If you are throwing a kids superhero dress up party here is a practical and helpful guide to making it one to remember.

SUPER HEROES

The first very important thing to point out about superhero costumes is that they're not just for parties. They are, in fact, accepted everyday ‘leisure wear' for little boys. You can play with your toys wearing one, nip down to the park to ride the swings and wearing your favorite one can really brighten up that boring trip to the grocery store. It's from the age of about one, little boys start wanting to be superheroes (although they were quite possibly thinking about it at cradle stage) and partners everywhere might argue that they never really get over the urge, although they generally swap the skin tight suit for school uniform once they hit four. After that, they're still frustrated Supermen and Batmen - they just dont wear the kit.

GOOD vs EVIL

The obvious superheroes are the goody ones we've all heard of. And when it comes to finding the best costume, you'll be spoilt for choice. Superman is always a winner but always go for a suit with built-in ‘muscle chest' - much more realistic. Spiderman is another very popular choice (you see a lot of them wandering around Walmart). You can't go wrong with Batman, or Robin for that matter, although he was never quite as cool as his bat boss costume. Then there are the lesser-known good guys whove been in the spotlight more recently, thanks to the steady flow of Marvel films hitting the big screen. Thor is a particular favourite amongst Avenger Assemble-watching seven year-olds and Iron Man is another. But in the search for a great superhero costume, one should not overlook the baddies. You'd hope that a four year old hadn't seen Christopher Nolans very dark, Dark Knight Rises but the original licensed costume is pretty awesome. Darth Vader is another great baddy to turn up as as is the exceedingly nasty Darth Maul .

KIDS SUPERHERO COSTUME PARTIES

SUPER INVITES

Superhero invites rule the internet, with all the main characters covered. Alternatively, snap a pic of your little superhero wearing his costume and

create your own bespoke super-invites. OR if youre feeling a creative, take the super-snap you've taken of your wonder kid and stick it to a piece of

invitation-sized card, write the party details, colour photocopy it and send. Easy. When you're writing your invite though, best try and get cool with the

kids and use superhero type vocabulary (see below for one of our favourite examples).

CAKE

A Google search will find you loads of really amazing and superhero cake inspiration. REALLY busy parents should head straight to a bakery or

cake shop while the slightly busy ones might like to bake something simple and add a superhero decorations or transfers.

SUPER ACTIVITIES

Leaving a room full of superheroes to entertain themselves can be risky. Too much unsupervised superhero behaviour can end in rather a lot of battling and too many tears.

Kryptonite Hunt

- Paint some stones bright green, hide them in the garden, then send out your little superheroes to find them.

- For every deadly rock retrieved theres a prize.

X-Ray Vision

- You wrap up some everyday items in a big bag and each superhero reaches in and has to guess what they are (using super powers, of course).

Criminal Cake Hunt

- You hide the birthday cake somewhere in the house.

- Only the bravest superheroes can find it...