For about 6 months, Ruby was insistent that she was going to have a superhero party. As her birthday approached, I started doing some research on places to host a superhero party. Oh, and Ruby wants to invite all her cousins and her friends. Let's see, 20 kids, party somewhere that is not my house = how much money? Agh! Well, I'm not a project manager just by trade, its a way of life. I was determined to not only have a party for much cheaper, but also to have it be awesome.
Jamey started it off with designer invitations that I think he should sell. They rock!
Ruby took them to class and placed them in everyone's cubby. She then came home happily showing me an invitation to one of her friends birthday party...for the same day...and the same time. After conferring with the other mother, I moved mine out a day so they could have a weekend of parties.
I proceeded to plan the events. I informed Jamey he would be a villain and the kids, after going through rigorous super hero training, would defeat him. I outlined a chart of the activities in 15 minute increments. I then ordered all the supplies for the activities and started to make some props for the event. About a week before the party, Jamey said "You haven't planned this well enough." I stared at him waiting for the punchline, but he was serious! I pointed out that I had the party planned down to 15 minute intervals. He rebutted with the fact that the kids spraying him with Silly String wouldn't take 15 minutes. I crossed out the times, reducing it to 5 minutes and wrote in a 10 minute activity of "kick villain in crotch." Jamey didn't offer up any more changes to the timeline after that.
The main prep work for me was to make each of the kids a cape they would earn for completing the obstacle course. Some yards of felt and iron on velcro would do the trick just fine. RSVPs were pouring in and I was somewhere around 22 capes to make. Jamey worked on the computer through nights one and two as I cut out capes. As he sat there, he started to offer some thoughts on the capes. "You should make a logo with each kid's superpower out of felt and attach it to the cape." I replied that I was planning on using fabric paint to write the super name on the cape. Jamey made a face. Clearly, a 4 year old, when presented with a personalized cape, would turn their nose up at fabric paint and only a custom felt logo would do. A trip to Hobby Lobby later, I was armed with felt, iron on letters for monograms and fabric glue.
I'm not sure why Jamey is such a powerful stakeholder in my projects. He's the worst kind of business sponsor, offering up suggestions only after you have a plan in motion. I started ironing on the velcro straps as Jamey read while doing situps. I know. I have no idea how that's possible either. After about 1000 situps, I asked him for help with the capes. With two of us, we were able to whip through the rest pretty quickly.
The last night of cape work turned out to be pretty fun. My parents came down and my mom, Jamey and I made the felt logos. Jamey and mom provided the most artistic custom logos and I placed a nice generic star with a monogramed 1st initial for parents who didn't give me a superhero power. Mom and Jamey may have outclassed me, but I had volume of output on my side.
The custom ones were great and included
We even made capes for Mama Bear and Ginger, Ruby and Taylor's lovies.
The big day was almost here and I was feeling a bit sorry for myself as I went to bed that night. I had a terrible sinus/ear infection and although I had started antibiotics that day, I was not 100%. As I lay in bed with my ears throbbing, Jamey came to bed and started talking about how he had researched activities we could do for the party that night and had some ideas. After almost a month of researching activties, planning and purchasing supplies, I was underwhelmed at the avenue of help being offered at this point. Luckily, due to my not feeling the energy to get irritated, I simply replied "OK. What?" I vetoed a cake walk and a few other ideas that would require more effort than we had time for. Finally, he offered up an idea that required no additional purchases and, while it sounded like a good way for kids to get injured to me, seemed harmless enough. "OK." I said. "The Save the kitten from the tree one. I'll add that."
The day before the party, my sister, her hubby and their 4 kids showed up with awesome posters to decorate in tow. They immediately went to work on any assignment I would give them. My sister and I are products of my mother. There is no such thing as going halfway on an assignment. I asked my sister to make buildings for the kids to jump over and she proceeded to not only make buildings, but a city complete with a "Curves" building (cut out pictures of women working out pasted onto the windows) next to "Cora's Candy Shop". I then asked my sister and her son Spencer to work on the obstacle course. I pictured a few boxes to jump over and a tunnel to go through.
They had higher aspirations and I winded up with the following training obstacle course
Just a few last finishing touches and we would be ready for the party. I went to Wal-mart to pick up the cake. Say what you want about Wal-mart, but I had a good experience ordering the cake.
Unsuspecting bakery employee - "May I help you?"
