Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man - Ansel is 3!

It's hard to believe that the youngest in our family has turned three this year. Yup, how did those fleeting years pass us by and how is it that my preemie is now a toddler who is considered tall for his age? Oh wow, that is the amazing thing about having kids and I count my blessings every day that I get to stay home with my babies and witness every of their growing up milestones. 

Well, it's been 15 years since I held my first themed celebration for the firstborn and I'm happy to say that we are still going strong in terms of DIY parties. I asked Ansel what theme he would like for his 3rd birthday and gave him a list of suggestions. He made up his mind without much hesitation and surprisingly, he didn't waver from his decision so I knew this was it. YESH, we were gonna have a SPIDER-MAN PARTY!

Here's sharing more about Ansel's big day, including the costumes, decorations, games, activities and fun highlights. We kept it as an intimate family affair - it helps me to include more hands-on activities and make sure every child gets to play to his/her heart's content - and boy, oh boy did we have a blast. Read on to find out more.

 The Setup

Since the party was held in the comfort of our home, I knew I had to do something to create a beautiful backdrop and jazz things up a little. So I started searching online and got this reasonably priced, eye-catching banner which was the main highlight of the decorations. Nice, right? It fitted the occasion perfectly because the kids were dressed up as Spider-Man, Miles and Gwen. Yup, the kids had just watched the Spider-Verse series on Netflix which was also why the memories were fresh and why Ansel chose this theme.

Besides the banner, I also bought these Spider-Man balloons and guess what, I painstakingly blew up over 40 of them on my own. Yes, don't ask me why I didn't use a pump, I just felt it was easier at that time to blow them before I realised it actually took me lots of effort and time. Haha. 

So I tied them together and stuck some of them onto the wall and ceiling in creating the backdrop, and the highlights were this cute foil Spider-Man balloon with a huge head and another squatting Spider-Man which we placed in the corner and let him hold onto a number '3'. I also bought gold alphabet balloons which spelt the name 'Ansel' so as to personalise the wall.

Besides balloons and banners, another decoration we used was these hanging swirls which we placed at the bedroom door and in the living room. The sparkling swirls added shimmer to the house and yup, we were officially in party mode.

That wasn't too hard to set up and it didn't cost a bomb. The best part was we didn't have to take it down instantly after the party like we would if we had rented a place instead. In fact, Ansel loved it so much that I kept everything intact for a month after the party ended. Haha. It's been over four months now and his name and the Spider-Man balloon are still on the wall as I type this. Yes, gotta make the most of it!

The Outfits

As for the costumes, I ordered these outfits online for the kids and was glad that they were not too costly. At first, I thought I would get it for Ansel only but it turned out that the Korkor said he would love to dress up too. So I checked with Ariel and she said it would be cool to be Gwen. Then I asked the eldest, who is now a teenager, and amazingly she said she didn't mind wearing the costume too to join in the fun. So yup, we got a total of four costumes for the kids eventually while the hubby and I just pasted Spider-Man cutouts onto our tees, haha. 

This picture is very precious to me because I love seeing the four of them together like that. I mean, it kind of shows their love for the little brother because they don't mind doing this even though some of them have clearly outgrown the love for superheroes already. It's super sweet and it's a symbol of sibling love, at least to me. Check out their poses!

The Games

As always, the games were what the kids looked forward to and enjoyed the most so I made sure that I had prepared a whole bunch of fun activities for them to play. Woohoo, let's see what we did!

1) Marvel Trivia

First up, we had a trivia game whereby I would ask them Marvel related questions. Examples include "Who acted as Spider-Man?", "Name the villains in Spider-Man", "Who is the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D?", "Who lives in Wakanda?" and so on. The kids had fun pressing the buzzer - I bought these from Daiso and they not only have sound but can pop up too - and it was fun to see who got there first.

Of course, Ansel barely knew any of the answers but his beloved brother and sisters would whisper the answer in his eye and let him go first, much to his delight. Awww, that was super sweet. Catch the snippets in the video below.

2) Reaction Test

I've always loved this game at carnivals so I got this cheap version online which suited the occasion perfectly. Yup, the sticks would take turns to fall - you can adjust the speed and difficulty - and you have to catch them one by one. Well, Spider-Man do need to have a fast reaction time and be nimble with their hands, so this was a truly apt game for party.

The kids had lots of fun laughing when the sticks dropped, they tried catching with one hand, and we also took turns to help Ansel who was thrilled whenever he caught a stick.

3)  Avengers BINGO

This has always been one of our favourite games so I absolutely had to include it. Of course, it had to be Marvel themed in order to match the party and I have to say that the characters look really cute. We like to use love seeds to mark the numbers on our Bingo cards and the prizes for this game was stationery that the winner could choose from.

4) Agility Challenge

Looks familiar? Yup, we played something similar for Angel's spy party years ago but this spider web, or so called laser tag, game cannot be missed from a Spider-Man party. Remember I said I blew up dozens of balloons? Well, more than half of them were here to act as obstacles for our maze.

Basically, this game a test of agility and you have to cross from one end to another without touching the web. Yup, fun! I also made each of the kids dance a victory dance when they got to the other side and you should see it in the video later, we simply laughed so much!

