Mario Brothers Party

A couple of months ago when I asked my sons what type of party they would like they had two criteria: boys only and an obstacle course.I toyed with several variations, including a food fight party (that one only lasted a few seconds) before deciding to incorporate their new found love for Mario Brothers Wii. Their birthday request was a Nintendo DS, so this seemed like a great plan. I especially appreciated that we could emphasize the fact that Mario & Luigi are brothers.Thankfully, they were clear on their character preference (and they were not the same.) I started searching the Internet and found lots of great ideas. The invitations were made to look like tickets and personalized by a vendor I found on Ebay.

When guests arrived they received a mustache and a red or green hat. (I found these online for $2 each.) I planned to make Ls and Ms for them...but thanks to jury duty, last week of school and a little thing called life, that didn't happen.

We had a pinata...
I made a King Boo bean bag toss.
And a "Power Up Panel" memory-type game. (Somehow we didn't get any pictures of that. I was too busy manning the game pieces.) I read another great idea online to make a "Pin the Mustache on Mario" game, but ran out of time and energy before making that happen!

The highlight, however, was the 'coin battle.' We set up a course in the back corner of the yard using character images on card stock (taped to bamboo garden stakes). I sprinkled 144 gold coins throughout the grass and had adults stationed around the edges with blue (ice) balls and red (fire) balls. And then all the little Mario and Luigi's took the course to see who could find the most coins. If you were hit with a ball you were not out, you just had to either freeze (blue) or play on your knees (red).

I realize that nothing about this post is making any sense if you have never played Mario Brothers--but to our guests, I was speaking their language.
When it was all said and done the boys (predictably) changed the rules to involve jumping, stomping, chasing and lots of wild action.

My husband was able to track down Mario themed music that we could play so it would sound like the real game.

Our favorite bakery came through with fantastic themed cakes that made the birthday boys grin with delight.
We were all completely exhausted when it was all over--but a great time was had by all and memories were definitely made!