Cute mario party invitations

We’ve decided we’re doing a Mario Kart party this year for both kids as a combined birthday party. Here is the entire oh-so-simple party plan, thanks to some awesome ideas in the Mario Birthday Party Brainstorm and some brainstorming here as well. I love planning parties that don’t really need a party planner to pull off Like this:

1 – Have the kids decorate their ‘carts’ — I’m deciding whether these will be cardboard boxes or whether we’ll have them just bring their bikes, etc. I think cardboard boxes would be more fun and more fair.

2 – Run them around the circuit (maybe the junior high track or perhaps the track around a local pond) for a few races

3 – Go on a coin hunt with bubble gum coins. This was a hit at our last Mario birthday party

4 – Serve mario mushroom cupcakes with a star shaped icecream cake

5 – Bust open a Yoshi Egg Pinata … creating that will be our project for today

And that’s IT! Seriously, the hardest part is going to be making invitations, and I’m bound and determined to make that easy too… perhaps a super-simple question mark printed on a square of goldenrod card stock with the invite info on the back? Maybe we’ll buy them even.

I have seen some really awesome Mario parties where the moms and dads put in oodles of effort and I totally applaud those parents. Maybe one of these years when I’m not working and going to school full time and moving and everything else, I’ll give that a go. But I think this will be the easiest Mario Birthday party ever, and it’ll still be a blast! I’m so excited. I’ll be posting pictures here after we’re all done

UPDATE: Nothing, and I mean NOTHING turned out as planned. But it was a blast anyway. The road to the park was closed, for starters. So we ended up having our Mario Party here. We had the Yoshi pinata, the mushroom cupcakes, homemade pizza, and a ton of mini games.

My mom, who happens to be one of the best teachers I know, saved the day with some awesome game ideas. In one of them she had the kids take two squares of carpet and stand on one while they jumped to the next. Then they’d turn around and grab the square they’d jumped from and throw it ahead of them. The trick? They had to cross the finish line without getting hit by a balloon.

My favorite game was in reference to Mario and his FLUDD device: We had the kids race pingpong balls relay style, using only squirt bottles full of water to move them. It was a riot.

And yes, we took a -long- nap afterward. I do have lots of pictures, but somehow in the move I seem to be missing my CF card reader. When I find it I’ll load a few up here.

Mario Cupcake

Remember that Mario Birthday Party Brainstorm article? It is full of great ideas, but sorely lacking photos. Now my kids are asking for another Mario Party this spring, so we’re perfecting our favorite Mario Party ideas and documenting them in individual articles. Starting with 1-up Mushroom Cupcakes, perfect for a Mario Birthday Party, or even just a fun Saturday afternoon activity… my kids and the neighborhood children that came over sure enjoyed it!

Ingredients:
- Mini Cupcakes or Muffins – enough for your Mario party plus a few spares
- Almond Bark
- Frosting – I used Betty Crocker Lemon
- Food Coloring
- Mini Chocolate Chips
- Small round candies for the spots (M&Ms, smarties, etc)

The Ingredients

You’ll also need
- Waxed Paper
- A cookie sheet or large plate (Put the wax paper on this)
- At least two custard cups (one more for each extra mushroom color)

For the mushroom stem and its eyes, melt 2-3 ounces of the Almond Bark in a small glass custard cup or tiny bowl according to the directions on the package. Holding a cupcake by its top, carefully swirl the bottom of the cup cake till it’s coated up just up to the edge where the mushroom top will begin.

Dip the bottoms of the cupcakes in melted confectioners coating, aka Almond Bark

Let the extra glaze drip off a little while you add two mini chocolate chip eyes. Press the pointed end into the glaze so you’re left with tiny round eyes. Stand this mini mushroom cupcake up on the waxed paper, and then repeat with the next cupcake.

If the cupcake crumbles a little, scoop out the crumbs, then reheat your coating a little to make it easier to work with. And of course, you can melt a little more when you start to run out. The small quantity makes it manageable.

Once your Mario cupcakes all have stems, put all of them in the fridge to cool off for at least 20 minutes.

Swirl the tops in slightly melted, colored frosting

Meanwhile, scoop your frosting into glass custard cups, and food-color it till it’s a shade you like. 1up mushrooms are green with white spots, but other mario mushrooms have been red with white spots, or orange with red spots (in the old-school Mario Brothers).

