Super Mario Bros. Birthday Bash

We had an early birthday bash for Wildman at our house on Sunday.  The theme?  SUPER MARIO BROTHERS!  It’s his latest obsession.  I knew nothing of Super Mario Bros. prior to planning this party so I consulted the Internet for some ideas.  Most of my inspiration came from here and here.

The children each got their own Mario or Luigi hat and mustache.  I had some tiaras for the girls to be Princess Peach.

I made felt mushroom head pouches for the children to keep their collected coins in.  There was no sewing involved!  Score!  We played several games for gold coins: a Yoshi egg hunt, zip-lining onto colored squares that had coins taped to the back and the pinata was loaded with them!  The child with the most coins won a Mario t-shirt.  The winner was Wildman’s friend, O, who collected a whopping 35 coins!

One of the Yoshi eggs contained a “w”.  The person who found that lucky egg won a Mario Bros. cartoon DVD.

The children also played ladder ball for a prize of a Christmas book.

I served lots of veggies and dip, that awesome pineapple salsa, queso, pizza, lime sherbet/7-up punch, as well as lots of beer and wine for the adults.  A paper pieced goomba marked the adult drink tub.

In lieu of a sheet cake or layered round cake, I made mushroom head cupcakes.  The white dots are white chocolate discs used for melting and making lollipops.  I made 3 dozen cupcakes for our herd of 20 children.  Half were white cake and half were carrot cake.  All were a hit!

Luckily the weather cooperated and we had gorgeous sunny skies for the party!  It rained at 11 AM and by 2 PM (party time) all the bad weather had moved out.  Whew!  I didn’t know what I was going to do with all of those people if it rained.  All of our games took place in the yard!  I’m so glad it all worked out.

I made each child a Yoshi treat bag to fill up with their choice of candy from a candy buffet that I had set up on our glass dining table.  The kids were over the moon to get to choose their treats.  I had containers of chocolate coins, Mario fruit snacks, rainbow lollipops, rainbow candy canes, Sunkist gummy candies, gumballs, and extra mustaches laid out for them.

I’d definitely call this party a success!  I had fun preparing for it and the kiddos had a blast all afternoon long.  But given how much effort I put into making all of the favors and decorations, I think I’m going to institute the every-other-year birthday plan.  Next year, I think the boys will get to choose a fun family activity for their birthday.  It’s exhausting hosting birthday parties!!!

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Update Post: Ankle-Biter Edition

My darling ankle-biters are pestering me (i.e. chanting/screaming “CHEESECAKE!!!”) to make mini key lime cheesecakes as I write this post.  So, don’t be surprised if there are a ton of mistakes and jumbled thoughts…  I don’t have time to edit today.  The call of a kitchen project is too strong.  Must type fast…

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First of all, Happy St. Patty’s Day!  We’re making mini key lime cheesecakes today because they’re green and we’d like to give a shout out to Ireland and St. Patrick.  Maybe I’ll get my act together and take some photos of our creation.

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Little cousin, T-bone, turned five last Thursday!  I can’t believe it he’s five already.  It seems like he was a plump ball of chub only yesterday.  *sigh*

My kids enjoyed the cupcakes and chips at T-bone’s after school park party.

There was a big baseball pinata.  Oh, boy!  That was a hit (pardon the pun).  Ha!

The scene before the sugar high…  They look like wild animals feasting on their kill…

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Steph and I taught our very first kid’s Zumba classes at Wildman’s preschool on Monday.  A total of 46 children participated.  Luckily, they were spread out into 3 separate groups.  We danced to “La Bamba” with stick ponies, strutted our stuff in a circle with red bandannas to Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”, and we did a conga line and obstacle course while listening to “Hot, Hot, Hot” by Buster Poindexter.  After a cool down to “A Hard Day’s Night” and a group huddle, we were finished.  It was awesome.  I think the teachers had just as much fun as the kids!

Wildman was thrilled that I came to his school too.  So cute!

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Wildman had his first official T-ball game last Saturday.  It was adorable to watch the little kids play.  There are no outs, no pitching, no scoring, no pressure.  Just fun!  Everyone gets to run to the bases.

Almost every child doesn’t know what to do after they hit the ball.  They stand there with bat in hand watching the ball roll away and the other team scrambling to catch it.  The coach inevitably has to remind the batter to drop the bat and run to first.  It’s so darn cute.

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Crap!  Now Cutie Pie is chanting “strawberry milk, strawberry milk” in my ear.  I’d better run so I can meet the needs of my children.  Stay tuned!