Superhero Academy

I want to make the disclaimer right off that almost all of the ideas for this birthday party were found online or shared with me by friends. I can't claim ownership over some of the brilliant ideas that made Louie's 6th birthday party so much fun.

For instance, Amanda shared with me that her friend used T-shirts as capes. One of my biggest gripes about making capes for my boys is that they want to use their blankies. No matter how well I tie the blanket or even wrap it with a rubberband, it comes undone. There was no way I was going to do that for ten kids throughout the party! I found a great deal on some colored T-shirts at Hobby Lobby and, with the help of Lisa, cut off the front of the shirt along with the sleeves, leaving the ring of the collar and voila! you got your self a cape that the boys could pull off and on without any help!

At the beginning of the party we had Louie (Batman), Owen (Super O), Benny (Spiderman) and Charlie (Super C) modeling the superhero gear. I found a stack of foam rectangles at Deals that came in all sorts of colors and used the pink ones to practice until I came up with the right shape.

The shapes on the back are felt that have sticky stuff already on the back! I'm sure there are a number of places where you can get it, but I had a coupon for Michael's. All you have to do is peel off the back. Each boy got a bag that had a cape, a shield, stars, a mask, and a watch inside. Their first task was to put together their costume. I figured by giving them each the supplies already divied out we could save some arguments and time. Although thinking back on it, we could have spent more time making capes!

Even Miss Meredith--I mean Super Mere--had a cape! And Daddy was wearing the "staff" attire of black T-shirt and jeans. Not the brightest idea on a very warm day! Sorry :)

The crew, after all had made their capes.

The first game: Vaporize the Villains. I really have to thank this blog for coming up with so many great ideas. Especially for the idea of the "academy." We could play games with no winners or losers, which we found out for a couple of the kids was a big deal. A big deal that could cause tears if they thought they should be the winner. It was nice that they all had to just complete the task--and have a blast while doing it. I didn't get real water balloons, but thought surely they wouldn't have any trouble breaking them against the pictures of the bad guys.

I wish we would have gotten it on video! The balloons just kept bouncing off the wall and there was a flurry of throws, with kids getting hit in the head then grabbing another one and finally, when each balloon was thrown about twenty times they finally broke! The blog suggested using silly string, but the more I thought about it, water was a lot easier to deal with than silly string.

Next we played "Leap a Building in a Single Bound," but I couldn't bring myself to post pictures of the kids propelling their bodies when we didn't have parents sign permission letters saying that it'd be ok if they were sent to the hospital over a birthday party game.

After that we played "Batcave" (pictured above) where I took the basic idea from the link and adapted it for our situation. Kevin's cell phone rang while he was talking to the boys about their favorite superheroes. He told them it was Batman calling to say that Superman was coming to the Batcave and he needed to get his stash of kryptonite out of there pronto! The boys were really pumped up about helping Batman out!

I made a simple obstacle course where the kids started out by spinning 6 times with their forehead on the end of a baseball bat. (How funny is it that Charlie's so short that he had to spin on his eye socket!) Next, they took a basketball, while still wobbly, ran to the back of the yard and shot it into a bucket. This was the "key" to get into the Batcave. Then, they balanced themselves on steps of landscaping timbers to reach the stash of kryptonite. There was a pitch-back set up and each stick of kryptonite (glow stick) had a hook on it which made it easy for hanging.

All the Superheroes finished the task and, of course, what comes out of their mouths? Where's Batman and Superman??? Wouldn't that have been cool if they would have shown up? I wish I would have thought of that. I could have had my brothers come over in costume and thrilled the boys.

Instead of cake, I made "Superhero Sundaes." Basically I made the kids sundae that you'd find at a Bob Evans restaurant--Reece's cup eyes, cherry nose and chocolate syrup smile on top of whipped cream, vanilla ice cream with fudge and caramel. YUM.

The day ended with a ceremony where each attendee of the academy received a certificate that detailed the skills he attained and now he was in the same league as Batman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman and others. I thought this picture was really cute, with all the guys doing their best poses. We really lucked out on the incredibly nice day so that this group of energetic (mainly) 6-year-olds could run around the yard because we anticipated the games lasting longer than they actually did!

I think Louie had a great time :)