Mario Party!

(This is text/photo heavy. Sorry! The photos turned out SO cute and I wanted to document it all. If only to prove to Adam that he at least had 1 friend party in his lifetime.)

Last year on Adam's 7th birthday, he asked if he could have a friend birthday party when he turned 8. He had never had one before, and really, really wanted one.

Thinking that surely we would be in a larger apartment (or house) by then, I promised.

In April he began reminding me of that promise, and I realized:

1) We still lived in the same place.
2) I had to give him a friend party. I had promised.
3) It would be way too hot to do it at a park.
4) Our apartment rules didn't allow us to have it at the pool.
5) Because of our recent stuff, I needed to keep it very inexpensive.
6) I needed to come up with a lot of entertainment if I was going to keep our 800-square foot apartment in one piece with 8 boys running around.

;)

He really wanted a Mario party. He has been all about Mario since Christmas when "Mike" received the new Super Mario Wii game from my brother, Ethan.

I don't necessarily consider myself to be super-creative, but once I started thinking about the ideas just started coming to me for this party. And a few searches online helped with the details. SO. We had our Mario party. It turned out pretty well, I think!

(All pictures are by my super-talented Mom. And, yes, we are so fancy around here that we had a photographer from Phoenix come up to document our party.)

:)

I made the invitations with some random scrapbook paper I had from when I had time to scrapbook (I knew it would come in handy!), and with the Super Mario Wii font downloaded from here. The top of the mushroom lifts up, and the party info was inside.


We decorated with streamers (collected from past birthdays), some yellow ? bricks I made from scrapbook paper, a banner made with scrapbook paper and ribbon, mushrooms (made from a balloon and cardstock), and Goombas and Piranha Plants. I found some Mario clipart, enlarged it and had it printed at FedEx, because I'm deprived and I don't have a color printer. As a bonus, they accidentally doubled my order and gave it to me for free. Sweet!




I made the cupcake toppers by re-sizing the Mario images to 1", printing them, cutting them out with a circle punch, and then gluing them to a toothpick.

On Saturday, the day of the actual party, I put on a Mario & Luigi show from 1989 for them to watch while everyone arrived. I found it on Netflix. It was... interesting.

Which is a nice word for weird.


Once everyone arrived, Josh came out dressed as a Koopa Troopa and delivered a note. It explained that Bowser had captured Princess Peach, and it was their job (as Mario) to complete 5 worlds and battle Bowser at the end to rescue her.



I hung notes on the walls explaining the different worlds and what they had to do to complete each world.


In the first world, they got their Mario gear on prepared for their journey. I made hats from a pattern I downloaded from here and clearance-d red fleece (our Joann's is closing... sad!). They colored paper circle "M's" for the hats and pinned them on, and put on mustaches that I found here. They were all so stinkin' cute dressed as Mario!




In the second world, they had to battle ghosts (white balloons) to collect all 100 coins (found here). I put a black sheet over Adam's window and un-plugged the lamp so it was dark and spooky. The boys LOVED doing this!



They got the coins picked up so quickly, I considered turning the lights off in Adam and Grace's room when it's time to clean it every night. It would make it more fun.

And dangerous.

Dangerous is fun. Maybe...

In the third world, they used "firepower" (Nerf guns) to shoot down the Goombas and Piranha Plants. I used my printed Goombas and Piranha Plants and hot glued them to painted cardboard.



Once they defeated the bad guys, they moved on to the fourth world: defeating a Chain Chomps pinata.

Is my knowledge of Super Mario characters scaring you?

'Cuz it's kinda scaring me.



I made the pinata using paper mache and very little art skills. Amazing, I know. Unfortunately, it only lasted 3 rounds of kids' hitting.

Fortunately, once the candy came out the kids didn't care.

After they collected the candy in bags, I wrote their name on a card that said, "Thank you for coming to my party, ***), to use as a party favor, and we came inside for the fifth world.

They played musical chairs with Mario music I downloaded from here. On the last chair, they found instructions to get to Bowser and Princess Peach's location.



They all ran outside to the grass, where Princess Peach, played by Grace, was in a cage. Bowser, played by Mike, told the boys they had to knock him down to get to her.




She was rescued after the boys defeated Bowser!

She thanked them and told them to go inside for lunch. We had pizza, veggies, fruit kabobs, and Capri Suns. We sang happy birthday to Adam and had cupcakes (red velvet, his favorite).





We opened presents after eating. He got so many fun things... his friends were so kind. He got Transformers, water guns, clothes, a puzzle, art supplies, a homemade scripture bag, chips, soda, and a gift card. It was really nice of everyone and he loved his presents!


Afterward, the boys played together, and got a little crazy.

Just like boys should.


I was so nervous about having this party, but it really turned out pretty good! Adam loved it, his friends had fun, and it was a great way to begin our summer!

Unfortunately, Grace is asking when she can have her first friend party.

I don't Mike is ready for that.

;)

(Super mucho thanks to my parents and brother, who happened to plan a trip the same weekend, and helped so much with the party!)