How to Throw a Super Mario Brother's Party

*I'll apologize up front.  This post is going to be long and photo heavy!

Not the best picture, but I just think it's cute.

I just LOVE BIRTHDAYS!  As if you have noticed from all the parties I bookmark

and the kids parties I've featured before.

It feels like birthdays are the one day out of the year I can just go crazy

and absolutely spoil my kids.

The party, the food, the games, the decorating...

I LOVE IT ALL!

And this Mario party was so much fun to be a part of.

I was hesitant at first, but it ended up being so much fun!

The Invitations and Decorations


Our invitations were mounted on brown cardstock and featured a mushroom on the top.  The smiley face was Noah's added feature.  Additionally, I colored and scanned a piece of clipart for the envelopes and filled them with star confetti.

The back patio was covered in bright red, green and yellow streamers and balloons.  Grandma made Noah a birthday banner and I added hanging stars and a ghost I found at the dollar store.

The Food

We wanted to play off the Mario Brother's Theme so our menu consisted of:
*Yoshi's Yummy Chips and Salsa
*Very Mario Veggie Plate
*Pirana Plant Pizza bites
*Luigi's Lemonade
*Mario's Ghost
*Brownie Bombs (Brownie pops dipped in chocolate)

The Games


Games were a lot of fun for the party.  Although it took me a little while to start, I almost ended up with too many good ideas in the end.

We started out with an obstacle course.  The kids had to complete tasks similar to Mario: running up a step stool and jumping off, climbing through the tunnel, trying the hula hoop, jumping over some buckets, and carrying a Yoshi egg in a spoon.

Next we did Pin the M on Mario's hat.  Most parties I plan, the kids want to do this one over and over again!  Plus how easy can it get: a hat on some poster board, a bunch of M's, and some tape!

Next we played Mario bingo.  I used the link here.  The original plan had been to use gold coins and play over and over again.  But the squares were too tiny and the coins too big.  So we used sticky stars from the office supply section at Walmart and played till we had two different winners.  I was surprised how well a bunch of 5 & 6 years olds caught on to bingo.

Our final game was just for fun.  I had a bag of gold coins and wanted to do something with them.  So I filled a bunch of leftover eggs from Easter and hid them in the front yard.  The kids went nuts.  We were hunting Yoshi eggs.

The Prizes


For all the kids, I had Mario brothers hats and Princess Peach crowns.  I couldn't find inexpensive hats so I picked up some red visors from Michael's and added a white M cut from adhesive felt.  The crowns came from Michael's as well.  For party game prizes, we could these neat flyers from Dollar Tree that light up.

The Cake

Grandma always makes our cakes.  But due to a family emergency this week, we were in a time crunch. So we put our heads together and came up with this really cute idea.  We picked up a sheet cake from Costco with the balloons and added our Mario figures.  Then on the border, we added the ghosts peeps too.  I think it turned out really cute.

The Pinata


So my pinata technique needs a little work.  But this year I decided it was ridiculous for my to spend $20-30 for a pinata that we were just going to beat to death anyways.  So Noah and I set out making Chain Chop.  We built him around a 24' beach ball and found that old fashioned flour and water worked the best.  His final layer was black construction paper instead of newspaper and he had about 4 layers all together.  He was heavy!  In the end, the hook came out and we had to tie it in the rope, but he sure with stood a whole lot of hits.

The Presents


We decided to do something different this year.  Grandparents and Mommy and Daddy still bought Noah presents.  But we asked all our friends to bring nonperishable food items for the mission.  I love spoiling my kids on their special day, but it's our goal to live in moderation and look toward other's needs as well.  Since this is the first time we've ever done this, we decided to set a goal of collecting 6 lbs of food for a 6th birthday.  Our friend generosity far exceeded our expectations as we piled the food right along side the presents.  We are so blessed!

Check out these posts for more ideas:
Super Mario Brother's Party!
Mario Kart/Vintage Race Car Party
My Super Mario Bros Party
Mario Birthday Party
Super Mario Birthday Party
Super Mario Birthday Brainstorm