Super Sonic Birthday Party

With each passing year comes new interests. My son has been pretty consistent with his love of sharks and dinosaurs, but this year he added Sonic the Hedgehog to the list. He really digs Sega’s speedy, spiky hedgehog, which has translated into labels for his school supplies to this year’s Halloween costume (his little sister was Tails) and his Super Sonic Sixth Birthday Party.

Truth be told, this party was thrown together as an afterthought. We planned to take the kids to Legoland Florida for a birthday/post-deployment vacation, but since our kids are at the age where birthdays are major events, we didn’t want to miss celebrating with his classmates and friends. So I whipped up this invitation, sent it to family and friends, and planned the party in about a week.

That said, I couldn’t find any Sonic-themed party decorations in stores so I ended up ordering a Sonic tablecloth, plates, napkins and temporary tattoos online from Party City that thankfully arrived the day before the party. To further incorporate the theme, I printed out Sonic and Friends on card stock and cut them out to decorate the food table.

A Sonic Tattoo Station (just add a spray water bottle and washcloth) was set up for party-goers to get in the super Sonic spirit.

To mimic the Gold Rings that Sonic collects in the game, we sprayed three foam rings from the Dollar Store with gold paint. We adhered Sonic characters and suspended them with fishing line above the food table.

I used 5×7″ red organza drawstring bags (similar to these) as Goodie Bags and filled them with Ring Pops, car-shaped LED finger lights, glow bracelets, mazes, paper poppers and plastic gems. The remainder of the gems were thrown about to resemble the coveted Chaos Emeralds.

To round out the decorations, I used red, blue, yellow and white streamers. Since tape doesn’t stick well to our orange peel walls, I taped streamers to a tension rod and set it inside the window frame. I also hung a tension rod with streamers and balloons above the foyer doorway to make a fun entrance. The tension rods made decorating quick and easy and clean-up a breeze.

I failed to take pictures of the food table, but we set out a fruit tray and our usual charcuterie board. Chips and popcorn were served in galvanized buckets similar to what I do for football parties, and hot dogs were at the ready in the crock pot. The Chief fired up the grill for hamburgers and homemade baked beans and potato salad were prepared on the side.

For dessert, I baked a homemade funfetti cake, popped a Sonic mini figurine on top and voila!

With the success of the bounce house at last year’s party, we repeated it this year but added a slide. Hours of quality entertainment.

Happy kids = Happy parents = Happy party!

Thank you so much to everyone who came to celebrate our sweet boy!
We are truly blessed with some amazing friends!  — v.