Party Highlights

What People Ate

We served; hamburgers, hot dogs, fruit and veggies.

What People Drank

For the water bottles I made them to look like Piranha plants.

Invitation

I visited our local Salvation Army and found blue overalls for the boys (very hard to find these days!), and a blue tank top that I made into Toads vest. I sewed wooden yellow painted buttons I painted on the front and then bought a red and green t- shirt at Wal-Mart to match. I dressed all the kids and placed them in front of the characters and snapped as many photos as I could. It was hard to keep the kids attention off the characters and all looking at the camera at the same time. Especially the little guy! I finally got a half decent photo and it made for the perfect invitation. I designed an invitation before-hand, just in case the photo didn’t work out or if we hadn’t completed the characters and decided to print it on cardstock and add it to the back of the invitation. I wanted an invitation that included both Mario and Luigi and some element of them collecting coins since many of the games we had planned included collecting coins.

Decorations

Since there were so many elements to this party I decided to create a demo table this time as well. I created the banner to look like bricks and boxes like in the video game. To make them stand out a bit better and allow me to add toys like the bombs and mushrooms I added Dollar Store wedding favor boxes to the back. Since we opted to use the cardboard characters for the games I needed something to decorate the table. I created a series of blocks to look like the pieces in the game (same pieces used in the banner), a backdrop out of green construction paper and two Piranha plants using foam balls and terra cotta pots that I painted. I thought the decorations should reflect the most common images in the video game (ex. Tunnels, flowers, bricks and question boxes). This was by far our most ambitious birthday yet. It took almost 2 months to draw, paint and trim all 16 characters. We initially only meant to make 2; Mario and Luigi. Somehow we ended up making 14 others. Don’t ask me how that happened! From the moment the kids walked into the backyard I wanted them to feel like they had stepped into the video game. We used large cardboard pieces to create the stand-ups and carefully drew each character out by hand. The kids even helped us create some of the smaller characters like the bomb, bullet bill, and the star. We traced out the lines in black marker, painted them and then cut them out. To make them stand, we stapled them to garden sticks and hammered them into the ground. The kids all wanted pictures with their favorite characters.

Dessert

I kept the colors for the cupcake wraps and toppers simple using reds, blues, yellows and greens. I also added a few other touches such as the cloud pattern and brick pattern. The amazing cake was created by our friend Cecelia. She did such an amazing job and the cake was delicious!

Activities / Games

Get the Goomba’s: The object of the game was to sit on a brown balloon, pop it and then collect as many coins inside as possible. Super Mario Obstacle Course: - Start line (Mario) - Jump to hit the question box and collect a coin - Climb up the structure and slide down the tunnel to Luigi - Collect an egg filled with coins in the ball pool (eggs mixed in with plastic balls) - Flip, jump, or roll to avoid the Piranha flowers - Run to the finish line (Donkey Kong) Defeat Bowser: This is a favorite in our house, partly because I want to see the neat drawings my husband will create on the driveway. The object is to throw water balloons at Bowser until he disappears. Don’t be Scared of Boo: This was such an easy Piñata to make. I paper Mache’d a large balloon and hung it upside down while it was wet so it would stretch out the balloon. Once dry I added wings and patched up the whole where the knot was. I cut out construction paper to make the face and found the gold crown at the Dollar Store. We hung the piñata from a long painting stick and had it float around above the kids.

Party Favors

In researching this party I found many different types of Yoshi Favor Bags. I loved them so much that I made a template on my silhouette and cut them out of cardstock. I added some foam scrapbook pieces to make the eye lids stand out and added Favor bag circles I created to the back with a little thank you message. For favors I included a Mario or Yoshi Pezz (Dollar Store), Little Candy filled bombs (Dollar Store), Fun stick-on mustaches, Smarties and a few other little candies.