guest post: throwing a super WHY party

Birthday Girl is pleased to present the first post in a monthly series, written by guest contributor Leslie Blumenstein. Today's topic? Throwing a Super WHY theme Party...

Leslie Blumenstein is a work at home mom of one busy little guy. She is a freelance writer and covers a range of topics with a special focus on party planning. She is a regular contributor to PurpleTrail.com, a comprehensive party planning site. Her passion for entertaining has led her to become an expert on budget party planning without sacrificing style. From baby showers to back yard barbecues, she’s done it all – without breaking the bank.


My son was turning 3 and when I asked him what type of party he wanted he said enthusiastically, “Super WHY!” I thought, “That’s a great idea”. Super WHY is a fun show from the PBS family of children’s programs and it is a perfect theme for a preschooler’s birthday party. Then I started looking for supplies only to find there aren’t any! So I dug into my party planning tool bag and began to think creatively. Here’s what I came up with.

The Invitations

I used the PurpleTrail Design Center and created a custom Super WHY invitation. It was easy and very affordable. I kept it simple. I just uploaded a Super Why image, added my text and party details and ordered my invites. I choose to order postcard style invitations to cut down on postage costs.

The Food

I kept the food easy and very kid friendly. One of the characters on the show is named Princess Pea. Her main saying is, “peas and carrots, carrots and peas, book come out please, please, please!” So I made delicious cold pea salad and cut up carrot sticks to serve with some dip. Wonder Red – a modern day Red Riding hood carries around a basket of letters on the show so I had a basket full of bagels (for the letter O). I also put out some “wonder red” strawberries. I kept the rest of the food very simple. I put out a few more assorted veggies and fruits and some lunch meat for the bagels.

The Cake

I really like cupcakes for kids’ parties. Since my little guy loves chocolate, I made chocolate cupcakes with butter cream frosting. I topped them off with red sprinkles and arranged them like a giant question mark to show off Super WHY’s insignia.

The Decorations

I have limited space so I use decorations as smartly as possible – as to not take up valuable real estate in the room for party goers. I used red, green, and blue balloons for outside. Then I created little red question marks and blue book exclamation marks (Super WHY’s trademark signs) and hung them above the food table. I used royal blue plates, green napkins and yellow cups – the colors Super Why wears. For the table I just cut a red rectangle disposable table cloth in half, folded that in half and used it as a table runner.

The Game

The majority of kids were 3 and under, so one game was more than enough since attention spans are limited! During each Super WHY episode, they look for super letters to help them answer their really big problem. Over the course of each episode, Super WHY collects the letters and puts them in the super computer to decipher the answer to the really big problem. Since most of the children attending didn’t yet read but could recognize letters, I kept the game basic. I created a red super letter message and posted it low enough on the wall that the kids reach it. I then took out most of the vowels and left up “blanks” as place holders. I hid the letters around the house. Then I asked them to help me complete the message by finding the missing super letters. Then some of the older kids helped us figure out where to put them once the kids found them all. It worked really well! They had a blast searching for the letters and when it was complete we read the message together “Happy 3rd Birthday E!”

The Party Favors

I really like to hand out party favors that you might actually use. This means limiting the trinkets and giving something either edible or activity related. In this case, I did both. I bought a set of alphabet cookie cutters for sugar cookies. I cut out a cookie with each child’s first initial (so I made 3 A’s and 2 T’s etc. instead of making the whole alphabet). I frosted the cookies and sprinkled them with red sprinkles and placed them in lime green cellophane party bags. For the other part of the favor, I just went to pbskids.org and printed of enough copies of their Super WHY printables to give each child 3 coloring pages. I got little 4 packs of crayons at the party store and folded up the pictures to fit into large cellophane party bags.

The party was a success! It was 2 hours of (mostly) smiling children running around excitedly. It came together really well. We all had wonderrific and terrific time. Now all that’s left is to create are the thank you’s (which luckily, I can just use the same design as the invitation to create) and make a photo book to preserve this tremendous 3rd birthday celebration!