The New Super Mario Bros Birthday Party!

So, my fourth child turned four this month. He really wanted to have a Super Mario Bros party, and well that's what he got! I started planning back in September. I searched numerous websites looking for ideas. When I found something I liked I would print out a picture and make a note in my folder on the website I got the idea from and my additional thoughts about the idea. I had a pretty thick folder by December!

My main goal was to have a party that knocked it out of the park, but was easy on the wallet as well. The easiest way to do this was by being creative and making a lot of the things myself. I thought it might be helpful to make a list of the things I made and what it cost.

So first, lets talk sweets! I made cupcakes, chocolate Mario mustache pops, sugar cookies, and a cake. To be honest, we didn't need the cake but my husband really felt like we should have one. The night before the party I slapped one together. I had made a super Mario cake for my nephew almost a year ago, so I just kind of went off of that. I used my sisters chess set for the characters to put around the cake. I had most of the fondant I needed so it really didn't cost me anything other than the cake mixes.

I made the sugar cookies about a week early and kept them in an airtight container. Again, I had everything I needed on hand so no additional cost there. I had to use a skull cookie cutter for the 1up mushrooms. They were the worst sugar cookies I have made. I had problems with my never-fail recipe. Go figure! But it was no big deal in the end. They still tasted great, and the kids loved them.

I made the cupcakes a week early, and I put them in the freezer. On the morning of the party I sat them out and let them thaw a little before frosting them. I used some butter creme frosting my mother had made and had extra of. My mother helped me with the toppers and cupcake wrappers. She has a cricut, so she used the cupcake cartridge to cut them out. The paper was purchased at Hobby Lobby when it was on sale for 50% off. It was about .15 cents a sheet. I used the paper for the pennant banners, his name banner, decorative hangings, and cupcake wrappers. I bought 28 sheets for a little over $4. The toppers were made by using images I downloaded. http://kotaku.com/5391337/hi+res-new-super-mario-bros-wii-art-at-your-disposal/gallery/ I used a 2 inch punch to make the background on solid color paper (that I already had), and a 1 3/4 inch punch to cut out the pictures I printed out of the characters. I bought a package of lollipop sticks and plastic wraps at walmart for $2. I used the plastic sticks for the cupcake toppers, and I used the wrappers for the chocolate mustaches.

For the chocolate mustache pops I had to order a mold from amazon. It cost $5 with the shipping. The chocolate was purchased at walmart for a little under $3. I used the plastic wraps that came with the sticks I bought for cupcake toppers to wrap them. I chose a longer lollipop stick I found at hobby lobby ($2) for the mustaches, because I wanted the kids to be able to hold them up to their face. I tied them with green curling ribbon.

Now for the decorations that I made. The first thing I made was a name banner. I used my mom's cricut to cut out large circles in solid colored paper. Then we cut out smaller circles in the striped paper I purchased. I also cut a some circles I had made on my computer using the images I downloaded that said "Happy 4th Birthday." Then we cut out the letters of my sons name in red using the cricut. I cut out several extra circles in solid colors and the striped paper to use for hanging decorations. I bought 2 spools of ribbon from the clearance section at HL for $1.50 each. I used the ribbon to string the banner together. I also took some red tulle and ribbon I had to use in between the letters. The rest ribbon was used with other ribbon I had to go on the jars of candy on the candy buffet.

I also cut out two pennant banners from my striped paper using the cricut. Then I made the hanging decorations out of the extra circles that I cut. I printed out the character, then I cut them out and mounted them on the circles. I also printed out characters that I just cut out and taped on to the left over long lollipop sticks.

Everything was printed on white card stock. I paid $4 for a very large package, and I have plenty left over for my daughters party! I also bought a package of full sheet labels that I used to print out my labels my candy bags and "thank you" boxes. I also printed out little candy bar wrappers. That stuff is not cheap, so I used it sparingly. It was $11 for 25 sheets. Once again I have plenty left over for the next party. I just picked out the round 2 inch label template, and put my design in it and printed it out. Then I used a 2 inch punch to cut the stickers out. Very easy.

Now, I really think that the things that gave the party a big wow factor were probably the easiest and cheapest things to make! The tissue poms were really neat looking. I found them on Martha Stewart's website. I bought 5 colors of tissue paper from walmart for $1.50 each ($7.25 total). There is enough paper to make two of every color in a pack, but I only made one of each. I hung them from fishing line, and it looked like they were just floating in the air.

