Mario Party 6yr - Golden Coin Game

For my son's 6th birthday he wanted a Mario theme.  He loves every Mario (1,2,3, Sunshine, etc.) but we decided since he would be turning 6 the main theme would be Super Mario Land 2 (for old school gameboy) The 6 Golden Coins with some elements from other marios.   

Invitation - I made (old school) game boys using a silvery grey paper.  I made a template and had a front and back with slot for game.  I individually cut out arrow keypad, start, select, a and b and a screen using a green striped paper I found.  I added details (front and back) with marker, paint pen, crayon, and pencil.  I made a pullout for the game slot, picture of the game with him as mario on top with You're Invited in nintendo type text and info below it.  On the back I put a picture of mario for the boys saying please wear red shirt and/or overalls and the princess for girls saying please wear pink. 

For decorations I drew the opening scene from the game for the front of one door, mushrooms taped onto pencils stuck in the ground along the sidewalk to another door which had a star with party hat on it.  Mario and Luigi cutouts for another door.  In the main party room, the dining room I made raccoon mario to go on the back wall behind the main table.  On that table there was a piranha plant in a pot on each end (made with paint, styrofoam balls, dowels, and playdoh) with a big question mark block in the middle.  This box had the bottom cut off and was placed over the cake.  On the other wall Mario sunshine hung in the middle with gold coins on either side then next to each of those coins a cloud with a coin in it and then one more coin.  The table below it held the green punch (I wanted to get those little ice balls in white for dots but didn’t get them in time). Cups were light green with white circle dots on them, each with one dot saying 1up.  I printed and cut out circles with the one up mushroom to make napkin rings.  Gold plates (ala coins), red spoons rolled in the napkins and green forks were stuck in with the piranha plants.  A chomp (rubber ball painted with paper chain hot glued on) chained to bottom of table. Then just red, green, and yellow balloons and streamers here and there.  As each child arrived my son handed pink foam crowns to the girls and red foam visors that I had painted a white circle with m on and construction paper mustaches with a piece of doublestick tape to the boys. He wore a red shirt, overalls, mustache and hat. 

The Games:  There are 6 bad guys in the 6 golden coins game.  After you defeat each one you get a gold coin.  When you get all 6 coins you unlock the castle (that Wario has taken over) and go in to defeat Wario. Every bad guy is killed by simply jumping on them three times (well 9 for the 3 pigs) which I thought would be kind of boring so I made little games to get the coins from each.  Since this is an older game I wasn't sure how many of the guests would know what was going on so first thing I had them all gather round and I dressed as Mario and in my best mario voice took them to just the end parts of each section to show them the bad guys.  Then we started the games.  3 little pigs - I printed out a paper with background graphics, one straw, one sticks, one bricks. The first I printed in fast draft mode to make it lighter. Then I printed another set in full color. The first set I glued down to a foam board and added roofs on top of them along with a drawing of the three bad little pigs below it.  The straw and sticks I cut into 6 big puzzle pieces. The brick one I first cut a circle the size of the gold coins I made out then other pieces.  I put the pieces in ziploc baggies and glued them sticking down from the underside of the board (upsidedown for easy access) below each house.  They took turns putting a piece on.  The last piece for the brick house was the gold coin. 

Witch - I drew on one half of a foam board the witch and the words Find these ingrediants for my stew then I might give your coin to you.  The other half I had drawn 12 cicles the size of our gold coins. In each circle was a simple drawing of an ingrediant (spider, bat, pumpkin, etc.) The last circle said now shake the pot.  The kids took turns finding an ingrediant in a ghost bowl.  Along with the ingrediants (matching drawings cut out) were extra ingrediants including other thigns I'd drawn, sticky eyeballs, glow in the dark bug, and plastic snakes.  They placed each ingrediant in a plastic witch cauldron and we crossed each item off the list as we did so.  Upon shaking the pot the gold coin that was stuck to the bottom fell off. 

