Mario Kart Birthday Party

My son is a huge fan of Mario and Luigi.  I have always felt that all holiday should be over the top for a child as they are grow because you really only get a handful of years to create lasting memories before they are adults and moving away.  So for his eight birthday he asked for a Mario Kart party and me being crafty mom, got the wheels rolling to create a party of his dreams.  

My first thought was invites.  I loathe store bought invitations and always try to create my own with a personal touch.  These are so easy to create and anyone with just a little computer skill can do it.  I start by searching yahoo images for Mario backgrounds.  Once I find one (which in this case was the mountain road) I copy and paste it to powerpoint.  If you haven’t figured out, powerpoint is my favorite tool to work with.  I then searched images for all the characters and did the same copy and paste.  I pulled in a picture of my kiddo and added the words for the picture below.  It’s easy to then print on card stock and you have your own cute invites for much cheaper and cuter then the store bought.

 

My next thought was the cake!  I love to bake but I’m no pastry chef.  I knew what I wanted but couldn’t find anything like it at my local store to purchase so I created my own.  I found the little pull-back cars on amazon and the idea took shape.  Why not a race track in the figure eight since he was turning eight?  I was pretty simple after that.  I used two different flavor (chocolate and white) mixes to make four round cakes.  Then I found sheets of black fondant for the track.  Fondant is not cheap so I don’t use it unless I have to.  These sheets worked great because all I had to do was cut out the shape of the track.  One sheet per side.  The bananas are from a pack of fruity hard candy.  In hindsight, I would use a gummy banana instead of the hard because a guest at the party did make a comment about HOW hard it was compared to the rest of the cake.  So take that in mind if you want to create this cake yourself.  I think I used three cans of white icing and one tube of green.  Make sure to put icing between the cake layers to use as glue to hold it together.  Also make sure to cute the bubble top off the cakes so you have a flat surface to work with.  I was able to pick up the candles at my local Dollar Tree for $1.00 each to complete the look.

 

We had several games but the kids loved the “Smash Yoshi Eggs” the best.  I took regular eggs and cut a small whole in the bottom to drain out the yokes (which I used for the cake and breakfast).  I then carefully washed them with hot water to make sure all the yoke was clean.  Leave them to drain overnight so that they are complete dry before moving on.  The next day, I filled them with confetti and a few had special “Happy Birthday” confetti so the kids could win a prize.  I used small squares of tissue paper and glued over the whole and then took a green marker to color my dots.  The kids took turns grabbing an egg and throwing it at a wall outside to see who could find the “Happy Birthday” confetti and when a prize.  The eggs turned out harder than I thought to crack and several took a few times to smash. 

I also had the Wii running for the kids to battle each other in a Mario Kart video challenge.  The winner of each game also got to pick a prize.  The prizes was candy filled Mario toys you see in the picture along with trophy’s and medals I also found at the Dollar Tree in packs for $1.00.

I didn’t do much decorating because all the favors made the room filled with stuff anyway.  What I did do was turn one of my walls into the game screen.  I used a $1.00 light blue plastic table cloth from the Dollar Tree and then found the Mario wall decals at Kmart.  I just cut the decals out and taped to the plastic so that I could use them to decorate my kids room after the party.  This worked great and was easy to clean up afterwards.  I found the brick images on yahoo and printed them on some brown card stock I had on hand. 

Now my favorite part of any party…FAVORS!!!!  I made VIP Access badges for each kid using powerpoint like I did the invites.  I also found cute colored sun hats from Oriental Trading which I added cut out foam letters to match the characters hats in the game.  For the favor bags, I used plan brown paper bags and printed off labels I created in powerpoint to add a special touch.  At the end of the party I let the kids use the bags to grab whatever toys/candy was left to take home. 

I love how the chocolate coin question mark box favors turned out.  I had these small boxes on hand that I bought years ago with the thought that they may come in handy later.  I found the image on yahoo and added it to shipping labels.  I like to use shipping labels when I create my favors because they are cheap and easy to work with.  You print off your image and peel and stick to our favor.  I was able to fit two question marks on each label and print 20 per sheet.  I peeled and stuck to the box on all sides.  I then filled with yellow tissue paper and dropped the chocolate coins in. 

It was a fun party and my son has asked for a repeat for several years but I try to push for something different so that I can create more ideas!

Garden Retirement Party for my Co-Worker Rose

I met Rose close to four years ago and we became fast friends.  When I found out she was going to retire, after wiping the tears from my eyes, I started planning her party.  Most of my research came up with traveling themes and since she was not planning on traveling any place, I needed to come up with something else.  I know that she loves to garden and since her name is Rose it kind of made since to create a party around that.

Decorations:
For decorations I went with simple and cheap.  I found the template for the flower on Yahoo Images and printed them on colored card stock.  I then cut them out and punched a hole in the center for the Pops.  I found the brown plant starters in the garden section and stuffed it with a round styrofoam ball.  I found the foam flowers at the dollar store and added them to the outside.  They kept falling over so I added some fish tank rocks I had at home to the bottom to give it a little more weight.

Food:

For the knives, spoons and forks....i put a napkin in a flower pot and then placed the items inside to give it a more decorative look.  

 We ended up with a lot of food and it was all gone by the end of the party. 

 I took the buns out and placed them in my Longaberger basket. 

 A friend made the veggies in the flowerpot.  It was so cute and Rose was able to take the flowerpot home to reuse. 

 These are bite size Greek Salads made with Cheese, cucumber and tomato.

Next I made "Dirt Dessert", White Oreo Truffles, Banana Pudding and Cherry Cheese Cake.  I love making desserts :-)

 The cake was made by Krogers.  We asked them to come up with a Garden Theme cake and this is what we got.  I think it looks awesome and is one of the best cakes I've had from Krogers.

 Gift:

Coming up with a gift was really hard.  What do you get someone that has everything?  We decided to go with the Garden idea again and just made a basket for her of things she could use.  

 I wanted something unique for all of your co-workers to sign to say good-bye besides a card that would more then likely be tossed into a box and forgotten.  We went with a coffee mug.  Everyone signed just a plan white mug with different color sharpie markers.  Allow the writing to dry 5 minutes before someone else signs so the ink has time to dry.  After it was finished I baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  I tested a small dot on the bottom to see if it would wash off and it stayed.  So now she has a mug she can use and think of us every time she drinks her coffee.

 After we figured out what to get her, the basket was rather easy.  Knee pad, flower wind things (can't think of the name right now), garden tools, bug candles, flower seeds, garden magazine, garden gloves and a bucket to put it all in.  Bug spray or sun screen would have been good but I didn't think of it at the time.

This party was both fun and sad.  I will miss my friend at work but am happy that she can now enjoy the time doing something she loves.  Hope you find some of these things helpful in any party that you may want to have.