Welcome to Superhero Training Academy!!

On Saturday, we celebrated Jake's 5th birthday with a Superhero Training Academy!  Jake was SO excited for the party, I don't know how he made it through the day, anxiously awaiting the arrival of all of the superheroes!

We had decided a few months ago that we would just do the party at home; and of course, like anything with me, something that started as a simple idea spiraled into a theme (Batman), and then an even more elaborate theme (training academy), and then I blacked out while on Pinterest and found myself with a can of spray paint, boxes, and glitter foam stickers. But I'll do a separate post with all of the party details and projects.

The superheroes started arriving, and the first activity was making superhero masks to wear during training!

After that, it was time for an obstacle course.  The premise was that a villain had tied Spiderman up on top of a skyscraper with his own web, so the superheroes had to go through a tunnel, hit a punching bag, jump over some rubble from the building (fake bricks), then knock the building down so that Spiderman could escape from the top.  The kids loved it!!

Jake gets Spiderman down on the first try!

Next up, time to put the bat signal on Batman! (aka-Pin the tail on the donkey)

After that, the superheroes had to refuel with some food:

Next up was presents, and I love how excited other kids get when watching others open gifts :)  It was like Jake became a celebrity, they were all crowding in, and ooohing and aahhhing over stuff.  He got a lot of great stuff!

I love Liam photobombing while collecting tissue paper to shred.

checking out a stickerbook with Jaden

Cake time!!

Here is a video of the big candle moment:

Overall, a fantastic party, if I do say so myself.  Everyone seemed to have a good time, no one was severely injured, and my house is still standing.  I was a little overwhelmed during some portions of the party (mainly the ones that involved children running while emitting ear-piercing shrieks), but I guess that's all part of the experience.  Here is a video, to demonstrate what I mean....this was in between some games, when the kids were entertaining themselves:

Every superhero needs a dog sidekick in a cape!!!  (right?)

Me & my mom, striking superhero poses

And no matter what kind of anxiety I felt, or how much work I put into it, it was all worth it, because the next morning, Jake came over to me and gave me a big hug and said, "Thank you so much for my party, mommy...I loved it".  A-ma-zing.  I'd do the party again 100 times for that kid.