Maggie's Sixth Birthday (Superhero)

So I think it's well-established that Maggie loves The Incredibles. She wanted to have an Incredibles-themed birthday party for her sixth birthday. I generally shy away from licensed characters on clothing, toys, or even for birthday party themes. I really wanted her to love her party though so we talked about it and decided to do a Superhero theme. This was the first year that she had a big school class to consider (her preschool only had a handful of people in it), plus we want to include church and life friends, and since it would have been too much for me to handle a 30+ guest list, we decided not to invite her school friends. Maybe next year we'll do that.
Anyway, we ended up with about 14 children and I got the idea to make some easy superhero capes for all of them, with their initial on the back. I loved the way they turned out. See for yourself:
Here's the view from the other side of the table:
So we had a theme and we had the capes, now what else were we going to do? Well, I thought it would be fun to make an obstacle course for the kids and call it Superhero Training Camp. Since we had decided to hold the party at a great playground we had access to the jungle gym. First the kids had to run up the stairs to the top of the tallest slide, go down the twisty slide, then hop on one leg through eight hula hoops I had laid out on the ground. Then they had to crawl through a fabric tunnel I borrowed from my mom, then they each had to rescue (find) a toy animal from a mulched area, then run to the paved area and throw a water balloon on a chalk drawing of a giant monster (which washed away by the time everyone had thrown their water balloon). After they completed Superhero Training Camp, they received their cape.
We also played another game, which I called X-Ray Vision. For this game I put about 10 everyday objects into cloth bags, had the kids get in a circle, and then I walked around, letting each child stick their hand in the bag to feel the object. I put in things like legos, a doll, a comb, etc. No one was allowed to say what they thought it was until everyone had felt it. Then, on the count of three, the children would shout out what they thought it was and I would pull it out of the bag. I thought it would be fun but the kids were SO into it. They were cracking up and squealing with excitement when they got it right, and then cracking up when they got it wrong. It was so much fun.
After that we ate pizza and cake. I love to bake but I just couldn't handle baking a cake on top of everything else, so I bought a delicious cake for $15 from Costco and had them just ice it with plain chocolate frosting. Then I made some buttercream frosting, dyed it my colors, and decorated the cake with the special logo I made for the back of Maggie's cape.
Here's the up close, artsy shot:
I also made these superhero lollipops where I took a regular Tootsie Pop and made a little eye mask and cape out of paper. I put a bunch of them in a jar with some beans to weigh down the jar, and the kids each got to take one home with them.
All in all, it was a big hit and all the kids (especially Maggie) had fun. What more could I ask for?! I loved it. Happy Sixth Birthday, Maggie!
Oh, I almost forgot. For the thank you note we took a photo of Maggie in her cape and I used Picnik (free photo editing software) to put words on the photo, saying, "I'm SUPER glad you came to my party!" I can't find that version with the words but here's the photo we used.