While preparing for our oldest son’s birthday, it dawned on me that I’ve let four months pass without sharing our Mario party, so here goes…
The cake
David requested a Mario birthday cake with a number 7. Easy enough!
I am not a baker at all, but I love to build things (but without fondant). I try to find ways to use Sara Lee pound cakes and other PREpared foods when making a cake to reduce my stress level and increase my enjoyment of making a personalized cake for the boys…
The ingredients list was pretty intense:
- 3 Sara Lee Pound Cakes
- Green food coloring
- Black food coloring
- 3 Cans white frosting
I decided to ditch the Good & Plenty’s, since none of us like licorice. (Originally the white pieces were going to be the lines on the road.)
This was so easy that it doesn’t even require an in-between photo. I just cut one of the pound cakes to piece together a number 7 and slapped a bunch of icing onto it. I bought some Mario Kart racers as toppers and voila! This was way easier than the dump truck (but not quite as fun to build!).
The food
Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of the spread after everything was in place but before our guests arrived…. However, before we emptied the packages of junk food into each of the buckets, this is what it looked like:
The hammers (marshmallows on a pretzel stick and covered with melted chocolate) are always a hit. We try to find a way to incorporate them into every party now.
You can download our Mario Party Food Tags here.
We set out buckets of treats for everyone to build their own Mario Mix.
What was what
- Mario Kart Tires: Chocolate donuts
- Pokey Sprouts: Clementines
- Bob-ombs: Whoppers (I think!)
- Bricks: Chex
- Koopa Shells: M&Ms
- Slurples, Boos, & Lumas: Spice drops
- Cheep Cheeps: Goldfish crackers
- Hammer Brother Hammers: Our chocolate-covered marshmallow hammers (pictured above)
- Chain Chomp Chips: Chips
- Tweesters: Spiral Chips (e.g., Bugles, Spiral Fritos, Spiral Cheetos)
- Item boxes: Cheese Cubes
- Boos: Marshmallows
- Goombas: Upside-down Strawberries
- Mario Mushroom Pops: Unfortunately, the Easy Marshmallow Mushroom Pops were not easy enough for me, so I didn’t make them. Here are the instructions.
- Bananas: BANANAS!
The games
David made Mario game signs and posted them EVERYWHERE. He helped us plan this part of the party in detail.
You can download our signs here:
We set up “games” as stations in our family room. It makes it easier so I’m not trying to coordinate a bunch of games I think are great when our friends would just rather hang out and play together. Once again, I was too busy socializing to get photos, but here are the ideas:
- Super Mario Smash: We hang a… t-ball practice ball? (the plastic ones with the holes in them) on a string from the ceiling and let the children build cardboard towers to smash with the “wrecking” ball.
- Hammer Brothers Building Station: A place to build using Levi’s play workbench and take-apart trucks.
- Build a Mario Land: LEGO Duplo bricks and Mega-Bloks
- Mario’s Hot Wheels Races: A Hot Wheels rug and basket of Hot Wheels cars
- Pin the Mustache on Mario using a Mario poster and the fake mustaches from the dollar store.
Other events included… a piñata
… a walk up to the pond
…face painting and balloons by our favorite clown-friend, “Mrs. Pickles.”
…and blowing out the candles.
Party favors were little Mario figures in cellophane baggies filled with M&Ms… (AGAIN where in the world are the photos I should have taken?!?)
For more (and better) ideas, visit our Mario Party Pinterest board.
Next up is a Garfield LEGO party. I’m not so sure I can pull off Garfield with Sara Lee pound cakes…
What if I build a LEGO Garfield and set him on top of a pound cake? Would that work?
And Stephen wants an Odie Piñata. Ummm…. does anyone out there make piñatas? Anyone?