Super Hero Bash -5yr- Comic Book Invite

My son West begged for a 5th birthday party full of all his favorite Marvel and DC crime fighters. It was February and the weather had been gorgeous for weeks leading up to the party, only to have nasty rain for the weekend of, so we had to be creative and alter some of the activities originally planned for outside. 

INVITATION:  These really set the stage!  My husband designed the invitation to look like a real comic book.  The cover featured a superhero boy with West's features flying through the air over a dark city, the number 5 (his age) for the price square, and pictures of his favorite superheroes faces under the words special appearances by in the bottom corner.   A caption read It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, No It’s followed by the title: Wonder Boy West in large comic font for the title.  One call-out balloon said You’re Invited in large letters and smaller letters said To the Amazing Adventures of West’s Birthday! The bottom right featured a picture of a generic black masked villain with the words Will the Bandit spoil the fun?  Inside was a two page comic book style spread with several frames.  The first (left top) read Hey Superhero Fans! Get ready for another spine-tingling action packed adventure with your favorite neighborhood Superhero! The second (left side) picture was a phone booth and read Superhero disguises will be provided! (No costumes please!)

The third (left center) has Spiderman on a web and read Today we find our heroes on a mission to help West’s friends celebrate his 5th Birthday! The fourth (left bottom) features Batman and reads Help us defend the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of a Happy Birthday!  RSVP Supermom (and contact info). The fifth (right top) had Superman flying out of the frame and said Rush over at the Speed of Light to the Superhero Academy at the Hall of Justice (address info).  The sixth (right corner) featured Ironman (no words).  The seventh (right bottom near the fold) showed the villain saying Just you Wait! And stated Not even the Birthday Bandit can stop them!  The eighth (right bottom near edge) showed the Hulk holding a huge cake with 5 candles and Happy Birthday written on it.  The final frame is a Daily Bugle newspaper (center right) with a picture of the Hall of Justice under which the article reads Even more heroes are needed!  We need friends who are strong enough, brave enough, and love to party to come to West’s birthday on (date) at (time)!  The back of the card has a Superhero Academy logo my husband created at the bottom  this logo was used again throughout the party.

COSTUMES: For my son we made a royal blue shirt that had the superman logo but with a 5 in the center instead of an S using iron-on transfer printed from the computer.  The back read Wonder Boy Weston.  My daughter had a yellow one with the Superhero Academy logo on it and hers read Super Sister on the back.  My husband and I each had a yellow shirt with the Superhero Academy logo on it, the backs read Staff in big black letters.  Two adult friends wore long trench coats, fedoras with a Press card in the brim, and badges with their pictures that we created on the computer to show they worked for the Daily Planet or Bugle.  They took pictures throughout the party for us.  We made capes for each child in the party using red, yellow and blue fabric.  We cut large red squares for the capes, and ironed on large yellow shapes (such as star, lighting bolt, square, circle, heart, etc.), and blue initials (one per child).  We folded over and stitched one end, feeding through a yellow or blue ribbon tie. We hung these on blue hangers on a rod all in a row in my son’s room and then tied a personalized tag to each one so children would know which was theirs.  We covered the door of his room with a poster of a phone booth (where superheroes go to get their disguises on!).  As guests arrived they went up to his room to find their cape and we took a in front of a full length mirror. 

ACTIVITIES/GAMES: After donning their disguise, the guests decorated masks.  We made these by cutting out colored paper plates and adding a black elastic strap to it.  The kids used markers and foam stickers in letter and star shapes to decorate.  The kids also colored superhero paper bags (Dollar Tree) to use later for the piñata.  The kids then went to a wall which we had covered with a city skyline of buildings and clouds.  We took pics of the kids flying (bending over with arms out stretched and someone holding the cape edges out of view) and also holding up dumbbells we made out of a cardboard tube with a punch balloon on each end.  We spray painted these black and added sticker numbers that said 1000lbs.  When everyone had arrived we moved them to the Hall of Justice (living room) where we had pictures on the wall of superheroes labeled Hall of Fame and pictures of villains labeled Wall of Shame.  We had the kids pick superhero names and powers that we wrote on nametags that we printed with the superhero logo on them. Then everyone recited the Superhero Oath adapted from one found on-line: I, superhero name,/ have been called by mankind/to use my extraordinary powers/to serve others, save lives, and/protect the public./I pledge to do good,/respect my parents and teachers,/uphold the law,/and oppose all that is evil.  We were going to have them practice leaping tall buildings on the trampoline and running faster than a speeding bullet across the lawn outside but these were rained out instead we jumped/ran in place in the Hall of Justice.