I guess it isn't very fair when some of the kids are much taller than the rest but it heartened me to see all of them trying without complaints. Even the firstborn, who is now almost as tall as me, tried her best to cross the web and she exercised caution and tried her best not to touch the web when it would have been easier to just give up and say "I can't do it". 

5) Save the Hostages

This was a game I invented and what the kids had to do was to 'rescue' the hostages, which included Spider-Man's loved ones like Aunt May, Ned and MJ, as well as our own family members. Haha, yesh, I made the effort to photoshop each and every one of us and laminated all the cutouts.

Using web shooters that can be attached to the wrists, I tied a string to the suction darts. So you just have to aim at the person you wanna save, shoot, and then slowly tug the string till you successfully pull him/her off the glass. I thought it was quite a smart and fun game, no?

6) Shoot the Villains

This was a hit with the kids and what they had to do was to shoot the villains where were made of cutouts stuck onto paper cups. What did we use to shoot? Well, this was the fun part - Party String!

The string resembled a spider web and it was fun for the kids to pretend that they had powers and they were all squealing with joy as we played till the very last can of string was used up.

7) Accuracy Test

Half a dozen games and more to come! We moved on to the second part of our party and it was held at the pool. To test their aim and accuracy, I put up this banner for a beanbag toss game where the kids had to see how much they could score by throwing the beanbags into the different holes.

It was a super windy day and it took us long to get the banner stand to be stable and not flip over, but it was all worthwhile because the birthday boy asked to play the game again and again. Seeing you happy makes me happy, my love.

8) Spider Hunt

Next, together with his siblings and cousin, Ansel wss tasked to hunt for nine spiders which were hidden in the pool. These were from our own animal figurine stash and I'm glad we could gather so many spiders!

9) Make 'em Fall

This wss another shooting game where the kids had to use water guns to shoot the villains and make the balls fall down from the cones. Water play is always fun and to make it even more exciting, we paired up to have a race in order to determine who did it in the fastest time.

10) Pass the Message

Last but not least, we played a broken telephone game where the kids had to use walkie talkies to pass messages to each other. These messages include lines like "My name is Peter Parker", "With great power comes great responsibility", "I am your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man" and so on.

It was harder than expected because the sounds were a little muffled - these were cheap walkie talkies after all - but the fun part was in the trying and it was a great way to end off the games too.

While the kids were playing and I was busy being the game master, the hubby was also busy cooking up a storm for the family. Yup, barbeque food is simply the best, so yummy! It was nice that the extended family came over to join in the celebration so as to make this party even more fun and memorable for the little one.

Check out Ansel's Spider-Man ice cream cake! He picked this design himself and was insistent to have a blue one as it is his favourite colour. Awww, I love seeing your big and wide smile, my dear baby boy.

He loves blowing out the candles and would always ask to do it again and again, to which I would gladly oblige. I mean, how many years more would this take place, right? Before I know it, he will outgrow so many of the things that he loves now so these growing up years of this lastborn of mine are especially precious.

Was that the end? Well, not really. After dinner, we still played with bubbles and sparklers and when everything was cleared up, we went home to bathe and continued with..... Round 2 of games!

This time round, all our parents joined in so this was a special Grandparents-and-kids edition. Our parents took turns to catch the falling sticks, my mum attempted to crawl through the web maze, we had a trivia session where we asked about general knowledge questions so both the young and old could answer, our mums played Bingo with the kids and our dads bonded over beer and laughter. It was a totally awesome way to wrap up the night.

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To my dearest Ansel,

Happy turning 3! I still remember the day you kicked your way out into this world when you were barely 35 weeks old. I was so worried that you would be weak and small but you were a healthy 2.54kg for a preemie and I was just so, so thankful to bring you home. 

Since then, you've grown so fast and the last we measured, the nurse told me that you were taller than average for your age (around the 70th percentile, I think) and she couldn't tell that you were a premature baby at all, woohoo! You are the 小宝贝 of our family and everyone, including Papa, Mama and your siblings, dote on you so, so much. Well, I'm sure you know that by now and I hope you are as happy as we are to be in this humble family.

Now that you've started talking a lot, I enjoy our daily conversations and all the cute things you say. You never fail to brighten up my day and you chase away the blues whenever I am feeling low. Every time I feel sad, I just have to hold your tiny hand in mine or give you a kiss on the cheek and you make my world feel right again. Thank you for being the adorable, wonderful you and for being a truly amazing gift for our family.

I hope you've enjoyed your Spider-Man party thoroughly and made lots of happy memories. Judging by how you love to watch and re-watch your video, I think you had fun being the birthday boy and playing all the games, right? You make everything worthwhile, my dear, and for you, I would gladly climb the highest mountain.

Take your time to grow up and may you be my healthy, happy, loving and kind baby boy always. I love you to the moon and back and I always will. 

Love, 

Mama

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That marks the end of Ansel's 3rd birthday celebration! Thank you to everyone who helped to make it a success and to you for reading this post too! 

We love you, dear Ansel! 生日快乐哦！

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To see more of the action and fun happenings from Ansel's Spider-Man party, click on the video below.

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Read more on Ansel's birthday parties here:

Ansel is 1 - Baby Shark Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo

Ansel is 2 - Let's Have a Cocomelon Party