Octopus - I drew a big octopus. In one hand she holds a pacifier, in one a bottle, on the remaining six I placed little velcro circles.  I painted a shoebox brown and cut out slats.  I placed a little blanket inside and 6 octopus babies.  Below the octopus it read Find my 6 babies for me to hold and I'll give you your coin of gold.  Babies were ping pong balls covered in felt (hotglued on) with eyes drawn on with marker and 8 little purple yarn legs also hotglued on.  They had to take turns throwing the babies to the velcro till they got the right spots for them to stick. 

Bird - I drew and cut out a bird and word bubble that said I'll give you your coin but there is a cost, first you must find the eggs I have lost.  I had cut a slit in the beak and stuck the first egg (just egg shape with words cut out of paper). There were 6 eggs each with a clue leading to the next.  The next egg was bigger and had the coin glued to the back.  I had made a papier mache egg painted gold to put the egg inside but my 4 year old well it got smushed.  Alien - I drew and cut out the alien and hung him with fishing line from the clothes line.  I drew stars on plain white circle tags and stuck one on each side of a ping pong ball adding orange marker line detail.  I had 20 or so of them in a container.  The kids all stood on one side and took one ball at a time to throw at him till he fell down. Coin was taped on the bottom of the container.   

Rat - I had made fireflowers by drawing out the pixelated fire flower and leaves from card stock and hotgluing them to small wooden dowels I had colored with a green crayon.  Then I hotglued a mini watergun to the back.  These were filled with water tinted bright orange and stuck in the ground before the party.  Each child picked a flower and shot the water out at the rat till he fell over.  Coin was glued on back of him.  Now we had all 6 coins.  We went to the castle.  I used two old bunk boards I had drawn eyes and turtle and goomba statues on then taped paper on top to look like castle towers on each side of the shed door.  Also on each side I had 3 big circles that I drew with circles the size of the coin drawn in the middle of them.  They were colored light grey with little spots to look stonelike.  On the door was a bigger circle with a W on it.  We put each gold coin in its place then turned the w over to an m.  At the end of the ramp in front of the door we had placed the leaf balloons". When you get the leaf of course you get the raccoon tail.  I had bought little paint things not sure what they are called that have a wooden handle and a kind of wedge spong on the end.  I cut the sponge part to a tail shape then with marker did two different shades of brown stripes on the handle and sponge part.  We blew them up inside the balloons.  Each child jumped on a balloon and retrieved their raccoon tail. 

Then we went inside the castle.  Inside was Wario.  I had drawn a big Wario on posterboard.  I then cut the top part off a big brown paper suck and glued the remainder upsidedown onto the back of Wario.  I put in plastic gold coins and various candy.  Also for each child was a favor box. The favor boxes were little square cardboard boxes I had painted to look like question mark blocks.  I put the same amound of candy and coins in each.  Then I taped it shut. Everyone took turns smacking wario with their raccoon tail until the bag came open and treats came out.  Then I pulled him down and a few of the kids stomped on him.  They were each instruced to take only one box and pick up as much of the rest as they could to add to their boxes.  I then told them Hey wait I saw a block like this inside but it was really big.    I had asked my sister in law to get it ready and as soon as we came in she was lifting the box/lighting the candles on the cake inside. Then of course we all sang happy birthday. 

The cake - I decided I wanted to decorate but not bake the cake myself. So I ordered from Brookshires just a sheet cake that was all green with a yellow border and little bit of green grass border around the edge.  Then I bought a smaller premade chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  I cut the small cake in half and put one half on top of the other.  I rolled out and covered it with light bluegrey icing. Then put a castle type border on top. I made a stone path from fondant leading from the front to the edge of the cake.  I cut out the center part of six gold coins and stuck them with icing to the front of the castle.  I also made mario who stood in front of the castle and one small mushroom on the back corner next to the castle.  I got letter candles that spelled out Happy Birthday that I put on top of the castle.  Then in the grass icing letters spelling out Happy birthday Joseph and some icing balloons.  And a number 6 candle. 

After cake we went to the living room where his Mario show dvd was playing to open presents.  i set two small chairs in front of the tv.  As he was handed each present the person who it was from sat in the chair next to him.  That way he was able to say thank you right away as well as me getting a good picture for the thank yous.  After presents they all piled onto the couch for a group photo. Then just played with his new toys till they had to go home.  He says it was his "favoritest birthday ever".  Yay :)