spiderman birthday party

[Karen G]

I'm not sexist, I hope. My 3 year old daughter wants a spiderman
birthday. If this was my older daughter, I wouldn't be worried at all.
Unfortunately, it is my younger daughter who loves to wear dresses and
have her hair curled. We have actually asked a number of questions to
find out why it is she wants a spiderman birthday. Her only exposure to
spiderman is a birthday party at the local gymnastics facility a year
ago (she was not quite 2 at that time) and a little boy at a party that
wore a spiderman costume. We did check to see if she was wanting a
gymnastics party with spiderman like the one she had been to. No, she
wants a spiderman birthday at home.

Thoughts on how to handle this? I don't want to make a beautiful
spiderman cake and get all of the paraphenalia for a spiderman birthday
only to see her face fall and tell me it is yucky. Should I try to
interpret spiderman in a more feminine way?

Ironically, she does want a curly bow on her birthday hat. We did that
for my older daughter's Tinkerbell birthday party.

Thanks,
Karen G

[just me]

"Karen G" > wrote in message
...
> I'm not sexist, I hope. My 3 year old daughter wants a spiderman
> birthday. If this was my older daughter, I wouldn't be worried at all.
> Unfortunately, it is my younger daughter who loves to wear dresses and
> have her hair curled. We have actually asked a number of questions to
> find out why it is she wants a spiderman birthday. Her only exposure to
> spiderman is a birthday party at the local gymnastics facility a year
> ago (she was not quite 2 at that time) and a little boy at a party that
> wore a spiderman costume. We did check to see if she was wanting a
> gymnastics party with spiderman like the one she had been to. No, she
> wants a spiderman birthday at home.
>
> Thoughts on how to handle this? I don't want to make a beautiful
> spiderman cake and get all of the paraphenalia for a spiderman birthday
> only to see her face fall and tell me it is yucky. Should I try to
> interpret spiderman in a more feminine way?
>
> Ironically, she does want a curly bow on her birthday hat. We did that
> for my older daughter's Tinkerbell birthday party.
>


I can see your quandary. I think I'd be tempted to take her shopping for
the party favors/decorations that require theme stuff a week or two before
the birthday [starting with the invitations maybe]. I'd show her the
spiderman stuff as well as the other stuff and simply ask her to pick out
what she likes the most. I think I'd also probably ask her what she'd like
her cake to look like, even if she does go with the spiderman theme. She
may want a simple angel food cake for all we know! [My DS does odd things
like that out of the blue so I've really learned to ask!]

And, who knows, she may love spidey!

-Aula
--
see my creative works on zazzle at http://snurl.com/38oh

[Leah Adezio]

Karen G > wrote in message
...
> I'm not sexist, I hope. My 3 year old daughter wants a spiderman
> birthday. If this was my older daughter, I wouldn't be worried at all.
> Unfortunately, it is my younger daughter who loves to wear dresses and
> have her hair curled. We have actually asked a number of questions to
> find out why it is she wants a spiderman birthday.

> Thoughts on how to handle this? I don't want to make a beautiful
> spiderman cake and get all of the paraphenalia for a spiderman birthday
> only to see her face fall and tell me it is yucky. Should I try to
> interpret spiderman in a more feminine way?

Well... (watch, kids! I'm going to go into Geek Mode! <g>) there is a
Spider Girl (IIRC, an 'alternate universe' type thing where she's Peter
Parker's daughter), whose costume isn't too far off from Spidey's, so she
could be Spider Girl.

You could also toss in some of the women in Spidey's life, like Mary Jane
Watson (a firey redhead and the love of Peter's life), Gwen Stacy (his first
girlfriend who unfortunately died)....

Maybe take her to the party goods store and show her some of the Spiderman
items and see if she really likes those....let her have the costume and let
her be Spider *Girl*... Have things like Spiderman coloring books with
crayons as party favors...do a red and blue color theme (which lets you kind
of get away from doing *all* the decorations in Early American Spiderman
<g>.

FWIW, I was, to a big extent, a 'girly girl' when I was very young, and I
adored superheroes (still read comics, actually), and most of the characters
I liked were male, and it didn't really contradict my 'girly girl'
self....if that helps. I mean, your daughter can be a 'dresses and curls'
type and still groove on Spiderman.

HTH

Leah