Me - " Yes. I would like to order a cake that has dinosaurs fighting super heros with flowers all around." Ruby had stuck to this exact phrasing when describing her cake for the last month so much so that I almost started to consider it a fairly normal request.
Employee, coming from behind the counter - "Well, that's a first. Clearly, they should be fighting around a volcano."
Me - "Clearly. I think you've got it. Do you need two phone numbers? Surely, the person will have questions about this one"
Employee - "Not necessary, I'm going to schedule myself to work that day just so I can make this cake."
Cake in place, I took out a Halloween box and sifted through it to find Jamey a villain costume. Jamey decided he would wear his old Robin costume and put a felt water drop on it and call himself Mr. Drip. I stared at him. "Couldn't you come up with something cooler? That wouldn't even scare Cora." I think it was one of my sister's kids who suggested Dr. H20.
And now.... THE SUPERHERO BIRTHDAY
Kids walked up the driveway that was decorated with sidewalk chalk stating "Calling all Superheros, Report for Training" and arrows pointed to the garage door that had a sign stating "ENTER the Superhero Academy" The second part of the driveway had more sidewalk chalk stating "Danger, Do not enter. Beware Dr. H20"
As kids came in, there was a table with chairs around it, masks (cheap ones from Oriental Trading) and stickers to decorate them with (the jeweled stickers were the most popular, even with the boys). A sign hung above it saying PROTECT Your Secret Identity.
The kids then could go through the obsticle course, where my sister "Kim Possible" would direct them. Some kids jumped right in. Others were scared at first and then tried it. Almost all were obsessed with saving the baby and wanted to do it again and again. My niece Taylor awarded the personalized capes as they completed the course.
The kids went over to the wall where it said "POSE. For the Newspaper" Here was my first planning mistake. I hadn't designated a photographer and I was too busy to take many pics. Still, I got a few good ones and Karen supplied some from her phone.
Ruby was surprisingly outgoing (for her) and had all her friends dancing in their capes to the Superhero playlist I had made.
Jamey's mom won best costume for sure! What a cool grandma!
I blew my whistle once the kids had been there for awhile and lined them up. I informed them that there was one final test before they could graduate from the academy. (Here is where Jamey actually took one of his ideas I had discarded and had spent some time shopping and putting it together to make it work.) The kids were presented with a cardboard tray (free from the friendly butcher at Publix) to punch through to prove their super strength, The kids loved this best of all the academy activities. I discovered that it worked great for 4 year olds and that I was lucky not to get my gut punched by the older kids (7-9) who had a longer reach.
The time had come for the graduation. I asked what superheros do once they have their powesr and one of the kids replied "Fight bad guys." I agreed and let them know that the evil Dr. H20 had been around and that there was no way he could stand up to all us superheros. I declared that we needed to go out there and find him! The kids followed me somewhat reluctanly with a few saying "I'm scared." Ruby told them all that the villian was her daddy and that calmed most of them (with the exception of Allison, who, in her defense, knows Jamey and realizes he could be scary).
After waiting in the hot driveway for a few minutes pretending to look for him, I realized Jamey was not out there. I took the kids on a hike around the yard. Once we reached the driveway again, someone had cued Jamey and he appeared firing his super soakers and throwing shiny green rocks on the ground. He then ran off. I yelled "Stop. That's Kryptonite." Some boys tried to chase jamey but I corralled them back and started to explain about the Kryptonite when young Henry ran over, picked it up in his hand, and yelled "Green!" triumphantly. Eventually, I blew my whistle and got out some "Kryptonite Krypts" (coolers) and some tongs. The kids took turn picking up the shiny green rocks (painted by my mother) and placing them in the cooler. Strangely enough, the kids took turns with the tongs with no adult direction and, really weirdly, they separated the Kryptonite into the two different types by cooler. That was nowhere in the instructions. I guess humans like order instinctively.
At this point, I lined the kids up and asked them to name some superpowers that I might be able to grab from the academy to help them. Ruby came up and started explaining how she would talk to the bad guys and that was her superpower. Have I mentioned that Ruby can talk and talk and talk? I asked for more ideas. After getting several, Taylor said "Webs!" and I nodded. Atlee and Kim helped me hand out the Silly String.
The last night of cape work turned out to be pretty fun. My parents came down and my mom, Jamey and I made the felt logos. Jamey and mom provided the most artistic custom logos and I placed a nice generic star with a monogramed 1st initial for parents who didn't give me a superhero power. Mom and Jamey may have outclassed me, but I had volume of output on my side.
