A Super Mario Party for a Super 6 Year Old

We got a Wii over Memorial Day when RC Willey had them on a special sale for $99. Ever since then, Christian and Andrew have been in love with Super Mario Bros. They love playing the Wii, but they also love looking at the instruction manual and pretending to be Mario and Luigi. When Christian's birthday got close, he asked for a Mario Party. It turned out to be a fun, easy party to plan because Mario Bros. has been around forever, so there were tons of good ideas on the Internet. 

I made some invitations using Photoshop Elements. There are so many Mario graphics available, so it was actually pretty easy to come up with a customized invitation.

Before the party started, I took pictures of Christian and Andrew all dressed up in their Mario gear. I LOVE these boys. I especially LOVE their enthusiasm and excitement for life.

The Birthday Boy!

Super Mario Bros.

The Party Favors:

We wanted all of the guests to have a Mario hat and Mustache for the party. I looked into patterns to make them, but the cost of the fabric and the time involved made it cheaper and easier to just buy them. I found these red hats at Walmart for $2.50 each and then just used some supplies I had at home to add the M and make the mustaches. They loved running around looking like Mario.

Here is the whole group all decked out in their Mario gear:

 I got 8 free Milky Way candy bars using coupons, so I spruced them up for the party by adding a cute Mario wrapper. The candy bars say, "Thanks for coming to my Party" and went into the gift bags.

 The gift bags were Super easy. I just used a brown paper bag, printed out some Mario and Luigi graphics, and then added a flowered border. Inside was a candy bar, pencil, and other small candy from the party.

 We made question mark pinatas out of poster board. I found a pattern for how to make large dice, traced it on the poster board, folded up the cube, and then printed out the question mark they use in the Mario game. I used packing tape around all of the edges to add strength to the piñata, and then cut slits in the top to tie the cord through. It was the perfect strength. They eventually broke it, but everybody got a turn.

I went for an easy cake this year since I was doing so many other things. We had lots of bright, colored cupcakes with fun Mario characters as toppers. Then I just made a plain cake with a blue flower to match the shape of the cupcake toppers, and added a toy Mario on top. Here is a look at the centerpiece and the individual cupcakes:

 The Party Games:

We started out with a treasure hunt. In Super Mario Bros, one of the goals of the game is to collect gold coins in each level, which eventually lead to extra lives. We made about 90 gold coins out of cardboard and hid them all over the backyard. We let all of the kids run around the yard to find as many coins as they could. They found the majority of them, but I wouldn't be surprised if we find a few more over the next few weeks. Here are the boys in search of gold coins:

Then we broke open the piñatas. Everyone got a turn and got plenty of candy...

Next, we played Mario Bros. Bingo. I found the Bingo cards on the Internet, which saved me tons of time. We used M&M's to mark the squares, which made everybody very happy.

Lastly, we had a Yoshi egg race. I hard-boiled some eggs, and then drew spots on them with a permanent marker to make them look like the Yoshi eggs in the game. The boys had races carrying the eggs on a spoon.

After the games, we ate cupcakes and ice cream and opened presents. Everyone was so nice and gave Christian wonderful gifts. I couldn't have picked out better gifts myself. I guess they know him well. He was such a happy boy. Yay for good friends!

Here they are eating their treats in the shade:

Here is the Birthday Boy opening presents:

When everyone was done eating, we let them all play Super Mario Bros. Wii until their parents arrived.

Overall, the party was a success. We did, however, have to deal with 5 of the 8 kids crying at one point or another during the party. It must be the age because they were all very sensitive about losing during the games. All of the tears were short-lived and probably not remembered afterward, but Jonathon and I were shocked that it got to that point. Who would have guessed that 6 year old boys were so emotional :) By the time all of the parents came back, everyone was happy again and full of excitement to show off their fun stuff. Hopefully, they will look back on it as a fun experience. I know Christian had fun! 

We sure love our big 6 year old... Happy Birthday, Christian!