Holy Cape, Batman . . .

My kiddos are huge fans of superheros! There are a few that are more popular at our house, Batman (girl), Spiderman (girl), and of course, Hulk Man (as my son prefers to be called). Last Halloween, both kiddos dressed up as superheros, and since their birthdays are right after Halloween and only 13 days apart from each other, we decided to keep the superhero theme alive with a Superhero Party! I did an Evite invitation on the computer and included a picture of the kiddos in their Halloween costumes!

Look at all those muscles!!
I used a lot of ideas for the party from Birthday Party Ideas! It is such a great reference for party ideas!
The invitation said:
"Calling all Superheroes! We must unite to defeat the super villain! Please meet at headquarters to prepare for the invasion. We must defend our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of a happy birthday! If you can join with us to defeat this villain and eat cake, please respond as soon as possible with the following top secret information: 1. Your secret identity (your name.) 2. Your superhero name. 3. Your superpower. 4. Your super color. Your participation is vital to the success of this mission!" People did their RSVP there on the website. Those that could come said "You can count on me!" Maybes were "I'll see if my cape is back from the cleaners" and if they couldn't make it, it said, "My powers are GONE!" It was a lot of fun seeing all the creative super powers and superhero names that my friend's came up with!

From the information I gathered, I made each guest a superhero T-shirt and cape! Now it may sound like a lot of work, but it was super fun and EASY! I bought a bunch of shirts from Hobby Lobby for ($2.99/each) and Target (clearance $3-$4/each). I bought about 4 1/2 yards of black felt, a few precut squares of white felt, some adhesive velcro and some fabric glue. I also purchased some iron on transfer paper ($7/10 sheets).

This stuff is super easy to use!!
I used Photoshop to come up with each child's superhero design! It was so fun putting together all the different superheros based off their information. I then transversed the image, printed out 2 copies of the image on the transfer paper and ironed it onto the shirts. I then cut out a cape from the black felt (this was so easy, I just put the felt up to my daughters back and with a piece of chalk, drew a cape in the size of the bigger kids, and did the same for the cape for the smaller kids using my son as my reference). I ironed the second image onto the white felt and then used the fabric glue to glue the image onto the the cape. To attach the capes to the shirts, I just used the adhesive velcro on the shoulders of the shirt (I put the soft part of the velcro on the shirt, so when the kids wore it without the cape it wouldn't scratch them).
** Transversing the image on photoshop is very important! I forgot to do it on my shirt and this is how it came out:

I tried to cover it up by saying I was Superhero MirrorImage, but I think they knew what really happened:)! Luckily, that was the only shirt I messed up on (itsn't cute though, with the pictures of my kiddos in their Superhero costumes!?)
Here are a few of the other designs!


Here's my son as Silver Sir Finn Hulk Man! It's a hybrid of the Silver Surfer, a knight and the Hulk!


Of course, my daughter was Super Princess!


This was Super 'G'!

Even the babies got superhero shirts (I bought a package of 3 white onesies (I had 3 baby superheros) from Wal-Mart for a couple of bucks). I didn't do capes for the babies for safety reasons.
When the kiddos arrived for the party, I made a big sign for the front yard with my little superheros in their costumes and the words, "Superhero Headquarters". Right next to the door was a giant punching bag of Batman, and I made a sign that looked like the quote bubble from a comic book that said, "Welcome Superheros. Come on in and prepare for Training". When everyone arrived, we passed out their shirts and capes and let them play for a little bit before the games began.


Here's the Superheros in action!
And, what would superheros be without a super villian? Introducing Captain Havoc (played by my very patient/loving hubby)!

I made his shirt and cape the same way and used some left over felt to cut out a mask!
The games we played were actually part of the "training" and included:
1. Find the hidden Kryptonite (which I hid in the pinata, so when they broke it the kryptonite (little glow stick necklaces that I got at Party City) fell out along with the candy). They had to find one Kryptonite stick each and put it in their party gift bags. There was one blue Kryptonite that we used later on to defeat Captain Havoc as well.

2. Captain Havoc released a bunch of BOMBS (bouncy balls from Party city) in the bounce house, and the superheros had to collect all the bombs and hide them safely in their gift bags as well.

3. We also did an obstacle course made out of the kids' slide (which we already had), hop scotch pads(already had), hula hoops and cones that I got at Target for $1/each on clearance after summer. (Plan ahead and save!)


We had snack food and pizza with little signs that said, "POWer Snacks". I made an all inclusive superhero cake that had Spiderman, Wonderwoman, Batman, Superman (woman) and the Hulk represented.

I think the party went really well, and when all was said and done, it really didn't cost much money at all. The superheros got to take home kryptonite, a bouncy ball, superhero tattoos and stickers ($1 at Target that I got months ahead of time), Superhero Pencils ($1 for package of 6 from Target), and their shirts and capes. I had many calls from my friends the next couple of days saying that their kiddos had wanted to sleep in or keep wearing their superhero clothes! That made me feel super happy:) I really don't know how I'm gonna top this party, but I'm sure gonna try!!