After checking to be sure your mushroom cupcake stems are hard enough (they should easily come up off the wax paper), microwave the frosting for about 10 seconds to thin it out. Now grab each mushroom cupcake by the stem and swirl it in the frosting, coating up to part where the stem begins. Again, turn the mushroom to the side a little to let the excess drip off. Then press the candy spots in hard enough that they’ll stick, and set the mushroom back on its waxed paper to cool.

A variety of Mario Brothers Mushroom cupcakes

And that should be it! Serve them up on a cute plate, possibly with a star shaped icecream cake for a large party (I’ll post THAT how-to soon), and you’re ready to party Mario style! If you’re looking for other ideas for your Mario party, you can find several here. Enjoy

Yoshi Egg Pinata

If you hadn’t gathered it from my other article, my kids LOVE Mario.  Ethan wants another Mario birthday party this year.. we may even do a combined birthday party for both kids since Mary’s birthday is in the summer (when friends are often on vacation.)

The title for this post says it all!  We were thinking of Mario themed Piñatas. Someone had suggested a Boo, and the kids and I thought that a question-mark-box piñata would be cool too.  But I’m thinking the simplest idea by far is a Yoshi egg!

You can of course make the yoshi egg using regular paper mache techniques, but we opted to go unique and make it with tissue paper. Here’s how:

- Cover a balloon with white two to three sheets of white tissue as your first layer.   Soak the first layer in water alone Don’t use paste on this first layer. Misting the paper with water would be a good idea. Add four to six more layers, brushing each with  paper mâché paste.  I wouldn’t use a flour-based paste for this one as you’ll want something that dries clear.  White glue or mod podge works.

- Let this dry, then pop and remove the balloon, and carefully slice part of one side off so you can fill it with candy and prizes.  We’re going to use chocolate coins, gold star confetti,  and whatever other mario themed birthday party favors we can find.   Use a few more white strips and your paste to put the side back on.

- Cut several large spots out of green tissue paper.  Use your paper mache paste to stick them on.

- After it’s thoroughly dry, paint the whole thing with mod-podge once more so it’s reinforced.  Mod podge dries clear and strong.

And that’s that!   And yes, it will be more fragile than a traditional pinata.  Since hitting it with a baseball bat doesn’t relate very well to the Mario theme,  I’ll have all the kids throw hacky sack ‘fireballs’ at it till it busts, and they can take home the haky sacks as part of their prize box.  The party favor box itself will be a question mark box, for sure. I’ll post a pattern.

Speaking of Mario Birthday Parties, after years of waiting, there are finally some mario themed birthday party supplies to help supplement these ideas. And that link helps support my blog, too

I liked that one alot anyway, as did the other adults. I think Ethan and Mary did too at the time, but they were younger and more easy to please. This one last night had them enthralled.

Sam and Sarah met at work where they do graphics for video games such as Need for Speed 2. I would imagine that not many people find their way into that industry without some sort of passion for gaming, and these two were no exception.

Their wedding cake was an elaborate design based on Super Mario Brothers. Even the pavement on each level was incredibly detailed. The cake base was a mario-style ocean floor, with Mario’s typical underwater antagonists. The second tier was an above-ground level (I am not sure which one) with goombas and piranha plants. and the top tier featured vines, clouds, and lots of gold coins. Peach and Mario figurines stood on top holding hands (Princess toadstool probably would have been there in her 8 bit glory instead if they made figurines for her).

The main entertainment at Sam and Sarah’s wedding was stationed next to the food, where everyone could give it a try if they wanted to… which makes me wonder why _I_ didn’t try playing Guitar Hero — it looks like lots of fun! I would have snapped some very cute pictures of my kids playing it had my camera flash been working (I didn’t even bring my camera since this is a night wedding and I knew I’d just be frustrated with a bunch of underexposed or motion blurred pics).

Ethan, being my little video game fanatic, was entirely thrilled about the whole thing, hanging out and chatting it up with the guys I grew up with (or maybe grew up without ) and even some of their teenage kids. When it was time for the bouquet/garter toss, Mary tried to catch the bouquet and commented in her matter-of-fact way, “Well I don’t feel bad; I’m not old enough to get married anyway.” That didn’t stop Ethan from trying for and catching the garter belt. I can’t say the other guys were exactly diving for it, and he certainly didn’t know what to do with the girly looking thing once he’d caught it, but everyone got a good laugh anyway, and I saved the garter to tease him with later ;-D