The custom ones were great and included
- Flash - Lightening Bolt on circle background
- Unlimited Strength - large set of barbells
- Wonder Princess, Super Power "Saves the Day" (by far this is the best super hero power ever. The entire team is throwing rocks with their mind, turning invisible to sneak up on bad guys, whatever, and this chick comes in and waves her hand and BAM! Day saved.) - Jamey created a sun logo with a crown
- Forcefield - a shield
- Cone of Silence - a person reading a book under a cone (family joke referencing the fact that I and my nephew are completely oblivious to the world when we read)
- The Pacifier - Cora's cape with a pacifier on it.
- Birthday Girl - a cake with 4 candles
We even made capes for Mama Bear and Ginger, Ruby and Taylor's lovies.
The big day was almost here and I was feeling a bit sorry for myself as I went to bed that night. I had a terrible sinus/ear infection and although I had started antibiotics that day, I was not 100%. As I lay in bed with my ears throbbing, Jamey came to bed and started talking about how he had researched activities we could do for the party that night and had some ideas. After almost a month of researching activties, planning and purchasing supplies, I was underwhelmed at the avenue of help being offered at this point. Luckily, due to my not feeling the energy to get irritated, I simply replied "OK. What?" I vetoed a cake walk and a few other ideas that would require more effort than we had time for. Finally, he offered up an idea that required no additional purchases and, while it sounded like a good way for kids to get injured to me, seemed harmless enough. "OK." I said. "The Save the kitten from the tree one. I'll add that."
The day before the party, my sister, her hubby and their 4 kids showed up with awesome posters to decorate in tow. They immediately went to work on any assignment I would give them. My sister and I are products of my mother. There is no such thing as going halfway on an assignment. I asked my sister to make buildings for the kids to jump over and she proceeded to not only make buildings, but a city complete with a "Curves" building (cut out pictures of women working out pasted onto the windows) next to "Cora's Candy Shop". I then asked my sister and her son Spencer to work on the obstacle course. I pictured a few boxes to jump over and a tunnel to go through.
They had higher aspirations and I winded up with the following training obstacle course
- Jump through the "Ring of Fire!" (a hula hoop with red streamer suspended from the ceiling with a rope)
- Crawl under the lasers (pool noodles draped across the large buildings in the city)
- Leap a building in a single bound
- Crawl through the Tunnel of Terror
- (my personal favorite) Save the Baby from the Pit of Snuggly Doom
Just a few last finishing touches and we would be ready for the party. I went to Wal-mart to pick up the cake. Say what you want about Wal-mart, but I had a good experience ordering the cake.
Unsuspecting bakery employee - "May I help you?"
Me - " Yes. I would like to order a cake that has dinosaurs fighting super heros with flowers all around." Ruby had stuck to this exact phrasing when describing her cake for the last month so much so that I almost started to consider it a fairly normal request.
Employee, coming from behind the counter - "Well, that's a first. Clearly, they should be fighting around a volcano."
Me - "Clearly. I think you've got it. Do you need two phone numbers? Surely, the person will have questions about this one"
Employee - "Not necessary, I'm going to schedule myself to work that day just so I can make this cake."
Cake in place, I took out a Halloween box and sifted through it to find Jamey a villain costume. Jamey decided he would wear his old Robin costume and put a felt water drop on it and call himself Mr. Drip. I stared at him. "Couldn't you come up with something cooler? That wouldn't even scare Cora." I think it was one of my sister's kids who suggested Dr. H20.
And now.... THE SUPERHERO BIRTHDAY
Kids walked up the driveway that was decorated with sidewalk chalk stating "Calling all Superheros, Report for Training" and arrows pointed to the garage door that had a sign stating "ENTER the Superhero Academy" The second part of the driveway had more sidewalk chalk stating "Danger, Do not enter. Beware Dr. H20"
As kids came in, there was a table with chairs around it, masks (cheap ones from Oriental Trading) and stickers to decorate them with (the jeweled stickers were the most popular, even with the boys). A sign hung above it saying PROTECT Your Secret Identity.
The kids then could go through the obsticle course, where my sister "Kim Possible" would direct them. Some kids jumped right in. Others were scared at first and then tried it. Almost all were obsessed with saving the baby and wanted to do it again and again. My niece Taylor awarded the personalized capes as they completed the course.