We then played Freeze Dance to some superhero songs.  We then brought everyone downstairs to the Bat Cave which we created out of black plastic painter sheets.  We had black balloons with green glow stick Kryptonite (Party City) in the cave.  We told everyone that the Birthday Bandit pretended to be Batman and called Superman to lure him into the Batcave which the Bandit booby trapped with Kryptonite! Each kid drew a number from the Batman bucket, found a balloon with the matching number on it, and popped the balloon, clearing the cave for Superman.  They then got to wear the green glow stick as a necklace.  Then Superman appeared! (A friend of ours dressed up as Superman in a costume that we got on clearance after Halloween from Party City.)  We took a group shot of all of the kids with Superman in the Batcave. 

Next, we had all of the kids fly outside to a tent because of the rain (adults picked up and passed the kids over the wet ground since everyone had taken off shoes.)  We hung pictures of the Bandit on a target and covered silly string cans with labels that had a picture of a web slinging Spiderman and a caption reading Spiderman Web Shooter Practice Juice.  They had to spray the silly string and cover the Bandit.  We then said, Oh, no!  The Bandit is trying to destroy the party!  He has a bomb!  The bomb was a pinata we made by spray painting black a soccer ball piñata with a paper cup attached.  We added a wikistick and red/yellow tissue paper as the wick and flame coming out of the paper cup.  We filled it with Batman notebooks, Spiderman pencils, Ironman erasers (all Party City), superhero gummy snacks (Kroger), superhero stickers (Oriental Ttrading), and silly bands in the shape of the words like Wham! And Pow! (Walmart).  The kids had to defuse the bomb wearing a Batman mask (black plastic mask with yellow felt Batman logo over the nose/eyeholes so they couldn’t see). 

CAKE:  My mom made a yummy cake.  It was a white cake with red, blue and yellow swirled in.  The outside was three layers  - Batman, Spiderman, and Superman.  There was a fruit roll-up cape going down the backside of the cake.  We surrounded the cake table with foil balloons of the characters and set up some of my son’s small characters around the cake (later McDonalds came out with the perfect size we were a month too early!).   We had Superman and Batman plates, and Hulk and Ironman napkins.  We had the silverware in another Batman bucket.  The kids watched an old Superman short cartoon while eating we spread out a plastic table cloth for them to sit on in the Hall of Justice.

FAVORS: After everyone had eaten, we issued certificates as part of their favors.  The certificate had the Superhero Academy logo, a Hall of Justice Stamp, was signed by Superman, and dated my son’s birthday.  In accordance with the requirements of the Superhero Academy of the Justice League, And under the Authority of the Department of Homeland Security of the United States of America, This Certificate is Hereby Awarded to: (CHILD’s NAME) AKA (SUPERHERO NAME).  He/She has completed all of the oaths and obligations and has exhibited the discipline in the studies of superheroism showing to be a good hero devoted entirely to the opposition of all that is evil.  They took home their certificate, the bag of piñata prizes, and their cape and mask.  We also made a CD Songs to Fly By downloading superhero theme songs from Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc. as well as some pop songs that have Superhero themes to them (like the opening song from Smallville). 

THANK YOUS: We ordered superhero themed postcard prints and wrote Thanks for flying by my 5th Birthday! I hope you had a Blast! Thank you for the (PRESENT).  You are a Super Friend!  Overall West had a Super Birthday and the kids were successful in defeating the Birthday Bandit!