Super Mario Bros Birthday Party

What theme, what theme, what theme?  When contemplating which theme to have for my son’s 8th birthday party, we thought of many different options. My son proposed Captain Underpants.  After I explained to my son that mommy goes WAY too far into a theme to have a Captain Underpants party, we ultimately decided on Mario.  Evan and his dad like to play Mario games so the theme seemed appropriate.  Evan and Daddy helped me with all the Mario questions, and when it was said and done, we picked well!

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The Invitation

Once we discovered these mushroom Mario invitations on Etsy, we knew that we had to have them!  The mushroom actually comes out of the ? box, just as it does in the video game.  You can find these invitations on Etsy here.

The Color Scheme

We chose red, blue, green, and yellow to match the Mario colors and printables.  I found these party-perfect printables on Etsy here.

The Cake

We wanted to re-create the Princess Peach’s castle from Mario Odyssey complete with an edible stained glass window.  You can buy printables images on Etsy here (this is also how we made the Super Evan on the cake).

As a blogger, you are constantly trying to beef up your photography skills.   A class called Building Your Business: Beautiful Cake Photography on Craftsy really helped me capture this cake that took countless hours to make and assemble.

The bottom cake was a chocolate fudge cake with raspberry filling.  Our guests raved about this cake, and because of their response, we wanted to share the recipe.  For the cake and chocolate buttercream, I frequently use the salted chocolate cake recipe from Baked cookbook here.  The middle layer was a vanilla buttercream that I infused with a good quality seedless raspberry jam like this one.  A thin layer of raspberry jam was placed on top of this layer of raspberry buttercream.  The result- Yum!

I needed a little bit of assistance deciding how I would construct the castle out of fondant.  A Craftsy class called Castle Cake Techniques: Towers, Trim & More, was inspiring and helped guide the castle construction.

The Dessert Table

Star Rice Crispy treats, chocolate mustaches, mushroom cake pops, cake and cupcakes adorned this fun dessert table.  Large boxes were wrapped in red, green, and yellow wrapping paper.  The boxes were embellished with an M or L or a picture from our party printables.  I made these letters with a free downloadable pipe dream font and then cut them on my Cricut Explore Air 2.

The bottom of the mushroom cake pops were made with a marshmallow cut in half and attached to a cake pop.  Make sure you chill the cake pops well before you dip them in chocolate.  Once they are dipped in chocolate, you can stick the white sprinkles on before the chocolate dries.  The rice crispy stars were made by tinting them yellow and placing an edible image on top of them.  I shaped the star rice crispies in a star tin that I will link below.

Because we were not sure if all the kids would be interested in chocolate fudge cake with raspberry, we offered a vanilla cupcake option.  I wrapped the cupcakes in printables from above.  The fun fondant toppers were purchased from Etsy here.  These toppers offer a darling alternative if you decide to use cupcakes instead of a larger cake for your party.

The Flowers

A trip to the local hardware store resulted in finding pipes that resembled the pipes from the Mario game.  The pipes are white so we spray-painted them green.  A small vase was placed inside the green pipe with red flowers–just like the red ones in the Mario game.

The Food

Since we were busy on the day of the party,  we decided to make half of the food and cater the other half.  My son’s favorite food is rice and beans, and we had everything catered by Black Bean Deli.  Black Bean Deli is a local cuban restaurant in Orlando that serves wonderful and authentic Cuban food.

We prepared this salad by sculpting radishes into the Mario mushrooms!  Cut the radish in the middle, but do not cut all the way through (go all the way around).  Take the red part of the radish off the bottom and then cut the bottom flat like a mushroom.  Make circles on the top of the mushroom with a melon baller.  Find a small star cutter to make the star cucumbers.

We couldn’t resist making these Baby Belle Cheese hats!  Cut a smaller circle out of red paper with your Cricut Explore Air 2 and attach it to the cheese with double-sided tape.  Cut out an M in a font called Pipe Dream, a free downloadable font and glue to the front of the hat.

Veggies make the most darling flower and a homemade dip with olive eyes act as the face.

To ensure that the kids had something to eat, I made PB&J mustaches like Marios!

It’s lime season in the Lam household so we made homemade and homegrown limeade!

Evan gives the food a thumbs up!

The Decorations

We found this amazing Mario balloon (link below) that we filled with helium.  A green tube was made by taping cardboard together and spray-painting green.

Any guesses how you turn a regular white bench into a mushroom bench?  These cute white stools can be found at Ikea and are then fitted with a red shower cap!  White vinyl circles are then cut out with my Cricut Explore Air 2 and placed on top.

Gold stars are transformed into Mario stars by cutting out long black rectangles on my Cricut Explore Air 2.  You can attach these eyes with double-sided tape.

Our little Mario!

We created these fun shirts for the party with iron on vinyl and my Cricut Explore Air 2.  You can find a tutorial on how to make the shirts here.  Evan and Wesley really are bros for life!

The Entertainment

We hired the Game Truck to come to our Mario party.  This way many kids could play multiple games at one time!

Inside of the game truck.

Pick the game that you want to play in the game truck.

Before the party, we took a picture of Evan dressed up as Mario.  Staples helped us print this photo as a poster to hang up for a pin the mustache on Mario game.

Instead of a photo booth, this year we did a photo backdrop!  Guests would pick a prop, stand in front of the Mario wall and then get an instant photo with our Fujifilm Instax Mini camera.  We found the fun printable photo props and decorations on Etsy here.

We found this amazing at-home laser tag kit that the kids loved playing in the backyard!

We made lots and lots of gumba balloons for a pop the gumba race.

This pinata fit into our Mario party so well!  To the kids’ surprise, we not only filled the pinata with candy but also coins that were straight from the Mario game!!

This is what my three-year-old thought would be fun to do with the pinata!

The Favors

These favor boxes were purchased on Amazon and adorned with party printables from Etsy.  The box contained Pez that were Mario themed.  At the end of the party, the kids filled this favor box with anything they wanted from the dessert table, goodies from the pinata, and any prize that they may have won.

A Hershey’s bar is transformed into a video game controller when you download this free printable here.

My mom actually made these much-loved Mario, Luigi, and Peach hats that the kids took home.  If you do not have a skilled seamstress in your family, you can also buy similar hats and crowns on Etsy here and here.  Self-adhesive mustaches completed the Mario and Luigi look.

Our Mario

Our Luigi

Our Princess Peach

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