It’s no secret my son is mildly obsessed with superheroes. So, it came as no surprise to me when he requested a superhero themed birthday party for his fourth birthday. In this post I’m spilling all the details, including our superhero activities and games, superhero birthday cake, and superhero party favor.
(This superhero birthday party ideas post contains affiliate links that I may be compensated for. Your clicks and purchases help support The DIY Lighthouse at no extra charge to you.)
Superhero Themed Birthday Party Activity & Game Ideas
About half of my son’s superhero themed birthday party schedule was filled with superhero activities. (FYI, we did a 2-4pm Saturday afternoon party and had 16 crazy 4 year olds attend. If I could do it over again, I’d keep this age group to an hour and a half.) All of the activities were fun, but I’m sharing the details and my thoughts about each one below.
Pin the Cape on Superman
This was our superhero version of pin the tail on the donkey. Honestly, this activity would have been better with a smaller group. We had 16 kids to shuffle through so it took longer than their attention spans would have liked. If 10 or less kids were at the party it would have been great! The first bunch of kids loved the challenge and it was cute having them take off their blind fold and see how close they got.
I bought a white poster board and quickly free-handed Superman’s back on it. Then, with a red poster, I drew a cape we could stick onto our Superman. To stick it, we just used regular folded-over tape. And of course we had a Batman blindfold for the kids to wear.
It’s hilarious watching some kids not even get remotely close to the right place while other kids get almost spot on.
Superhero Parade with Noise Makers
This activity was super cute (no pun intended) and perfect for 4 year olds! The birthday boy got to lead the other kids around the backyard while they all blew noise makers. Yes, it got loud, but they had a blast! And thankfully our sweet neighbors didn’t complain. This is a great activity for getting out the wiggles.
We just grabbed our noise maker blowers at the dollar store, but they are available on Amazon too here.
Tie up the Villains with Streamers
This activity was a huge hit! I recruited three adults (my husband, mother-in-law, and father-in-law) to be our villains and had them sit in chairs on the grass. Then, we gave each superhero kid a roll of streamers and instructed them to tie up the villains so they couldn’t break free.
My mother-in-law was adorable and really played up her villain role. Some of the kids got really into this activity and from the looks on their faces they thought they really were saving the day haha.
DIY Photo Booth with Superhero Props
In our living room we set up a DIY photo booth wall by taping up wrapping paper and streamers. (We got our wrapping paper at the dollar store, but here are some good options.)
We also had some superhero themed photo booth props from the dollar store, but this is a really cute option that includes a background. All said and done, I think the 4 year olds didn’t really care a lot about this, but it was a good way for me to get some cute pics of my birthday boy.
Superhero Appearance & Photo Op
We borrowed a Flash costume from a friend and paid a teenager in the neighborhood ten bucks to come take some pictures with the kids. He was great and even ran around the backyard letting them try to catch him. It was a nice way to break up the party and have a fun surprise show up.
Make Your own Superhero Shield
And best for last… superhero shields! This was the favorite activity! I was going to buy frisbees and put white paper circles on each one to let the kids color, but I went the cheap route and just bought sturdy, white paper plates from the dollar store instead. It worked great!
I got superhero stickers and crayons from the dollar store too (here and here are some sticker options on Amazon) and let the kids go to town on their “shields.” They all loved this project and some kids stayed for quite a while coloring and decorating their shields. Of course we let them take their shield home with them at the end.
We loved our activities, but I also thought of a couple other game and activity options: 1) A duck duck goose game with them saying “super, super, hero,” instead. 2) A Hulk smash game where the kids took turns knocking over boxes or punching through tissue paper with Hulk fists on. If you have any other fun ideas leave a comment below!
Superhero Themed Birthday Party Cake
Of course my son requested a superhero birthday cake (with ice cream). He had the entire thing planned out for months. He wanted a blue and red (his favorite colors) chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and superheroes on top.
Not wanting to pay for a store-bought custom cake, I made my own. After all, this was for a toddler’s birthday party, not a wedding reception or anything crazy.
After splitting one cake mix between two circular baking pans, I sliced the top off of one of them to create a more level surface for the other one to sit on top of. Then, I slathered on a bunch of that chocolate frosting my son requested, layered on the top cake, and filled in any holes with more chocolate frosting. (Total, I used one chocolate frosting tub.)
In order to make the blue and red part of the request work, I used white frosting and added food coloring. Then after some very unfancy frosting and sprinkle work, this guy was ready for its superheroes.
I bought these DC superhero cake toppers off of Amazon and they were perfect for the job! My son specifically wanted Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman on his cake and we were able to fit them plus four more! This cake fulfilled all of his superhero cake dreams.
In addition to the superhero cake, we had cupcakes and themed paper- and plasticware. We found our plates and napkins at Walmart, but these look even better! I put superhero stickers (like this) on regular red and blue paper cups to spice up the superhero factor.
Superhero Themed Birthday Party Favor
I wanted to do an easy, cheap, superhero themed party favor that kids could take home with their decorated shields, so I made some cute superhero lollipop suckers. I taped them to a poster board along with a “Thanks for making Johnny’s birthday SUPER!” on it.
I’ll admit I saw this general idea on Pinterest, but I totally made it even easier with one little trick. Instead of having to cut out paper capes and masks for every single lollipop, I just cut streamers to the right size (a couple inches) and taped them around the lollipops. So easy! And I got even lazier by just drawing on the masks instead of cutting out paper masks.
The kids loved these so much! In fact, they were so excited to pick out their superhero lollipop (I said they could only pick one when it was their turn to leave) that they were excited to have their parent show up at the door. There were no meltdowns and refusals to leave. A win for all involved!
Hope these superhero themed birthday party ideas are helpful to you! Please leave any questions or comments below.
Pin it for Later – Superhero Themed Birthday Party Ideas
