Mario Party -6yr- Destroy Piranha Plants

For my son's 6th birthday party, he wanted a Mario and Luigi themed party.  Being the frugal mom I am, I set out to create a Mario and Luigi world based on the popular Nintendo games using resources I already had at home.  We had 12 little boys ages 5-6 that attended this party.  I had to be creative because my son has a winter birthday and going outside is not an option.  My party was 2 hours in duration. 

INVITATIONS:  I used publisher to create my invitations and inserted clip art of the Mario character with the words David's Mario Party 6" curving over Mario.  I included the date time and location along with the RSVP information.  At the bottom in bold print I included the line "You won't want to miss this SUPER good time!"  I printed the invitation on white cardstock and mounted it on blue paper then added yellow paper stars to either side of Mario. 

DECORATIONS:  Using construction paper and cardstock I created scenes from the Mario games and used masking tape to stick to the wall.  I created the bricks out of paper and used a sharpie to add the details.  We had goombas pipes koopa troopas and piranha plants along the course on the wall.  At the end I had the flag with bowser on the wall to signify the end of the level.  I also blew up white balloons and drew the "boo" faces on them and hung those on the stairs leading to the playroom.   

ACTIVITIES:  As the boys arrived I had them pick out a Mario or Luigi hat that I made out of fleece.  I found a great pattern using 2 - 12" circles to make hats that looked just like the Bros. hats.  My son had a Mario Mix DVD that I had playing that the boys watched while everyone arrived.  Once everyone arrived the boys made a piranha plant craft using green paper cups and tongue depressors painted green.  We cut a circle out of red fun foam and teeth out of white self-adhesive fun foam and leaves out of green self-adhesive fun foam.  The cup was turned upside down to make the pipe and then the tongue depressor was stuck in a slit made through the top.  The boys cut a pie slice out of the red circle and then attached the teeth.  Using a q-tip dipped in white paint they added the white dots to the piranha plant.  We glued the red circle head to the top of the tongue depressor.  

GAMES:  I had four games planned.  1. Get the Goombas:  I blew up gold balloons (I couldn't find brown) and inserted pirate gold coins in the balloons.  The boys then had to pop the balloon to retrieve their gold coin.  I had their treat bags lined up on the floor so they could put their gold coins in their bags.  

2.  Destroy the Piranha Plants:  I made 7 additional piranha plant crafts and lined those up in a row and gave the boys 6 sytrofoam balls to throw at the piranha plants in order to "destroy" them so they could go on to the next level.  I had a sheet of paper with all the boys' names on it attached to the wall to keep track of how many plants each boy knocked down plus it helped keep track of whose turn it was.  We played this game twice just to see if the boys could improve their score.  This was a huge hit.  I put down masking tape as a line to throw from and put the balls in a bucket for them to throw.  

3.  Yoshi's Egg Hunt:  I collected green Easter Eggs from my friends and painted white spots on the eggs to resemble Yoshi's Eggs and then put gold coins and Hershey Kisses inside.  I then hid the eggs around the house.  The boys were told they could find 5 eggs and then put them in their treat bags.  They really thought they were Yoshi eggs with the spots painted on them!  

4.  Save the princess:  I printed two Princess Peach's and laminated them.  I took four 12"x12" cardboard squares and covered them in brown cardstock and drew bricks on the squares.  I had two teams going and they were each given two brick squares.  They had to lay one square in front of the other and keep moving to get across the room to save the princess.  Once they grabbed the princess they had to return her to their team and the next person went.  I put the princess back on the wall before the next team went.  My 8 year old daughter dressed in a pink dress and stood by the princesses yelling "help" while the boys raced back and forth.  After the games I let my son open the gifts since we were all in the basement.  The way I do gift opening is to put two chairs side by side and write all the boys' names on slips of paper.  I then draw a name out of a bag or a hat and that person picks up their gift takes it to the birthday boy and sits next to him.  I then snap a quick picture of the guest and the birthday boy and I include this picture in a thank you note.  I also write what the gift is on the back of their name.  This makes writing thank you notes so easy. Drawing names eliminates the chaos of who goes first. 

PARTY SNACKS/CAKE:  I made 1-up mushrooms and biggie mushroooms instead of a cake.  I made cupcakes out of white cake mix then peeled off the cupcake wrapper.  I dipped the bottom of the cupcakes into melted almond bark and placed mini chocolate chips for the eyes and let those set up (about 10 minutes in the fridge).  I then micro-waved some whipped frosting and tinted some green and some red.  I swirled the top of the cupcake in the tinted frosting and then stuck white M&M's in the frosting to resemble the mushrooms from Mario.  Being January I just bought Valentine M&M's and picked out the white candy.  You could also use white chocolate chips.  I served juice boxes and crackers as well. 

FAVORS:  I used red and green paper sacks that I bought at Hobby Lobby and placed a Mario or Luigi emblem on the sacks.  I cut a circle out of white paper and glued either a red "M" or green "L" and put those on the front.  I wrote the boys names on their sacks with a sharpie.  I printed out Mario and Luigi clipart on sticker paper and cut a 1-1/2" circle sticker and stuck these on Life Saver Lollipops.  I bought Mini Hershey bars and printed out Mario Party clip-art on address labels and stuck those to the candy bars.  I also made bottle cap magnets with Mario and Luigi clipart placed in the bottle cap.  I used glossy accents to coat the image and then put a round magnet on the back. In addition to these items the boys also had their eggs from the egg hunt and the coins from the goomba smash.  I put their piranha plant craft in their bags too since they had dried. 

After the cupcakes were eaten and all the boys were cleaned up they each were able to play one level of a Mario game on the Wii.  We have 4 controllers so 4 boys played at a time.  After the 3 groups had a turn they came back upstairs to wait for their parents and I had the Mario DVD playing just to keep them all contained in one place.    I heard several boys say this was the best party ever!  The moms loved it because all the games were Mario themed and they didn't play Wii the entire time!  The boys all looked so cute in their hats!  I hope you find these ideas helpful in planning your party.  I love this party website and drew from many of the ideas already presented here.   "