Super Mario Brothers -9yr- Mushroom Cake

For my son's 9th birthday party, he requested a Nintendo Super Mario Brothers Party. We didn't know much about Mario so began to watch movies and video games to immerse ourselves in the Nintendo world. We know so much now! 

INVITATIONS: The invitations were paper reproductions of the Ninetendo DS. The top screen showed a picture of characters form the Mario Party 8 game and the bottom screen had the party details in a computerish font. We also included a printable Mario toy figure. The envelope was printed in a Mario font and sealed with 1-up mushroom stickers. We used Simpsons stamps since that was the closest cartoony thing with current postage. 

GAMES: As children arrived we asked them to design and color a Kirby and later we chose the best for a plunger trophy. The next game we had was an Easter egg hunt but instead of eggs the kids were hunting gold coins like they collect in the video games. The person who found the most got a plunger trophy. My husband baked Mario Kart symbols into clay boxes (bullet bill, banana peel, etc) and we had a 2 team relay race. The kids had to run through cones and break open a clay box. Whatever symbol they got made them do different things on the way back. It was so funny since one symbol was to make everybody freeze and do the Mario dance.  Lastly, we had put pieces of paper with numbers written on them inside white balloons and then used markers to make them look like boos. We had the kids use a vacuum cleaner to catch a balloon (like in Luigi's Mansion) and then pop it to see what number they got. We kept track of each teams scores to see who won. 

DECORATIONS: My husband handpainted portraits of Nintendo characters on canvas to hang on our walls. It was a great heroes gallery. He also painted Mario symbols (mushrooms, hearts, stars)onto glass plates which we hung. He cut out a complete Donkey Kong wall scene from several sheets of poster board to put up in our stairwell and even made a lifesized foam Donkey Kong standee that the kids could see at the top of the stairs as soon as we opened the front door. Other foam cut outs were of presents like those shown at Princess Peach's party, ice and fire flowers, a bomb ord with real lit fuse (flickering battery tea light), Boos, King Boo, and mushroom caps above all the doors. A Kleenex holder for the bathroom was made from fusion beads and looked like an item box. We had several large wooden eggs that he painted into different color Yoshi eggs. I made a paper flower arrangement of Fire & Ice Flowers, we made 8-bit Lego Marios to stand around.

There were gold coins taped everywhere and hanging from fishing wire. Larges shine sprites were made from paper plates covered in yellow duck tape. My husband transformed a race car toddler bed into a Mario Kart vehicle complete with seat and steering wheel that the kids loved. A giant wooden Chain chomper was in the backyard chained down. I made a pinata that looked like a chain chomper also. One really creative thing was the Bullet Bill my husband made from an old helium tank. It looked so real! Piranha plants were made from styrofoam balls, white thumbtacks, felt, and green popsicle sticks. We placed these in little clay pots and they were really cute centerpieces. Lastly, I cross stitched some tea towels to hang in the kitchen and bathroom from patterns I found online. One was an item box, and 3 were different mushrooms. Each had a clever slogan like I'd hit that" "Get a Life" "Grow Up" and "Game Over". 

FOOD:  I used a giant cupcake pan from Target to make a large Mushroom cake & cupcakes for smaller mushrooms. For the large I turned the base the wrong side up so it looked more like a stem. I covered all in fondant and cut out different colors for the spots. Drinks included Princess Peach Bellinis (non-alcoholic) and a red Falcon Punch. We made Spaghetti & meatballs Cheesy garlic bread (with cheese cut with a question mark cookie cutter so they looked like item boxes) Salad with Italian dressing antipasto and Pizza.We served Spumoni ice cream with the cake for a complete Italian meal. 

GOODY BAGS: We found how to make really adorable Yoshi Bags on coolpartyblog.com. We filled each with Fusion bead coasters in Mario designs Shrinky dink pins of different characters in Yoshi (Easter) eggs homemade item boxes with gold chocolate coins & Mario Party 8 candies (taffy with the symbols glued to the wrappers) Trading cards and Heart sucker rings. 

FAVORS:  Upon arrival each child was given a Mario or Luigi felt hat or a tiara for girls to be Princess Peach. They also got either a red or green felt mushroom puch necklace to put the gold coins they found in. Upon departure everybody got homemade sugar cookies made to look like the yellow starmen (royal yellow icing and chocolate chips for eyes).  PRIZES: We made plunger trophies that actually looked really swanky. We found sink plungers at Ace that have a crystal clear handle and red base. I printed gold foil seals to say "Most Coins" and "Best Kirby" and put those on red contruction paper award ribbons that I made. We gave out small party favor size trophies to the team that won the Mario Kart relay race. 

THANK YOU'S: I made little red Mushrooms cards. The top red part attached to the bottom part with a cute brad and you swung it up to read the Thank you underneath. 

MUSIC: My sister-in-law made a wonderful cd of a lot of different songs from the Mario games. My sons still love to listen to it! It really made us all feel like we were inside a video game.