Spiderman Party 4yr - Superhero Cake Walk

For my son's 4th birthday, we did a Spiderman party.  He absolutely loves Spiderman, so it made the planning more fun for him.  This was the first year he was really active in the planning, so I knew he was going to have a great time.  Since I wasn't sure if some of his younger friends would be comfortable with the more realistic looking superheros, I decided on the more preschool version of Spiderman and Friends. 

For the invitation, I picked a picture from a Spiderman and Friends coloring book that had Spiderman, Hulk, Wolverine, and Captain America (all my son's favorites)in Spiderman's clubhouse.  I scanned the picture and colored it in on my computer.  I then added all the party information.  I said, "Calling all Superheros, an evil villian has stolen the cake for son's 4th birthday party!  Spiderman needs your help to find the cake and save the party.  Report to Spiderman's club house on date and time of party for superhero training.  I then included the address and a map on the back of the card.  These looked very nice, and set up the theme for the party very well. 

I had let my son see the finished cake, and then when he was taking his nap, we hid the cake.  When he woke up and didn't see it set in the place for his party, he asked what had happened.  We told him that the green goblin had came when he was sleeping and stole his cake.  He was upset for a second, but then got excited that the green goblin had come to his house.  I would recommend that if you are not sure that your child will not be disappointed by the lose of the cake don't do this.  My son is very easy going, and didn't really care.  In fact, he told all his friends as soon as they got to the party that the green goblin had come and stole his cake. 

For party decor I drew posterboard size cut-outs of hulk, wolverine, spiderman, and captain america copied from the coloring book.  I then painted each of these the appropriate colors.  I put them up on the walls in the party room.  On the front door, I did a poster that matched the one on the invite above the door of the clubhouse and put a spiderman swinging out on the door.  For additional decorations, I used each of my son's spiderman and friends characters to hold a bunch of color coordinated balloons.  There were six different characters with balloons.  The characters made great weights.   

For games:  I only had one game planned, as there was a big surprise I will talk about later...  We did a superhero cake walk.  I scanned, colored and printed each of the heros from the coloring book and mounted them on posterboard squares.  I then made a spinner with matching smaller pictures.  The kids got on the squares and walked around in the circle to a spiderman and friends CD that I found.  When the music stopped, I spun the spinner and the child on the matching square got to pick a prize.  I had bought a bunch of small spiderman toys from the dollar store.  I collected them for several months to have a wide selection. 

After we were done playing the game, the kids did some free play with superhero toys, thinking that I was getting the next game ready, when in fact we were waiting for a big surprise.  I hired an actor to dress as spiderman.  He came and dressed in our garage, and then climbed up onto our roof and jumped down onto the deck outside the party room.  When this happened, all the kids screamed in excitement and ran out onto the deck. 

Spiderman greeted my son and wished him happy birthday.  I had filled him in on the cake thing prior to the party, so he knew exactly what was going on.  He told the kids that he was going to get the cake back, but that he might need some help, so he was going to train them to be superheros.  He took them out into the yard, and did superhero training that we had planned out before hand.  He did web slinging practice.  I purchased each child a can of silly string, and he set up targets for them to shoot at.  This was a little hard, as some of the kids could not push the button hard enough to shoot the string. 

Spiderman then did wrestling practice.  I purchased inflatables of spiderman, hulk, and wolverine that were each about three feet tall and the children wrestled with them while Spiderman game them tips.  Then he led them through the yard in a obstical course.  The actor was great with the children.  After playing outside, he took the kids back in the house and gave each child a spiderman tatoo on their cheek and took pictures with all the kids. 

It was then time for Superhero graduation.  I made a certificate for each child with a superhero name on it and their training information.  I signed each one with Spiderman as the instructor.  Spiderman then called each child up by name and gave them their new superhero name and certificate.  Spiderman then pretended to hear something and told the kids to stay there and he would call them if he needed them.  He went in the kitchen and had a battle with the green goblin. 

He jumped around and banged on the cupboards and had a full conversation as both characters.  He then jumped out of the kitchen with cake in hand, having defeated the green goblin.  He gathered the kids around to sing happy birthday to my son. As his final surprise, he produced a fully wrapped present to give to my son.  This is something that I had purchased and wrapped and given to him upon his arrival.  He then said that he had to go and he went out and jumped off the back deck and ran back around to the garage to change.  When I went out to thank him, he said that it was easy to do his job because I had provided him with some many things to work with, such as the cake idea, the silly string, the wrestling partners and the tatoos, and working everything out together in advance. 

Food:  I made the cake myself.  I made a 11x20 sheet cake.  I divided it into three length wise strips.  I cut out a few inches of the middle section and inverted onto on of the other strips, so that I had three different size sections.  I frosted each one a different color, blue, green and yellow and outlined them in black and then added windows all the way up so they looked like skyscrapers.  I then put a colorflow candy spiderman swinging that I traced out of a book onto the cake.  I had never used colorflow before, so I made several practices before hand.  Once I got the hang of it, it was very easy and made a wonderfully detailed sugar piece for the cake.  I laid that on the buldings and piped white web from the spiderman onto the cake, and wrote Happy Birthday Name on it.  It was probably the best cake I have ever done.  For other food, we served an assortment of fingerfoods.  These included veggies and dip, fruit kabobs, chicken wings in several flavors, chips, etc.  I usually do theme food, but couldn't really think of any.  Instead of ice cream though, I served frozen hulk and spiderman treats. 

Goodie bags:  Each child received a goodie bag that included their certificate and the prizes they got during the spinner game.  I also added another spiderman tatoo, a coloring book, a spiderman water squirter and a zipper pull.  This was such a fun birthday party.  The kids are still talking about how they got to meet spiderman.  Not one of them even questioned that he wasn't the real deal.  My son has asked almost every day since if Spiderman will come to all his parties.  Hopefully that fades away before next year.