Party Recap...

My soon to be 6 year old is very much into video games and this year he chose a Mario birthday party. Always ready for a birthday challenge, I was excited about this one!

I sent out invites that I made of Mario's head using basic scrapbook tools. Inside it read " Get POWERED UP and ready to celebrate Calvin's 6th Birthday! We're going to have a SUPER good time at LaGrange Castle" followed by the party info.

I decorated with "boo balloons" hanging over the party table. Everything was in red and white. I avoided the commercial party supplies and went for red supplies found at the $ store.

For food, I made chocolate mustache pops, goomba oreo pops (basically cake pops but made with crushed oreos and cream cheese) and a Mario pull apart cupcake cake. I also made a power juice of fruit punch with a scoop of red sherbert in it. I put the juice in hommade sippy cups (canning jars with plastic lids with a hole drilled out of it) and etched a mustache on the cups. Each kid got to take one home.

When the party started, I gave each child a Mario hat I made them. Big hit! And the party started. We started off with a live Mario Party game. I taped a "board game" to the floor made up of several game spots. Some spaces were blank, some had Mario heads (mini game), some had goombas (back two spaces), and some had Mushrooms (forward 2 spaces. Then I had a large dice with 1, 2, or 3 on each side. If someone landed on a mini game spot, then they got to play a mini game! They spun a spinner with each game option on it and rolled another die to see who they played. The winner of the game moved forward 2 spaces, the loser stayed where they were.

Mini games: Yoshi's eggs. I used white easter eggs and drew green spots on them to look like Yoshi eggs. Then filled them with paper shreddings. In one egg was a star. They took turns opening eggs. The winner was the one who found the star.

Bob omb game: I took a roll of black crepe paper and roled it into a ball, yarn ball style. As I rolled, I put either a mario sticker or an exploding bomb sticker. The kids slowly unrolled the "bomb" and if they got to a Mario head they gave the bomb to the next person. If they came accross an exploding bomb, they lose.

Pin the mustache on Mario: pretty self explanitory. I made a Mario head without a mustache. Blindfold the child, give them a couple spins and let them try to stick the mustache on. Closest one to the right spot wins.

Yoshi game: Here I stacked two different sets of cups. each cups had a drawing of a fruit on it. Each child was given a red party blower and that was their yoshi toungue. They used the toungue to knock over all the "fruits" first one to knock over or move all their cups is the winner.

After the Mario Party game, we had a question block pinata. I covered a square box with yellow wrapping paper and put question marks and bolts on them using card stock. I cut a square out of the bottom and taped several layers of yellow tissue paper to the bottom of the inside of the box. then I filled the box with several plastic and chocolate coins. The kids got to take turns punching the bottom of the question block until the tissue paper tore and the coins came out. They collected their coins in their hats. All the kids loved this!

We finished the games by letting kids play the mini games if they didn't get a chance and then eatting. As the kids ate, I pulled them aside, one by one to take a picture of them with thier hats and a chocolate mustache pop under their nose. Great way to document who was there!

Then the kids watched a Mario cartoon until the parents came.

Along with the hat and cup, I sent each child home with a goody bag. The bag was a gift bag with a mario face on it similar to the invites. Inside was a pack of Mario fruit snacks, a baggie of chocolate stars I made using wilton's melting chocolates and a star mold, a question block puzzle block I made by gluing together wooden blocks and painting them, and a mario figurine.

To complete the theme, I made Mario lollipops using Tootsie pops and making a mario hat and mario nose/mustache for it.