel Sticks (or just use marshmallows for hammerheads)
Black Widow Bites: Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Flavor
Hulk's Smash Hands: Wonderful Roasted & Salted Pistachios
Nick Fury's Eye Patch: York Minis
Iron Man's Arc Reactors: Twizzler Mixed Berry Bites (I was trying to avoid food coloring as much as possible, but couldn't get to the health food store late Saturday night for Raspberry Chews...)
Hawk Eye's Bow and Arrows: Flipz Milk Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Captain America's Shield: Little Secret's Milk Chocolates with Mini Marshmallows (Not cheap, but they make my daughter, who is allergic to Red40, very happy!)
And just for fun: Avenger's Cheeze-Its
.: Avengers Assemble Pizza Party :.
A google image search provides tons of inspiration for Avengers themed party foods! I decided, for our teen's birthday, to go with pizza.
I picked up six frozen cheese pizzas, a package of pepperoni, and some veggies Saturday night and they came together quick and easy on Sunday afternoon! The birthday boy was so surprised when he arrived home from getting his coffee to see them all assembled. I did have some help!
Avengers Logo Pizza: Pepperoni, sliced into strips and arranged on pizza
Captain America's Shield Pizza: Pepperoni and Star Shaped Slice of Cheese
Thor's Hammer Pizza: Red & Yellow Frozen Peppers and three slices of Turkey Lunch Meat (Canadian Bacon would have probably worked better, but we had this in the fridge and the kids loved it!)
Incredible Hulk Pizza: Lots of Green Veggies (we used broccoli, green pepper, green onions, asparagus, and sliced brussels sprouts)
Black Widow Pizza: Sliced Black Olives and a slice from the end of a vine ripened tomato
Iron Man Pizza: Pepperoni, extra cheddar cheese, two slices of mushrooms
.: Thor's Hammer Birthday Cake :.
“Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.”
The cake wasn't as easy to make as I thought it would be. The cake itself was fine, but that hammer... I should have just had Ranger make me another one out of graham crackers!
I was going to grab some "Java Thunder" ice cream, since Thor (that hammer-wielding god associated with thunder) liked coffee so much, but the store was out so we went with "Chocolate Brownie Thunder" instead.
Rose practiced playing "Happy Birthday" on her harp all last week in preparation for her big brothers birthday, and he got all those candles out in just one try.
.: Birthday Gifts :.
Homemade cards and book markers from his siblings, a card/gift from Sean's parents, a gift certificate for an hour long golf lesson from my parents, a new track jacket (Costco has a great deal on these - Captain has the Dark Gray and we got Ranger the Gray), the complete trilogy of The Hobbit (Extended Edition), and lots of LEGO... He was pretty excited!
I had purchased The Louvre last Thanksgiving during a Barnes & Noble sale and ended up not needing it for Christmas. Ranger loves the Architecture series and this will be another great addition to his collection.
For nearly a year I have been searching for an inexpensive replacement set of The Battle of Helm's Deep. It has always been one of his favorite LEGO sets but he used it as the base of the cathedral he is building, not thinking that it was going to turn into such an extensive project and that he may not want to take the cathedral apart, at least not for quite some time. I finally found a set of just the bricks (no mini-figures, etc) for a great price on ebay. Hopefully they are all there... I guess we'll see! (I love Captain's smile in this picture... He had helped me search for this particular gift. He did not, however, have any clue about the next gift!)
Ranger's last gift was an even bigger surprise. It was another amazing deal I found last year, this one from Amazon, for a "like new but damaged box" LEGO Tower of Orthanac! He now has plenty of bricks to keep him busy for a long time at least another week or so... maybe a little longer due to the boy's full high school and hockey schedule! Now if I could just find a great deal on some gray roof tiles for that cathedral.... ;)
Happy 14th Birthday!