Super Mario Birthday Party

So this was a tough birthday theme. Normally when my kids decide what they want to do for their party, I immediatly head to birthdaypartyideas.com to gather ideas. Unfortunatley, Super Mario is just not as popular as pirates, so there was almost nothing helpful. So I turned to Google and still not a lot of info or help out there but I did get some good ideas from some other helpful parents. So I decided that I would post all the details on the blog so a momma like me could find the info in their time of need. So for friends and family who read this blog (unless you are planning a Mario party), this may be to much info. Just look at the pictures and call it good.

As, I have mentioned in a previous post, I made these invites on Photoshop and it was a big stress in my life, but they turned out just as I had hoped.
Obviously, the theme is Super Mario and one of the kids favorite games is Mario Party and so that is what we decided to base the party on. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, it is kind of like a board game, where you roll and then move along the board. In between turns you play mini games to earn coins, which you use to purchase stars. The one with the most stars wins.
When the kids get to the party they will get a Mario or Luigi hat and moustache. This was the most expensive part of the party for me the hats were a little over a dollar each (from Oriental Trading). I just used white felt to make the M or L circles on the hat, which I glued on with fabric glue.

So I am using red and blue construction paper, which I will tape to the side walk and driveway to make up the board. I bought big fluffy dice for a dollar, for the kids to roll.
For the first mini game we are playing Get the Goomba (which is a character in the game). For this game I just bought brown balloons. Before I blew them up I put either 1 or 3 plastic coins (purchased from Oriental Trading) in each. The kids will pop the balloons to get the coins. Easy enough.

The next mini game is Yoshi's Egg Hunt. Think Easter only instead of candy in the plastic eggs we put plastic coins. What kid doesn't like an egg hunt. Yes, I painted these posters myself. I am no artist, but I thought they looked fine. I worked on them while my son was at school and when he got home, I said "Tanner look what I did!" Yes, I was excited and kind of proud how they turned out. His response, "Mom, they look funny." Alright, even my 6 year old thinks they look like crap. Yoshi, I do realize looks more like Baby Tad then himself, like I said I am not an artist.

The next mini game is Mario Madness. We have a small moon bouce jumper thing and I am going to put 144 bouncy balls in their and let the kids jump around and pick up as many balls as they can. Whoever gets the most gets coins, they all get to keep balls for the goody bag.

The next mini game is Save Princess Peach. With this game, I am sending the kids on a treasure hunt. They will all work together to find clues. I painted a poster of Peach that will be hiding in the playground (the final clue will lead them there). All kids will get coins.

The final mini game is Chain Chomp Bash. This is just a pinata filled with candy and of course coins. I saw the idea for this online and decided I would try to make my own. I have never made a pinata from scratch. I was at my local party store and they had some clearance items they were selling for a dollar. There I found a soccer ball pinata (with a big dent in the back). I brought it home and painted it and as long a you look at it from the right direction, it looks like what I wanted and it only cost me a dollar.

I needed the kids to have a place to put all their coins so I made these classic mario coin boxs out of yellow cardstock and a homemade question mark stencil. A little time consuming but overall easy project.

When the kids get to the end of the board they will pay 20 coins to get their star. For the stars I just bought some 5 inch carboard gold stars that I stung with gold curling ribbon to make necklaces.

For goody bags I just bought these bright colored bags with handles and printed off pictures of Mario and Luigi and I cut them out and glued them on the bag. Inside there are stickers (which were purchased from Ebay), crayons, homemade coloring books (I found pictues online), bouncy balls, star notepad. They will also get to take home their hats, easter eggs, and coins. With the pinata I figured I didn't need to add any other treats.

The cake has been a bit of a stress. Originally I had planned on buying a retired Mario Wilton cake pan, but decided I didn't want to spend $30 on it so I decided to try something called a buttercream freezer transfer. You print out a picture and put a piece of wax paper over it and then essentially paint it with frosting. Well my fisrst attempt I think I didn't use buttercream frosting, thinking it would work anyway. Well it did not, so we started over, and I think this time it will work. (A big thanks to Kris for the hours she spent helping me with the cake, what would I do without my cake expert.) Pictures will come later if and when the cake turns out.