Even though Mario was the theme of C's last birthday, his infatuation with a little Italian man with a mustache left us no choice but to go that route again this year. It took quite a bit of convincing, but he finally conceded that it wouldn't work to have all of his guests take turns switching between 3 controllers for 2 hours. It was truly what his heart desired, but instead we created a Mario Adventure where he and all of his buds would go on a mission to free Princess Peach from Bowser.
It was a lot of fun to plan and believe me, I only chose those things that I knew would be simple and easy to pull off. Take for example these Invincible Star Rice Krispy treats for his class. Super easy, didn't have to go out and buy anything, and yet his classmates thought they were crazy cool (at least the Mario geeks among them).
It was pretty awesome for the birthday boy to be handing out Wii remotes to his friends (with the invite rolled up inside). The pattern was simple to cut and fold, and worked perfectly with our b/w printer!
I loved the sign that greeted the guests:
Our Birthday Mario
(Freezer paper shirt, felt mustache, and *felt hat)
The Mario Team
L had helped me make a short video of Peach begging Mario to rescue her. After the kids watched the clip, they began completing tasks to get closer to finding the princess.
Dodge the Boos (they had to try to pick up coins while running backwards and not getting hit by ghosts floating around the room).
I didn't get any great shots of Musical Stars (Inviincible Stars on the floor, while doing the cake walk). The last child in the game got to keep the star, giving him invincibility power for the other games. The kids thought that was the coolest part of the whole party, "The Boos can't get him -- he's invincible!!!"
I have to mention the soundtrack for the video and all of the games during the party. We got the Mario Galaxy Orchestra with our Wii and it has become the most listened to CD in the house. The orchestral music is great and the kids love it.
I didn't get any pictures of "Mario Says." It was an impromptu filler -- things were moving along a bit too quickly...
And finally: DEFEATING BOWSER! The kids tossed Ice Power (water balloons) at a Bowser picture (how did I not get that?!). They LOVED this part.
The rescued princess gave out thanks liberally to her heroes (much to the boys' dismay). Then she offered them cake and ice cream to show her appreciation.
The mustache was such a simple way to keep it Mario without spending all of my time in the kitchen.
Finally.. the presents! One of his gifts was a pair of dart guns which have provided (literally) hours of entertainment. Mostly for Q, but the rest of us have joined in to protect ourselves.
A fabulous birthday weekend, with Monday being spent enjoying his new Paper Mario game from his grandma. And just think -- I'm already set for one Halloween costume!
* The hats were lots of fun to make. I haven't used my sewing machine in FOREVER and I loved the way the kids looked running around in their Mario hats. I looked at a ton of sites and then just winged it, but this site was similar to what I made. I simply traced an 11" bowl on a folded piece of felt, drew an oval in one of them, sewed them together, cut and sewed a moon shape (brim), sewed all of them together, and then glued (with No-Sew -- so simple!) the white "M." Ta-da!