Super Mario Wii Party -7yr- Wii Cake

My son wanted his 7th birthday to be celebrated at home, playing Wii with his friends. 

The INVITATIONS were homemade using images of Mii's I made on-line from an avatar making website I found.  I used card stock from a craft store and placed an image of my son's Mii on the outside with the wording, You're invited!  Come party with Mii!" using the play on words purposefully.  Inside I placed 4 more Mii's at the top of the card that I made to look like my son's good friends & the wording used was "Wii want you to come over & celebrate W's 7th birthday & play lots of Wii!" with the date time address and rsvp information.  On the bottom was an image of Mario I found on the Internet.  My husband made the return address labels with an image of Mario next to address.  

Since I could only find Mario plates and decorations on-line & I was too late to order I decided that the DECORATIONS would consist of lots of bold colors like those that Mario & Luigi wear.  We bought bright yellow napkins a green table cloth red plates and blue flatwear.  Streamers were hung in the same colors all over the house.  For a centerpiece I used the large glass vase that is usually on my kitchen island filled with lemons & limes.  I filled it with scraps of the streamers that were hung around the house all gently tossed to look really fluffy & bright.  In the middle I placed a centerpiece I bought at a party goods store.  It had it's own stand and cascaded in a waterfall effect bright (metalic-like) thin streamers & gold stars (stars are a regular feature in Mario games).  Around the inside of the vase I also cut out & taped on images of Mario that I printed off the computer.  This was so simple and inexpensive but looked great! 

The ACTIVITIES and GAMES played was the Wii.  To keep it simple my husband borrowed a friend's Wii which allowed us to have 2 running at the same time.  We picked a game for each Wii that allowed 4 players at a time used Mario characters (Mario Luigi Princess Peach etc) rather than having to make each kid his/her own Mii and we rotated the kids every 10 minutes so that every kid had a turn to play every kid had a turn to play with the birthday boy and he had time with each friend he invited.  Games were Mario & Sonic's Winter Olympics and Mario Kart.  There were 12 kids at the party (including the birthday boy) so for the 4 that were not playing I had set up coloring stations toys and snacks (pretzels chips juice & water) to entertain them.  They mainly chose to cheer on their friends though.  My husband had a great idea and printed out "Rules of Play" that he posted next to each Wii that was running (one in den & one in living room).  Rules included "1. Wrist bands must be worn the whole time you play.  2. No name calling or boo-ing but cheering is great!  3. Take turns.  4. No restarting or pausing without an adults permission.  5. Have fun!"  It was very easy to point out a rule if someone got over excited & didn't want to pass on the controller at the end of a turn or forgot to put the wrist band on.  The kids played like this for nearly 2 hours then we served dinner. 

FOOD consisted of my son's favorites.  We served pigs-in-a-blanket mini pizza bagels and fruit salad along with juice boxes &/or water. 

When everyone seemed to have their fill we brought out the CAKE.  I made a cake that looked like 2 Wii controllers.  It was so simple!  First I baked my son's favorite cake in a 13x9 pan.  Once that was thoroughly cool I cut it in 4 equal rectangles (short & wide not long strips) and stacked 2 together with icing between to make 2 thick rectangles.  I then used his favorite icing to cover the cakes roughly.  This does not have to be pretty since I got fondant at the party store.  Fondant is a type of icing that looks like play doh (simplest way to explain it) but is totally edible.  I rolled out the white fondant & covered each cake with it smoothing it over them nicely to get that polished plastic look of a Wii controller.  Then I used the scraps to make the buttons arrows wrist band etc that go on a controller.  Finally using edible markers I was able to write the letters and words that are on a controller.  I also used an extra stip of fondant to write "Happy 7th Birthday W!!!" and set that at the top of the platter the cakes were set on.  My son loved his cake and his friends were in awe.  It was so great!  After cake parents started to trickle in so my son stood at the front door and gave each friend a good-bye thank you and party favor. 

PARTY FAVORS included a lunch size paper bag in either red green blue or yellow (bought at party store) that had a Mario image glued to the front.  My son helped make these.  Inside we placed a candy dispenser that looked like a Wii controller (looks almost like a pez dispenser & was sold at a large party store nearby) wrist bands party clappers and little slinky.  My son helped me fill these and he had much fun shopping for and filling these. 

THANK YOU NOTES were homemade too on the computer.  We put an image of Mario on the cover next to "Thanks!".  Inside there was a giant image of what looked like Mario & friends racing their carts on the top.  On the bottom left corner was an image of Mario looking like Vanna White showing a letter off.  Above that centered on the bottom portion of the inside were the words "Wii had so much fun!  Thanks for coming to my party".  There was room underneath for my son to write a personal thank you for the gift & company at his party and to sign his name.  I was told by parents on the playground and via e-mail later in the week that their kids loved the party and I loved how fun & simple it was to do!"