Super Peter

After months of persuading, cajoling, and pleading, we finally agreed to throw Peter a half-birthday party. At first he wanted a pirate party. But he's been to three pirate parties this year, so I suggested we go in a different direction.

And that direction was awesome.

First the kids got their invitation.

Then I stayed up much later than was prudent and made decorations.

The best part? Bryan's mom made capes for all the kids. They were fabulous. And they were hand delivered when Bryan's brother came up to go into the MTC. She made half of them blue and half of them red. They were the best part of the whole party.

The party was supposed to happen at our local park. In fact, part of the reason we decided to do the half-birthday party was so that it could be held outside. So when I opened our garage on the day of the festivities, all loaded up with decorations and children, I freaked out a bit at the downpour that was taking place. We walked over to our clubhouse to see if we could relocate there. It was booked. Bryan and I surveyed our garage as a possible party venue and started hauling things out to make it safe for small people.

And then the rain stopped.

We went ahead and did it at the park, I just ditched putting up streamers since I arrived at the park approximately three minutes before the party was supposed to start. I did what I could with the time I had.

Then we partied like superheroes.

First we handed out capes. The kids had the chance to decorate with fabric markers and could even add their name or initial.

Next I told the kids that they were going to learn how to be superheroes. For each skill they gained each child was given a sparkly, foam, star sticker to add to their cape.

The games were:

• Pin the shield on the superhero taught the kids how to use their X-ray vision. Imagine pin the tail on the donkey, but with shields instead of tails and capes thrown over heads instead of a blindfold over the eyes.
• Pass the Kryptonite (Hot Potato played with a green glow stick) taught super speed.
• The last game was kind of an obstacle course that involved saving stuffed animals and taught super strength (because animals are so heavy) and the all-important rescue ability.
• Finally the kids ran over and took turns spraying a picture of our villain (we called him Thunderhead and Bryan said that he was causing the party-threatening storm, but it was really a picture of Doomsday) until the paper melted and we declared ourselves triumphant.

We celebrated our victory by eating cupcakes and having Peter open his presents.

Phoebe was a very good sport and spent most of the party kicking it in the stroller. Cooper enjoyed getting to eat way too much candy and running around with all the big kids. My favorite part was getting to work with Bryan as we introduced and facilitated the games. We make a very good team.

Peter enjoyed it too.