party party party

I know I promised the party photos earlier this week and I've been completely lacking in desire to blog. 

So here they are finally.  There are a lot of photos!

In out family we all love Super Mario (Nintendo game character).  If you don't know Mario and haven't played his games much of our party fun will be lost on you.  All you really need know is that he's a plumber with a big moustache and a red cap.  He runs about smashing open boxes with his head and collecting stars, coins and super power up mushrooms.

First up we had a treasure hunt.  The clues were on stars and each kid had to find the token with their initial on them.  Once they found it they could cash it in for their prize... a hat and felt moustache (free hat pattern here).  Amazingly all of the boys wore their hats for the entire party and some turned up at school with them on during the week too. Win!

We had a bit of actual video game time (which I didn't photograph as I was setting up food) in between our home made party games.  The best game had to be the box smash game (devised by DaddyB).  I'll explain how it works... it's a little like a pinata (but way crazier).

He painted three boxes to look like they do in a Super Mario game, and hung them in the hall with the bottom of each box open.  Into each box B put a balloon full of confetti, stars and rice.  Rather than have the kids whack them with a stick (like a pinata) they had to use their heads!  Just like the video game you don't know what you're going to get when you break them open.  I also wanted to point out the Boo balloon in this photo.  We had heaps of them all over the house but I managed to forget to photograph them.  Boo is one of Mario's enemies.

Wearing a special devised headband of pins... 

 One at a time, they chose a box and jumped and jumped until they popped the balloon, showering themselves in confetti and gold chocolate coins.

 I thought it might freak some of the kids out a little but they all loved it.  Each boy got to have a go at all three boxes and then B set up again for the next one.  We put different sweets in for our youngest as he couldn't have the chocolate (dairy) coins.  Usually I'd just skip the chocolate but Mario always collects coins so we had to have coins.

 

 There was a fair bit of mess to sweep up (thanks NanaRobyn!).

For food we had mini sausage rolls, star biscuits, pretzels, chips, grapes, Mario gummy lollies, toadstools and popcorn.  We used Simone's great idea and turned lemonade into "Mario Boost Juice" which they all thought was pretty cool.

The toadstool cake was made in a bowl and sat on top of a big ramekin 

We gave the kids cake to take home and little Mario racing cart toys.  There were games of Simon Says and "pin the moustache on Mario" too.  The boys all had a great time and the rest of us loved the peace and quiet that followed the party.  Maybe next time we'll do the sensible thing and celebrate away from home.

Just for fun B took a video of the trial...