I love Treasures!

My idea of a treasure is unconventional...a friendly gesture, a captured moment, beauty just lurking. These things, I pause to appreciate and feel enriched by every day. This blog will be a trove of treasures we choose to share with each other!Please join me in the pursuit of everyday treasure!
~B

Monday, March 14, 2011

Party People! Mario Bros. Themed Party 2011

One thing I take absolute pride in is throwing a party! My son's 7th birthday party wish was to have a Mario Bros. themed party.

This is what I did to create an awesome party for about $120:
  • I took Mario clip art from the net and printed an invitation on a blank card purchased from a stationary store. I glued a gold coin onto each one.
  • We ordered balloons online. Blue latex balloons with clouds on them and mylar Mario/Luigi balloons.
  • I bought plain white gift bags and glued yellow question marks on them. I wrote names on them as guests RSVP'd to use as goodie bags.
  • I bought chocolate gold coins to use as rewards for good party behavior and game winners.
  • I found rock candy lollipops to reward teams with "fire" & "ice" powers at Tuesday Morning. (Warm colors =fire, cool colors=ice)
  • I printed Mario and Luigi's faces from the internet, taped the page to cardboard, covered it with wax paper, made buttercream icing, dyed it in batches and piped the design onto the faces as if I were coloring them with paint. I froze these in advance and inverted them onto a plain Baskin Robbins cake that I ordered.
  • I bought gum balls and gummy peaches from TJ MAXX and put them in jars for prizes.
  • I found Mario gummy snacks to add to the goodie bag.
  • I served water in re-usable cups and pretzels to snack on. (we served cake & ice cream too)
  • I found red paper polka dot napkins and square blue paper plates to use. We used re-usable forks.
  • We blew up latex balloons in bright colors and put gold chocolate coins in them. We made 2 teams. Gave each team a bag full of balloons. The children did a relay where they were to pop the balloons with their bottoms as fast as they could. They collected the coins and shared them. The winning team received the fire power lollipops and the other team got ice power. (essentially, everyone won)
  • Each child was given a character name that I wrote on a sticky label and put on their forehead. We played the guessing game where you ask yes/no questions about which character you are. Once the children knew their character, we played the next game.
  • We borrowed a spin wheel and pasted characters' photos on it for this game. Each time we spun the wheel and it landed on a particular character, the child who matched that had that character would take one step closer to the finish line.
  • I painted character mustaches and daisies on the children's faces.
  • I drew Mario, free-hand onto a paster board and then cut out some felt mustaches. We played pin the mustache on Mario!
  • We had plastic gold coins from previous parties, so I cut fishing line and taped the coins to the line and hung them from different heights from the ceiling.
  • I always hang streamers in an X design from the corners of the room.
  • One friend of mine stayed and took photos for us.
Every child left with a bag full of chocolate coins, a lollipop & Mario Gummies, facepaint and a smile! The best part was that my husband and I played with the children for 2 hours straight. Everyone raved about the party saying it was the best they'd ever been to. My son was delighted. Happy Super Mario Birthday!

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