Letsa Go, Mario!! Party

This month I was hit at the last minute with the plans to have my nephew's 5th birthday in one weeks time. I usually take a month or more deciding presicely what to make, food and decorations and games, right down to the detailed grocery list. His mother has always done a really good job picking a color scheme or theme for his first 4 birthdays, so I wanted to atleast match the level of care given. He's recently been bitten by the Mario bug after playing with my boys, their countless number of video games, and then receiving his own 3DS for Christmas, so Granny and I knew that was the way to go.

I had such a good time pulling off the ideas I had found mostly on Pinterest and bringing them to life.

The only food that didn't have labels, but the little birthday boy knew exactly what they were. Fire Power! (his fav) and Ice Power. Unfortunately, I couldn't find powdered donut holes ANYWHERE, so I just whipped up some of the snowballs I make at Christmas, added a little blue tint to the dough and they were more appropriate than anything just white or just blue.

Well, don't be surprised that a lot of these little nibbles were from a bag and not homemade, I did only have a week to prepare and store bought just happened to fill the necessary roles perfectly, nothing wrong with that. Naturally though, the details I was most excited about were the ones I created, like the Pirahna Plants, veggie flowers, Toadstools and Super Stars.

I always incorporate fruit in to my parties because there's usually so much junk, and most of the kids (minus my anti-most fruits and vegetable 8 year old) love the fruit.

The 7up was a cute touch, I think. I wish there was a drink cooperative enough to have a 5 in it, since

Harp was turning 5, but having 7 extra lives versus just 1up, was cool enough. And to make these life-extending drinks even more fun, we had Mustachio straws that were so fun!

The games were just a bit less elegant, homemade on a budget and all, but fun no less.

What does Mario do best? Stomp on the Goombas!

I couldn't find any brown balloons, so our Goombas were orange, with paper plate feet. There were 2 Goombas who had eaten a star and who-so-ever destroyed the Goomba with a star inside was awarded a prize. Even without a prize, they had soooo much fun because all the balloons weren't so easy to pop. Then the kids got to Pin the Mustachio on Mario. I wish I knew what happened to the picture of the game without mustaches, but the boys really enjoyed this twist on the classic (even after the birthday boy totally cheated and moved his blindfold). I'm sorry, I can't attach a template for the poster board, I actually drew it myself using an image from a coloring page.

The Boos hanging over the food area, were a total Pinterest find. I drew on the faces myself and glued on the paper cones, fairly easy. The Chain Chompers in the doorways were a detail I wasn't going to do without. I found these as a paper head on the wall with the paper chain, I took it a step further and made the heads from helium filled balloons and glued faces on like I did for the Goombas. The paper chains didn't weigh them down too much so they looked more realistic floating off the wall as if they were coming after you.

This little turd turned 5 this week & I caught the best smile ever! He does not like to take pictures.

I can't take credit for making this cake, but I thought it was worth posting because it was so nice and the candle Harper's daddy bought was a true party favor. It begins looking like a flower, then a few seconds after lighting the only visible candle, the flower opens with a candle on each petal and almost a fireworks show coming out of the center. It was really amazing.

I hope this offers some fresh Super Mario party ideas, it was new for me, I guess I just skipped this idea with my boys

Mario Printables, Mario Coloring Pages

#SuperMarioBirthday #SuperMarioPrintables