Superheroes Unite

Nicholas (Spidey) greeting his BFF Andrew aka Batman

This year Nicholas chose Superheroes for the theme of his 4th birthday party.

A little background on the Superhero Craze.   It has been his first real obsession, and obsessed he has been with Superheroes (and Transformers) beginning around the end of last summer.  I don't know what it is about Superheroes that draws little boys to them, much in the way that little girls are drawn to princesses, but before he even knew who or what the Superheroes were, we'd go to Barnes and Noble and he'd be interested in looking at those books much to my chagrin.  I was able to redirect him for quite a while, but finally gave in once I realized it was a losing battle.  I don't really have anything against Superheroes per se, just the weaponry and violence. One day last fall, I was explaining this to one of my guy friends, he listens to me patiently, and looks at me with something akin to pity in his eyes and says "He's a boy.  He's going to like guns."  Pretty simple statement that I know is true, I just didn't want my 3 year old running around "shooting" people. He didn't and still doesn't because his limited exposure from the books we have read to him have told him basically that Superheroes are good, villains are bad.  It's the classic fight against good and evil, and boys have been playing cops and robbers, and cowboys and Indians, so I have come to see and defend it, to a certain extent, as just the modern manifestation of the same desire for boys to rescue us from the bad guys and triumph over evil.

Whoa Aimee, wait a second.  Did you just say "manifestation"?  Sounds like a sociology paper- LOL!  Apparently needed to get that off my chest.  Makes me seem like one of those anal, modern, overly conscious types.  Ahem, cough, cough... HAHAHA.

ALRIGHTY, anyway, I am happy to report that the party was AWESOME, no one was "shot" or injured, AND we DID defeat the evil Candyman, and place A LOT of villains in jail.  Check it out:


A parade of Superheroes descends upon the Nature Center:

Superboy

One of MANY Supermoms!

A ninja!  Bam!

Captain America

Supertwins, Batman and Spiderman.  Awesome.

Another set of Super Brothers:
 Ironman (he's hard to impress) and Thor the Mighty, flexing for us.

And again...

Always happy to oblige, Ma'am.
LOL!

And the party set up:

Super banner that I made (it's now in Nick's room)

Ooooh, and the cupcakes

Salivating here

My friend made these.  She's pretty much the best. Ever.



Our activities started indoors with some tattoos:

Auntie Shelly gives Maya a tattoo

See? 
And I was even able to find a woman Superhero tattoo.  Not easy.
  It's Black Widow.

Then we moved outdoors:



And here is my Bestie's daughter.
Aw, Addy what's the matter?



Oh, I see.  Mean Mommy took out the passy?
All's right now.
Kidding Ashley, kidddddiiiinnnngggg.

Parachutes are awesome.  Kids love 'em.
Parachutes, bubbles, balls/balloons, and some kind of search (see below).
That's pretty much all you need for a successful outdoor preschool party.

Aforementioned search.  Last year the bug hunt was so successful, I came up with searching for bad guys and putting them in jail (printed out pictures of various villains, taping them to trees for the kids to seek out, them placing them on a posterboard jail).  The kids loved it.

Let's get these villains in jail!

I found one!

Joker caught.

We're gonna get 'em.

And the following activity was pretty much the most hysterical thing I have witnessed in a while.  I saw it on the Internet, and was like "muuuuusssstttt do."  The concept is that the kids being Superheroes rescue the stolen candy from The Candyman.  I took a shirt and Velcro-ed candy to it.  Then I really had only one person in mind to play the part.  Has to be athletic, fun, a good-sport, and not mind being mauled by a bunch of preschoolers:  Harris!!!  He was kind enough to play along, and it was SO fun.  Seriously memorable.

I told him I was going to go outside and yell "Superheroes!  Oh, my gosh!  The Candyman is stealing all of our candy, go get it back!"  Something along those lines.  So, I did, and Harris jogged out taunting them.  Well, the kids didn't know what to make of it at first.  They looked at me bewildered.  Some even a little scared.  Then immediately broke into a run after him.  I wish I had a video camera it was that great.  And the kids were so proud that they were able to defeat him and get the candy back.

There he goes, and the kids soon were trailing behind.

And back up, with more kids behind.

Being attacked.
We got him!

What a good sport!
Thank you, Mr. Harris!

Then they all wanted to show me what they had gotten.

Look mom!

And Nick kept asking me after the party, "Mom, why was Mr. Harris the Candyman?  Why was he taking our candy?" Etc. Etc.  He really thought Harris was the Candyman.  Lol!

Then we all moved back inside for cake and presents.

BatMom and Superbaby. 
When he finally woke up he was immediately passed around.

Singing Happy Birthday.
Superboy ready to help with that candle.

Well done!

Presents were opened with a new bike being the last present from my Uncle Dave.
He was riding it back and forth when the party was winding down.  And has basically been riding it ever since.

Why having parties at the Nature Center is cool. 
Deer! 
Right where we were just playing.

Birthday love

Thank you all!
Superbaby knocked out ;-)