Throwing A Ghostbusters Birthday Party

My son has been absolutely obsessed with Ghostbusters for two years now. Ever since he saw his first episode of Extreme Ghostbusters on Hulu. His birthday theme last year was Blaze and the Monster Machines already and it was too late to change the theme, so my husband and I secretly hoped that he still liked Ghostbusters the following year so we could do that as his birthday theme. My children are mini nerds and are certainly mini versions of my husband and I. It runs pretty deep in the family, actually. My brother-in-law has a Ghostbusters costume he wears regularly complete with an awesome proton pack, and recently he even purchased a car to turn into the Ecto-1. 

I plan both of my kiddos birthdays literally as soon as the previous one is over and it seems like I get bigger with it each year. For my son's first birthday, the theme was "Little Man" and I spent days making home made bow ties for all the party guests to wear as well as family shirts.  His second birthday was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle theme. Of course we all dressed as TMNTs for that one. Third birthday was army themed, which everyone raved about and my husband fell in love with the decorations as he's an army lover. And of course, as I said, last year was Blaze and the Monster Machine themed. 

I don't know how I'm going to top each year and I imagine that at some point my children's birthday parties are going to rival that horrible MTV series My Super Sweet 16 or whatever the heck that show is called. You know the one. It's where all these super entitled 15 year olds get lavish birthday parties that make your eyes roll right out of your head. Hopefully I am never going to be that parent, but these birthday parties take as much time to plan as my blog posts do. 

Despite Ghostbusters releasing a new movie in the franchise, it's incredibly hard to find Ghostbusters party supplies. I was able to use plain black and green plates, forks, table clothes, napkins and such, but there are no plates or cups or banners with an actual Ghostbusters theme, unless you have them specially made by someone on Etsy. I had to use a little creativity with the decorations. 

The slime splats and dripping slime were green table cloths that I cut up. I just drew they slime shape on the table cloths, cut them out and hung them up. That took far longer than I had intended it to, and I'll be honest, I was crying and wanting to give up 1/3 of the way into that long one that hung above the living room entry. 

On top of not being able to find much for the party, decoration wise, we had literally just arrived home from vacation and I had 5 days to get ready for this party. You can see my stack of "work" and the upcoming giveaway I'm hosting under the foyer table. To say I was stressing out, would be an understatement. 

Quite honestly, the splats turned out much better than I expected even though literal tears went into them. Every single year my family mentions that my kiddos are lucky to have a parent who goes all out with the birthday parties, but that's just me with everything, really. Here's a confession: that proton pack is actually mine. Yep, I have a Ghostbusters costume, too. Told you we were nerds. 

I looked all over town for a Ghostbusters poster to add to the wall behind the cupcake table, but since the original movie is like 30 years old, that was a no-go, as we figured it would be. I know I could have ordered one online, but I ran out of time. busy mom life be damned. I shudder at the dripping slime. I think I have PTSD from those things. They were NOT fun to make, although they were worth it based on everyone's reaction to them.

This cupcake tower gets so much love through the year. I even use it on the cookie table for fudge and cookies during the holidays. Anyway, the cupcakes are vanilla cake with green vanilla "slime" pudding in the center, and green "slime" frosting on top. These didn't last long. All of them were gone before the party was over. For some reason, I can make boxed cake mix every single time and my mother-in-law always asks how I made them. Every. Single. Time. 

My real intention with the punch was to make Ecto-Cooler, but I didn't have time for that, so I made my regular party punch with green Hawaiian Punch (instead of red), and used orange sherbet (instead of raspberry). Walmart was being weird and for once didn't have lime sherbet. usually when I send my husband for raspberry, they are out of it and he has to get lime. This time, there as no lime. Figures. The green and orange reminded me so much of 90's Nickelodeon, which had me thinking about the next party theme, for us adults obviously. 

I think despite all the trouble I had finding and making things, that this is my favorite theme so far. I say that every single year though.

What about you? Do you attend or plan themed parties? If so, what's been your favorite?