When Cole turned five he wanted a character party but couldn't decide his favorite, so we  opted for a "Super Hero" party. I made enough simple capes to cover the number on our guest list: I bought different colors of satin for $2 a yard and ironed the edges with seam tape (roughly 1 1/2 yard per cape), then pulled elastic and ribbons through to tie (elastic  keeps it from being a potential choker). Then we cut craft foam in the shape of generic bandit masks and strung elastic through holes. When the kids came, my husband required that the kids complete our obstacle course (crawl through a tube, run once around the  house, bounce a super ball very high, jump off a chair). When they completed it, we presented each kid with a certificate we had made on the computer saying that s/he had  successfully completed Super Hero school. Then we placed the cape and mask on them.  They got to choose from four colors of capes (the girls particularly liked purple for Cat  Woman; Super Man blue and Batman black were also hits). We offered water color pencils for them to decorate their faces.  They could be any known super hero or make one up.  We  also offered stick-on felt stars and letters to decorate their capes if they wanted.  There were a few other games played, but we really didn't need to organize much of the fun once  they had their capes on--just running around or riding trikes with capes billowing behind was a blast! We easily found enough theme songs to Spiderman, Batman, James Bond, etc., to keep the music lively (and nostalgic for the parents!). When the kids tired, they could focus on embellishing their costume. Instead of party bags, the kids got to take home their custom cape and mask.  This cost me less than $3 per guest.  The Super Hero theme really got their imaginations soaring and included all ages. (We chose Spiderman for the cake and accessories).  We played mostly outside, but you could easily adapt this for the garage, or put the sofa cushions on the floor for indoor jumping fun.