Liam's 8th Birthday - Super Mario Party!!!

My dear sweet Liam turns 8 today and yesterday we had an amazing Super Mario party.  The highlight of the party was Liam telling me repeatedly what a great time he had.  It totally made staying up past 11 every night for the last ten days blowing up balloons and decorating star cookies worth it.

My posting pics is two-fold today.  I know the far-away fam wants to see the festivities, but these pics are also for the moms out there in internet-land who need ideas for a party.  I would have been lost without the posts of others!

Some of you will be shocked to hear that the one corner I cut was on the cupcakes.  They are Duncan Hines.  Finn can finally have a box mix...and while I hate all the chemicals in the box mixes, since everything else, including the frosting and favors was made from scratch, THIS was a short cut I was willing to take.  I bought "sugar sheets" (in the cake section from Wal-Mart) and had Bill cut circles for the 'mushroom' cupcakes.

Oh..Oriental Trading Co. had customizable swirly lollipops...with MUSTACHE stickers!!  I ordered those and made a 'Mario brick' stand out of styro-foam.  Star cookies were from scratch and took an eternity...but every one loved them.

 

When the kids arrived, they could decorate a wooden 'mario kart'.  I made race tracks out of some old wood I found in the basement for racing.

 

Simple, but loads of fun. A little rope and some duct tape = awesome!!!

Here is the start to the obstacle course. Cardboard boxes and paint.  Also simple and super fun.  I enjoyed spray painting the grass.  THAT was fun for me.

 

 The next 'event' was shooting down plastic cups with water guns.  (Water guns were also favors to go home with kiddos.  Wallet AND kid friendly, double yay.)  My wonderful friend, Karen, manned this very wet post.  Thanks, Karen!!

 Here's a close up of the cups.  I printed out one sheet with the images and used packaging tape to adhere them to the cups. 

 The final (and most time consuming to make) event, was the balloon/ghost stomp.  Inside each balloon was a gold coin.  AND, each balloon was decorated with a Sharpie to look like a ghost.  (I made about 68.)  The kids had to stomp and get three gold coins to finish the obstacle course.  I think the boys got a little nuts and stomped on more than their share...still, no one cried and every one had fun, as far as I could tell.  :)  Using a hand pump, it took me three nights to 'stuff,' pump, and decorate all the balloons...It took the kids about 2 minutes to pop ALL the balloons.

So, it took me over a week to make all the activities/treats and it took 20 kids about 14 minutes to run through it all.  Still, it was totally worth it.  I'm not saying I'm going to do an involved party like this again in the near future ore even the relatively distant future...but, the kids had a blast.   And Liam's thank yous were all I could ask for.  There's something to be said for making your kids' wishes come true. 

Another added bonus to this party - we asked that no one bring presents.  They could make a donation to their favorite charity in Liam's name, but as we said on the invitation we'd just be happy to see them.  And you know what?  Liam did not miss the pile of presents.  Not at all.  Between Bill and I and the grandparents, Liam got everything we wanted.

I kind of wish I took more pictures.  Don't we all?  While doling out hot dogs and filling water balloons, many photo ops were missed.  But I think ya get the gist.  It was a great day.  Let's see what 9 has in store for my first born bundle of love.