The kids went over to the wall where it said "POSE. For the Newspaper" Here was my first planning mistake. I hadn't designated a photographer and I was too busy to take many pics. Still, I got a few good ones and Karen supplied some from her phone.
Ruby was surprisingly outgoing (for her) and had all her friends dancing in their capes to the Superhero playlist I had made.
Jamey's mom won best costume for sure! What a cool grandma!
I blew my whistle once the kids had been there for awhile and lined them up. I informed them that there was one final test before they could graduate from the academy. (Here is where Jamey actually took one of his ideas I had discarded and had spent some time shopping and putting it together to make it work.) The kids were presented with a cardboard tray (free from the friendly butcher at Publix) to punch through to prove their super strength, The kids loved this best of all the academy activities. I discovered that it worked great for 4 year olds and that I was lucky not to get my gut punched by the older kids (7-9) who had a longer reach.
The time had come for the graduation. I asked what superheros do once they have their powesr and one of the kids replied "Fight bad guys." I agreed and let them know that the evil Dr. H20 had been around and that there was no way he could stand up to all us superheros. I declared that we needed to go out there and find him! The kids followed me somewhat reluctanly with a few saying "I'm scared." Ruby told them all that the villian was her daddy and that calmed most of them (with the exception of Allison, who, in her defense, knows Jamey and realizes he could be scary).
After waiting in the hot driveway for a few minutes pretending to look for him, I realized Jamey was not out there. I took the kids on a hike around the yard. Once we reached the driveway again, someone had cued Jamey and he appeared firing his super soakers and throwing shiny green rocks on the ground. He then ran off. I yelled "Stop. That's Kryptonite." Some boys tried to chase jamey but I corralled them back and started to explain about the Kryptonite when young Henry ran over, picked it up in his hand, and yelled "Green!" triumphantly. Eventually, I blew my whistle and got out some "Kryptonite Krypts" (coolers) and some tongs. The kids took turn picking up the shiny green rocks (painted by my mother) and placing them in the cooler. Strangely enough, the kids took turns with the tongs with no adult direction and, really weirdly, they separated the Kryptonite into the two different types by cooler. That was nowhere in the instructions. I guess humans like order instinctively.
At this point, I lined the kids up and asked them to name some superpowers that I might be able to grab from the academy to help them. Ruby came up and started explaining how she would talk to the bad guys and that was her superpower. Have I mentioned that Ruby can talk and talk and talk? I asked for more ideas. After getting several, Taylor said "Webs!" and I nodded. Atlee and Kim helped me hand out the Silly String.
I told the kids we would look for the villain again. I turned on the sprinklers and took them for another walk around the house. I yelled that the water was on and H20 must have done it and we ran through the sprinklers (those kids who wanted to that is). Jamey was inside, tossing back a cold one and chilling out waiting for his cue. I sent his mom in to get him and kept the kids busy firing at leaves on the driveway. By the time Jamey appeared and was silly stringed to defeat, most the string was out (a fact for which he was extremely grateful).
I declared Dr. H20 defeated and told the kids they had absorbed his power. We handed out spray bottles of water to the kids and let them play in the driveway while we went in and got the food ready.
The rest was pretty normal, cake, ice cream, etc. Ruby really enjoyed handing out the goody bags. I found some really cool super hero rubber ducks at Oriental Trading to go in them. Some kids decided to play the get the kitty out of the tree game. I think 80% of them were injured somehow, but they seemed happy enough in spite of that.
At the end of the day, I would guess I saved about $100 over having it somewhere else and spent a boatload of time. However, the kids had fun although Ruby probably won't remember it. The real secret? I had a blast. It was such a fun day and I enjoyed it all from the cape making to playing with the kids. I think I'm going to play superhero more often on the weekends.
I declared Dr. H20 defeated and told the kids they had absorbed his power. We handed out spray bottles of water to the kids and let them play in the driveway while we went in and got the food ready.
The rest was pretty normal, cake, ice cream, etc. Ruby really enjoyed handing out the goody bags. I found some really cool super hero rubber ducks at Oriental Trading to go in them. Some kids decided to play the get the kitty out of the tree game. I think 80% of them were injured somehow, but they seemed happy enough in spite of that.
At the end of the day, I would guess I saved about $100 over having it somewhere else and spent a boatload of time. However, the kids had fun although Ruby probably won't remember it. The real secret? I had a blast. It was such a fun day and I enjoyed it all from the cape making to playing with the kids. I think I'm going to play superhero more often on the weekends.
