Super Mario Party -5yr- Gold Coin Hunt

We chose a Super Mario theme for my son's 5th birthday.  It is extremely hard to find Mario theme decorations, so we had to get creative. 

INVITATIONS: I found a Mario and Luigi picture from the internet and printed from home on cardstock, and attached the party information on the back side.  You can also laminate the card, which would make it durable and nice looking.  I told the kids to come dressed as their favorite Mario character, or simply wear red or green shirts, jeans/overalls.  The girls could wear pink for princess peach if preferred. 

DECORATIONS: This was the most fun and challenging part, there are little to no Mario decorations in local party stores.  I used green and red for the streamers/tableclothes (stock up after christmas lol).  I bought white balloons and drew with a black permanent marker a picture of the Boo Ghost from Super Mario.  I just looked at the image of the ghost on the game and did my best to copy. 

I purchased gold stars from the party store and drew black eyes on them for the starman. I printed off pictures of mario, the other characters and even the items like fire flowers and question boxes on glossy paper, then cut out and hung them in various places around the party area or on the tables.   Square cardboard box that I sprayed painted yellow and drew the question mark.  A regular Happy Birthday banner was transformed by gluing little pictures of Mario to it.  

ACTIVITIES:  I printed off black and white pictures of Mario characters after googling Super Mario coloring pages.  I cut them out and attached to paper bags for favor bags.  As the kids arrived they could color their bags. I had a small bounce castle that we decorated as Bowser's Bounce Castle.  We added some boo ghost balloons and pictures of Bowser and the kids went wild in there!  I didn't do this, but you could attach a small picture of princess peach to one of the balloons and the first kid to find her wins a prize. 

We also did Pin The Mustache on Mario.  I bought mustaches from Oriental Trading and the kids used them for the game then could keep and wear them.  I made my own pinata after googling how to make a homemade pinata; paper-mached a punch balloon and painted to look like a Chain Chomp creature.  I found a plastic chain from the dollar tree during halloween and attached that as well.  

Yoshi egg smash, idea from coolpartyblog, poke small holes in real eggs and drain, wash very well.  I filled with small stickers and confetti then cover hole with tissue paper and glue.  One had a gold star and confetti and was the winning yoshi egg.  Each kid picked an egg, threw to smash it on a poster I made.  Then they could look for the star. 

Gold coin hunt- bought gold chocolate and bubble gum coins from Oriental trading and hid in yard.  Mario Bingo- purchased Mario Bingo cards from ebay.  Found various mario and nintendo candy dispensers from party, video and toy stores as the prize.  Each kid won once.  For each game or activity completed, they also could pick out a small prize (bouncy balls, pencils, piece of candy, etc) 

COSTUMES: Most kids wore red or green or pink (princess peach).  On the internet you can find templates to make paper mario, luigi and yoshi hats from cardstock or posterboard.  I made these ahead of time and they were perfect!  With the hats and mustaches the kids really got into character.  The girls got tiaras which I purchased from a party store.  Snacks: We did a hot dog buffett (ketchup, mustard, relish, onions, shredded cheese) and chili, but you could certainly do a pizza or italian them.  We had a lot of people to feed so we wanted something easy. 

CAKE: Homemade cupcakes iced in red and green with round white chocolate pieces look like 1-up mushrooms!  We also did a small cake purchased from local grocery to look like a generic race scene.  I added mario kart figurines which I purchased from ebay. 

FAVORS: Printed off 8 pages of black and white Super Mario coloring pages (I found online with a google search), made a hole punch through the stack and tied with a ribbon for a homemade Mario coloring book, each got a small pack of crayons, their hats, mustaches, prizes and whatever pinata goodies and gold coins they found.  We also got super blow pops and used coolpartyblog's templates for mario and luigi lollipops.  Just printed off tiny hats and mustaches, cut out and hot-glued to the blow pops. 

One of my most favorite parties to date!