Tom turns 30, Superhero Style

On August 9th, Tom turned 30. It was only fitting to have a party to mark the occasion. Tom and I are nerds at heart, and Tom is a huge comic book fan, so it was only fitting to have an Avengers themed party. I wish I took more pictures of the event, but unfortunately I was not yet blogging at the time and I was hosting the party so, you know how it goes.

I will begin by saying that I put special care into making sure that the party stayed adult, and appropriate for someone turning 30. This was not the easiest task, every time I searching Pinterest or Google for superhero birthday themes I would find stuff for little kids but never for big "kids." To create a cohesive theme, I purchased Avengers plates, napkins, and a birthday banner from the local party store. Then I went to the dollar store and purchased a solid red table cloth and silver tinsel to create a tablescape. This was because I was not willing to pay $7.00 for an Avengers tablecloth that I was just going to throw away, I also did not want to overdo the Avengers gear. I also purchased the classic red Solo cups, because the kids size paper cups are too small. I finished the decor with red and silver balloons scattered around the apartment and red, white, and blue streamers. It's not a birthday party without streamers.

The menu was a simple collection of some of Tom's favorite foods; pulled pork, kielbasa, terriyaki burgers, potato salad, and cole slaw. I also served fruit punch to drink. Tom and I are trying to start a family, so we are on alcohol restriction. Guests were more than welcome to bring their own if they wanted. The centerpiece of the table was the cake. I based the cake off of scene from the movie "Thor" in which Thor's hammer was stuck in a mound of dirt. Tom wanted a chocolate cake, so chocolate is what he got. The bottom of the cake is a two layer chocolate fudge cake filled with chocolate butter cream. the top layer is actually a double fudge brownie, and then I frosted the whole cake with more chocolate butter cream. I used  more brownie pieces to resemble dirt and surrounded the whole thing with brown sugar "sand." The topper is a Nerf Thor's hammer that Tom had been eyeing for quite a while. It was a fun cake to make in that it was essentially impossible to mess up. The finished product looked as though I made a chocolate cake and the hammer smashed into it. Just the look I was going for.

Overall it was a great evening of good company. We had a good group of friends over, and we enjoyed playing various board games until late into the evening. Tom absolutely loved it and was still smiling the next day. To go along with the theme, I gave Tom an Avengers comic book. Later on, on his actual birthday, I took him shopping for some camping gear for our upcoming camping trip, but more on that later.