Superhero team brings smiles and clean windows to patients at children's hospital

Some superheroes recently took a break from saving the world to do more important work: bringing smiles to the faces of little patients at a hospital in Des Moines, Iowa.

It was the third annual visit to Blank Children's Hospital for the team from Larry's Window Cleaning Service.

The volunteers rappelled down the side of Blank Children's on Tuesday to the delight of the children -- and parents, family and staff -- inside the building.

As the team, donning superhero costumes, cleaned the hospital's windows, they also played games with the children.

"It's a lot more than washing windows," hospital spokeswoman Amy Varcoe told ABC News affiliate WOI-TV. "There are a lot of kiddos who call Blank home throughout the year. ... The kids get to see superheroes come right to their window."

The visit has become a tradition for the window-washing team, which on Tuesday included Jessie Schwartvtrauber as Captain America; John Newton as Batman; and Jessie Howard as the Flash.

"I've seen the smiles on the kids' faces and the way they light up once they see us," Howard told ABC News affiliate WOI-TV. "It's really for them so it's just awesome."

"Our kids can take every little bit of normalcy in the hospital. ... We just want to give them a little bit of that normal feeling, of being outside the hospital. And to see one of their favorite people come flying into their very room and give them that big smile. We can’t do that in the hospital every day," Varcoe said.

And the parents of the children said they were incredibly thankful.

"To see a familiar face of a superhero kind of puts them at ease a little bit so they can stress less," parent Addie Back said.

ABC News affiliate WOI-TV contributed to this story.