Birthday Party Preparation

I think I might go a little overboard for birthdays. It's a big deal to me that my kids have a big celebration for each of their birthdays. We've always had themed birthdays for Alex, and this year is no different. We were going to go with Mario brothers last year, but because I was working I did not have the time to get everything ready that I wanted to do. This year has been a little easier, although we had no clue that we would be getting the boys and have all the adoption stuff to deal with right before Alex's birthday. (Not that I'm complaining, because I love the way it all turned out!) Now the thing with Mario is that they do not have birthday stuff anywhere! I found one place online that carries Mario birthday supplies. But I decided to do a (mostly) homemade birthday party this year. It's a lot of work, but so far, things are coming out great! Because Mario and Luigi are red and green, I was able to find treat bags, painter caps, and bouncy balls all in red and green on clearance after Christmas. It worked out quite well. Here are the things I have planned.

1- The kids will come and draw a Mario character out of a hat and that will be who they are for the party. The boys will then get a Mario or Luigi hat and a mustache and the girls will get a princess crown to wear.
2- We will have 4 stations set up. We are inviting 24 kids (yes I know I'm a crazy person), so we're going to split the kids up into groups and have them go to the different stations. The first station is "Pin the mustache on Mario". My Mom painted a picture of Mario's head and I bought a whole bunch of mustaches. The kids will be blindfolded and try to get the mustache on Mario. The next station is "Get the Goomba". Goomba's are those little brown bad guys that Mario steps on in the game. So we will have brown balloons to represent the Goomba's and the kids will either step or sit on the goombas and get the prize inside the balloon. The next station is "Yoshi's Egg Hunt". This one is pretty self explanatory. The kids will go on an egg hunt at this station. To make it harder, I'm going to put the child's name on 5 eggs and they have to find the eggs just for them. The last station is "Mario Bingo". I will have Mario Bingo cards printed out with Mario characters in the spaces. They will have gold coins as the markers and whoever wins will win a prize.
3- After all the stations are done, we will go hit the Chain Chomp pinata that I just finished making yesterday.
4- After the pinata Alex will open his presents and then it will be time for cake and ice cream.
5- Time to go home.

I've had a lot of extra things to do to get ready for this party, and a few things I'm still working on. I am making centerpieces for the tables that will be the Piranha Plants. I've almost finished making them, but am having trouble trying to get them to stay put in the pots. I'll try a few more things today. I'm also planning to make a 2 tiered Mario cake for the party. I'm a little nervous about this. I was hoping to be able to make a practice one, but never got the chance. So I hope it turns out well. I also need to put the M's and L's on the Mario and Luigi hats and print out the Mario bingo cards. I'm going to have a couple busy days ahead of me, but I can't wait until Saturday when it's all put together! I know Alex is going to have a lot of fun and I hope the rest of the kids do too! And thanks to Tammy and Kaylene for coming over and helping me out yesterday with some of this stuff! It was a huge help!

Here are a few pictures of us making some of this stuff.





















Yep, I'm crazy! But I have fun being crazy!