Mario & Luigi Birthday Party

The family and I are taking vacation time for the last week of summer break. Because of this, I haven't had time, nor energy, to stamp! So, I will be posting a few of my other endeavors. I hope you enjoy!

When the new Mario Bros. Wii game came out this year, my son instantly fell in love with Luigi. I don't know if it's the color green, or the fact that Luigi has a huge L on his hat (my son's name is Leif,) but something clicked in his mind and made him fall in love with everything Luigi and Mario!

I go just a little overboard with my kids' birthday parties. I am just unstoppable! But who wants to stop when it's so much fun? First I started with the invitations. I wanted to make something Nintendo, so thought of a DS. I printed the picture from the internet, but the rest are Stampin' Up! supplies (some retired).

When we delivered the invitations, the kids LOVED them! If you'd like instructions, just ask. I'd be more than happy to share how I put these together.

I also made thank you cards. I like to make them before the party, so they are ready to send out the Monday after the birthday. I will forget otherwise! The kids made these notes, using Stampin' Up! punches, stamps, and markers.

As each kid arrived, they got to pick a Mario or a Luigi hat to wear. These hats were bought at the German version of a Dollar Store. I could only find red and white hats, so we dyed the white hats Green with Rit dye. Then I cut the circles and letters out of felt, hot glued them together, and then glued them on the hat. Also, for the first game we played, the kids earned a yellow coin box with a slit in the top. These were made with Stampin' Up! products. Ask if you'd like the instructions.

For games at the party, I thought of a few different Mario-esque thing we could do. I made pictures of different Mario characters (free-handed them onto poster board and cut out). I then taped the large wooden skewers you can find at the grocery store onto the back and stuck them into the lawn in different areas. That way, when it was time for a different game, we could just tell the kids, "Go to Yoshi!" For each game, the prize was golden coins that could fit into the golden coin boxes.

The games were:

• Bowser-We put a 1x4 down on the ground and had the kids walk across the "bridge" and then they got to choose fire or ice balls (red or blue bean bags) and had to throw at a picture of Bowser.
• Yoshi Egg Hunt-Colored big Easter eggs with spots (used a Sharpie). I then drew simple pictures on a card that showed where the eggs were and each child got a card. (So a picture of an egg sitting near the swingset, or an egg by the mailbox).
• Goomba Smash-We decorated balloons to look like Goombas. Each had two chocolate coins inside and the kids had to sit on them to smash them.
• Chain Chomp Pinata-I took a soccer ball pinata from the store and ripped off as much of the paper mache as I could. Then I painted a chain chomp on it.
• Save Princess Peach-This was the last game. We hid Mushrooms around the yard with clues on them. We had the older kids read to the younger ones as they ran around the yard to find the next mushroom. The last mushroom led them to Princess Peach and a treasure chest full of goodie bags!

My favorite thing to do, and what I pride myself most in, is the cake. I looked online and couldn't find one that was feasible for me and my limited resources, so I combined a few of my favorite into one cake. For the mushroom top, I used the Wilton Cupcake pan. The bottom was, I believe, 9" round pans. Both cakes were frosted with butter cream frosting, and then covered in fondant. I hand-dyed the fondant using Wilton colors.

The party went over really well, even though it was a very cold and windy day. All the kids had a blast, and they all loved recreating the Mario Bros. games!