Itsa Me…Mario!
Family, Food, Projects June 5th, 2007We went all out on Jachin’s birthday party this year. After being inspired by another mom who put on a sweet Mario party I was confident I could do something similar (the confidence faded quickly).
First I made the invitations using some awesome graphics I found on the Nintendo website and the ever-cool Super Mario Bros. font. I also created some “coin boxes” using 4″x4″x4″ boxes that I purchased from Uline. I used this Question Mark Brick graphic, scaled it to 4″x4″ and printed them 4 per page then attached them to the boxes using a glue stick. Once the boxes were done I put the invitation, some easter grass (don’t ask me why) and some bubble-gum coins (chocolate coins were preferred but too expensive) inside and had Jachin deliver them to all of his friends. While I was going I made several extra boxes to use as decorations for the party.
Whew…invitations done…on to the cakes!
Being the lazy efficient person I am, I chose two Mario characters that would be easy to re-create in cake-ity goodness. First, the innocuous Goomba. He’s brown (chocolate icing) and he’s mushroom shaped (no artistic skills required). Next up, Blooper. He’s white (vanilla icing) and squid-shaped with few defining features (again…no artistic skills required). Perfect! Here’s the inspiration and the final product:
You should know that I have neither expertise nor skill in the area of cake decoration. For those of you who actually know how to decorate cakes, I apologize for my amateurish foray into your world. Case in point…the ultimate Mario cake. /bow “I’m not worthy”.
Invitations, check. Cakes, check. On to the piñata.
Desirous to have all aspects of the party stick to the Mario theme we decided to make a Chain Chomp piñata. We found a basic round smiley face piñata and painted it to look like a menacing Chain Chomp! The kids loved it.
Invitations, cakes, piñatas oh my. By this point I was exhausted and frankly I had lost some of my ambition. I had big ideas for cool party games but we just didn’t have the time to do them justice. In the end we let the kids decorate their own “coin boxes”, we played “pin the star”, we broke the piñata then we let the kids play some old-school Super Mario Bros. (including a “who can complete world 1-1 the fastest” contest).
Overall I think it was a big success. The kids had fun and I’m sure Jachin will remember this birthday for years to come. I have posted all of the party pictures online in the Gallery so feel free to browse them there!
“I’m sorry but our princess is in another castle….”
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June 6th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I clicked over from Suzanne’s site. The cakes look awesome! Your Mario party was a fantastic idea and looked like fun.
June 6th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
@Leslie
Thank you - you’re too kind. Suz told me the cakes looked OK until I posted the link to the Ultimate Mario Cake…I guess that would be akin to me saying how handsome I am while standing next to Brad Pitt….oh well.
June 6th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Looks like a well-executed, ambitious effort. Kudos! My only question is, why wasn’t I invited? I could have totally schooled those 8 year olds at level 1-1!
Also, do you think your Goomba cake (how can I put this delicately?) looks a bit… like a She-Goomba? Maybe it’s just me.
On second thought, it’s probably a good thing that I wasn’t invited.
June 7th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Jer- Those are FEET, you perv. (But now that you mention it, there were a few little boys staring at poor Goomba just a liiiiittle too intently.)
September 28th, 2007 at 7:32 am
Thank you for your great pics and ideas!! My son turning eight in two weeks wants a Mario party and I’m cramming for ideas! You’ve been really helpful. If all goes well, I’ll post some pics from the day!!! That Ultimate Mario Cake is something to aspire to …..awesome!! thanx
September 28th, 2007 at 8:44 am
@Anna
Good luck with the party! I’d love to see how things turn out…if you post some pics drop by and let me know where to see them. Thanks for the comment.
-Jon