Nana-Nana-Nana-Nana-Nana-Nana-Nana-Nana BATMAN! (I know you checked to make sure I put enough “Nana”s. You did, didn’t you?)

For his 7^th Birthday Party my nephew wanted a Batman Party. My sister asked me if I would help her with it and I jumped at the chance! I LOVE to plan parties! So, if you’re planning a Batman party too, just sit back, relax with a cup of something refreshing and get ready to read about what you’re going to do!

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Invitations:

My sister sent out the invitations. She used this free e-invitation from punchbowl.com.  It’s not technically batman, but it sure is close! When sending out your invitation, of course you need to put in the date and time, etc., but an important thing  (maybe “important” isn’t the right word…maybe “fun” would be more accurate) we added was a costume competition. At the end of the invitation write, “There will a prize for the best Adult and Child Superhero costume!” This helps people anticipate the party more and gets them more excited for what’s to come. It’s also nice for kids who like other superheroes more than Batman, they get to express themselves a little!

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Decorations:

We wanted it to look like you stepped into the comic book, so we had lots of yellow and black, a tonne of bats, and a skyline of Gotham City.

Here are the decoration details:

Bats

Print a picture of a batman bat from Google Images and trace it many times onto black Bristol board. Cut them out and tape them all over the walls.

Skyline

I found this awesome idea on Pinterest! It’s how to make the Batman skyline. It was super easy to make, although cutting out all the windows was super time consuming! I used my Fiskars paper trimmer, which really helped speed things along, and made really clean lines. The skyline really added to the atmosphere.

Spotlight with Bat Symbol

 Cut a bat symbol out of Bristol Board and tape it onto an oval piece of yellow Bristol Board, which is the light. This symbol is more difficult to draw because you can’t just trace it. I recommend drawing it in pencil and just keep changing little bits until you’re happy with it. Tape it to the ceiling. Tape yellow steamers leading to it as the beam of light from the spotlight.

Wall Signs

Cut zigzag edged ovals out of different bright colours of Bristol Board (red, yellow, green, blue, etc). In Permanent marker with bold capitals write one word on each piece. BASH! BIFF! POW! BOOM! CRUNCH! Outline all the edges in permanent marker to make it really pop! Tape to the walls.

Yellow Table Cloth with Bristol Board Bat Symbol

Cut out this symbol the same way you did for the spotlight. We also had bat sequins that were leftover from Halloween that we salvaged and sprinkled on the table.

Bat Symbol Water Bottle Name Tags

Simply get black construction paper, cut it to the size of your label, cut out a bat symbol out of yellow construction paper, write the guest’s name on it and glue it onto the black. Tape or glue the label onto the beverage of your choice. We used water because the kids were going to have so much sugar later, but you could replace the labels on bottles or cans of pop, or juice boxes.

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Games:

All the games fell into one giant game: Super Hero Training Camp. We got the idea from thelittlesewingshop. Each child got a tracking sheet with each of the activities and a spot for a signature. When they completed a task they got their paper signed (or a batman stamp would be cool) and moved onto the next activity. We moved by group and all did each activity together, but you could move around separately if you had enough adults or teenagers to supervise the activities. We had lots of little kids, so sticking together worked well. We didn’t have prizes for each of these individual games, but every child got a prize at the end.

The Super Hero Training Camp activities included Make a Superhero Mask, Shoot the Villian, Strength Training, Duck the lasers and Hulk Punch. Here’s a more detailed description of each activity.

Make Your Mask

Supplies: Masks, string (don’t forget the string!!), markers, stickers, sequins, feathers, puffballs, glue and anything else that would make good mask decorations.

Use paper or foam masks and let the kids decorate them with stickers, markers, sticky sequins, etc. This is nice for the kids who don’t come with costumes. This way they still feel like they got a costume too.

Shoot the Villain

I’m sorry this picture is blurry, but it’s the only one I got! Supplies: Box with villians (I’ve also seen it done with placing villain figurines on a table and shooting them off), Nerf Gun, darts.

I repurposed my bean bag toss box from the Pirate Party I had in the summer by taking off the Jolly Roger and putting on bats. I then printed pictures of different Batman villains inside the box as flaps. I taped only the top of the picture so that when the nerf darts hit the papers they would flap back, showing they’d been hit. The villians I used were Catwoman, Penguin, Joker, Mr. Freeze and Riddler. I got the pictures from Google Images. We gave the kids a nerf gun (one at a time!) and three shots. Even the two-year-olds loved this one! But we definitely adjusted how far away each child needed to be based on their age.

Strength Training

Supplies: different sized weights

My sister is a personal trainer so she has a set of various sized weights that we used for this activity. We had each child take a turn lifting the weights, lightest to heaviest, and whoever could lift the most won.

Duck the Lasers

Supplies: red streamers, tape.

This one was my favourite! We got red streamers and taped them across the hall at various heights and distances so they looked like security lasers. The kids had to take turns making their way from one end of the hall to the other without knocking down the lasers. We needed to retape the lasers MANY times, so you’ll need patience and time to play this game! We played this last and were starting to lose our patience, so if I did it again I’d move it closer to the beginning and end with the weights.

Hulk Punch

*The picture for this one is at the end, in the collage.

Supplies: a prize for each child small enough to fit in a Styrofoam bowl, Styrofoam or paper bowls, tissue paper or napkins, wooden board, staple gun.

We got this idea from Amy at Attagirlsays.com. I would end with this activity. It takes very little concentration and time. We chose specific prizes for each child from The Party Store. Most prizes cost less than 50 cents. All you do is staple gun a Styrofoam or paper bowl for each kid onto a board, put the prize in a bowl, wrap the bowl in tissue paper or a napkin and glue the napkin on. At the party the kids take turns punching the bowl to get their prize! To make them feel more like The Hulk, and to protect their little hands when they punch their prize, we gave them an oven mitt to wear.

Once the kids completed all these activities we had an awards ceremony. Each child earned their cape -a garbage bag with the ties!

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Costume Contest

Line up all the kids who dressed up and give each adult a ballot. All the adults cast one ballot for the favourite costume. The child with the most ballots wins. Do the same with the kids casting ballots for the adults. Our prize for this was a reusable plastic batman cup with candy and chocolate in it, wrapped in cellophane and tied with a ribbon. My son won the costume contest…no big deal.

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We finished off the night with yellow and black cake pops and presents.

It was a great evening!

Did you try out any of these ideas? How did it go? Let me know in the comments!