The other big wow factor that was very inexpensive was the balloon towers. I took two pieces of my husbands foam from work and cut them into 9x9 inch squares (about 3 inches thick). I covered them in red masking tape so I didn't have foam balls everywhere. Then I took a pole that I unscrewed off of a mop and a broom and I screwed it down into the center of the foam. This was the base for my balloon towers. The rest was as simple as blowing up balloons, tying them together and twisting them around the pole. When I got to the top I used a little balloon pump (HL $1.75) to fill up the two mylar balloons I had purchased from Celebrate.com ($5) and taped them to the top. The balloons were $1.25 a package and I had 5 different colors ($6.25 total).

Expenses so far:

Paper (28 sheets)- $4.00

Lollipop stick & wrap pkg- $2.00

Chocolate mustache mold- $5.00

Chocolate Melts- $3.00

Long lollipop sticks- $2.00

Ribbon (2 spools)- $3.00

Card Stock- $4.00

Sticker Paper (labels)-$11.00

Tissue Paper Poms- $7.25

Balloon Towers-$11.25

Total: $52.50

Ok here is a list of the other party paper products I purchased:

From the dollar store-

red paper plates $3

yellow cups $3

orange plastic utensils $3

yellow and blue plastic square tubs-$2

From Walmart-

orange & green paper sacks- $3

red & blue boxes-$3

multi-colored shreaded paper- $1

From Celebrate.com-

napkins (2 pkgs)- $6

Total: $24.00

I also printed these cute little question boxes. I did make them a little bigger than what they were when I found them. I will try to find the link to them. I cut them out, taped them together and put gold chocolate coins in them. Very cute! I bought the coins at Walmart after Christmas. They were in a little mesh bag. They were marked down to .25 cents a bag. I bought 12 bags for $4.
Now for the candy buffet. Try to look around your home and find as many glass containers as you can. I used triffle dishes, vases, cannisters, etc. However, if you don't have anything that would work there is the option of buying some containers. I ended up purchasing a few extras, because I didn't have enough to hold all the candy I had bought. I searched high and low for the best price and found that Walmart was almost unbeatable in price. They sell the 2 gal glass jar with lid for $9.98, 1 gal glass jar for 6.98, and the 1/2 gal jar for 4.98. I didnt use any of the 2 gal jars. They were just too big. Hobby Lobby can have a good price too if you can catch one of their 50% of glass sales. I bought 3 of the 1 gal jars and 2 of the 1/2 gal jars to go with what I already had. I spent just over $30. I know that seems like a lot, but I knew I would get good use out of them. Being the mother of five children I throw a lot of parties so I plan on using them quite a bit!

I printed out cute little sign for each jar. I gave a character to each candy. For example: Princess Peach's Pixie Sticks, Toad's Twizzlers and so on.

That brings me to the candy! I started planning this party in September, so by the time halloween rolled around I knew I neede to stock up on candy. The morning after halloween I went up to Walmart and started filling my cart. I bought candy that was not packaged in halloween wrappers. I bought inexpensive cany that I could get alot of for a little price. My picks were: twizzlers, pixie sticks, dum dums, starbursts, and skittles. Then after Christmas I went back to Walmart and bought the red & green m&ms, several packages of ring pops, gold coins, kisses, and a few large red & green swirly suckers. I spent about $35 in all. Sounds like a lot, but it takes a lot to fill up those jars. Not to mention that there was plenty left over for me to have several more parties without having to spen anymore money on it. I will, however, switch out the red & green m&m's for future parties. It just so happened that red & green went well with our theme.

Candy Buffet expensences:

Jars- $30

Candy- $35
Total: $65.00

My last BIG expense was the standup Mario. It was about $50 after I paid for shipping. Crazy, I know. But, my son just LOVED it! And it really added to the party decor. The way I justified it to my husband was that I might be able to sell it after the party was over on craigslist. We will have to see about that.

Grand Total:

$192.50

All in all it was a GREAT party! Just to see the look on my sons face made it worth it! I have already been working on my daughters 1St birthday that is coming up in May. Can't wait!

MORE PICTURES TO COME! DON'T FORGET TO CHECK THEM OUT.