Super Mario Birthday Party

Today, I am stalking Pinterest and other sites to get rainy day inspiration, and I keep realizing all we're doing is trolling pictures of other people's blogs.  Then I realized I have yet to do a crafty blog, and they're starting to pile up.  So, two years behind, but better late than never, I give you: "How I threw Little One's Mario Party"

He's turning 7 this year, so this was for his 5th birthday.
I'm a cheapskate and I'm broke like 79% of the time, so I am also gonna show you how to make all the other moms go "ooohhhh, ahhhhh", and all you did was run to Walgreen's the day before....KACHOW!

We did a two hour kid party, then after that the adults/family were welcome to come to partake in cake, food and coffee, there was a 15-30min overlap so the family can see the kid activities, and so the house didn't get trashed/overly loud, etc.

Of course, start with an amazing kid who is disturbingly addicted to all things Mario:

Dress him in his favorite Mario garb, and we're ready to go!

So, because I'm a Leo and a list Nazi, I go by what needs to get done first.  And so, the decorations.
I don't know about you, bu I am not paying $50 for freaking decorations that get slammed into a junk drawer for all of eternity.

DECORATIONS.
Seriously, all I did was pick up two packs of multicolored construction paper, and a few glue sticks, and a roll of double stick tape.  Ready for some fun?
Keep in mind the more you squish, the more paper you get.
Basically, you can't mess this one up.  I Googled a bunch of Mario images, and because they are all primary colors, yay to the construction paper

COST: $4.00 VS. $25-40 on premade decorations(and two packs of construction paper made a BUNCH of decorations)

                                                                              

 (You can click on the pictures to see bigger images)

Pretty much straight lines and 8-bit perception is your friend   The Goombas were made with leftovers after the bombs were made, nothing was left to scrap.  We had so many we ran out of places to put them.  We mostly used the three-season room as a kid-zone, so we made the windows the backdrop of the party.

The best part was, after the party, instead of throwing them away, Bestie is a grade school teacher so I gave them to her so she can decorate her classroom on "special" days when the kids deserve a reward.

CRAFT:
While we were waiting for all the kids to get there, we set out blank Mario coloring pages that you can find online and print out for free, this kept them busy long enough to get everyone there and situated.

 Once everyone got there, we started our craft.  I wanted to make Mario hats, but I just couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, so I hit Michael's and grabbed $1 foam hats, and a couple foam sheets in which I cut the "M" and the white logo circle ahead of time.  I also used the glue stick that we bought earlier for less mess.  I wasn't sure if girls were coming (HEY PARENTS:  RSVP to kids parties!!!!!) so just in case, I also got some $1 gold crowns (for Princess Toadstool, of course) and a couple sheets of "jewels" so they can bedazzle their crowns.
COST: $15 altogether, including the glue sticks.

 Since the girls didn't show, the boys got FAB-U-LOUS with their Mario hats......

On to the GAMES!!!!!

 
FIREBALL TOSS: So, HusbandMan is a pretty decent artist, and he begged to do this one, so he grabbed a poster board and went to town.  We made one hole and obviously found more room to put the overload of fireball decorations, and taped it to a cardboard box and used the folds to stand it up.  Every kid got three chances to get all three fireballs in (which were made from fire fabric remnants at Walmart ($1.40) and filled with beans.  The kid with the most fireballs in won a prize.

 Next was Pin the Mustache on Mario.  Again, some markers and poster board(Thanks to his Godmother Amy who is not only easily entertained like us, but also spent the evening with us cutting construction paper and coloring Marios).  She did an awesome job.  And Mario looks angry because his mustache got plastered onto his forehead.....the kids got a big kick out of it.  Same here, closest stick won a prize.

COST: All together, both games and materials cost about $5.  It's all poster board, fabric remnants and double stick tape.

Next, it's PINATA TIME!

 I don't know if you know how hard it is to try to find a Mario themed pinata, let alone when you do find it, it costs about $40-for a box that you're going to beat the crap out of.

SOOOO....Amy, in her infinite wisdom, found a basketball pinata for about $10 and painted it black and ball-n-chainey with acrylic paints.  WIN.  Add a crepe paper tail and you got a ball and chainey....thing.

Since there were no trees in the middle of the yard, when we stripped the gazebo, we left the frame for another week so we could hang the pinata in the middle, and an adult could control it on the outside, as you can see from the Uncle on the left (of course, when you need adult help, have your party the day of a Hawks game, they come running when you promise beer and hockey in exchange for child-management)

A little advice....if at first you don't succeed....

            And still don't succeed....

                                       A little Daddy help, in accordance with the rules to keep it fair.....
                                         

 Makes a pinata explode better ;)

Once the kids were done collecting their candy they went inside, but ladies, do me a favor, and make sure the guys have some sort of supervision when they volunteer to clean it up.....

....

Just sayin'.

Ok, FOOD.  Amy the Godmother is ridiculously talented as she self-taught in the ways of fondant cakes, if you want her info or ever want to see all the amazing cakes she does, you can email me, I don't think she has a website as of yet, but she has quite a portfolio.

 So a mushroom cake for Little One and his friends, 

 1-UP and growing mushrooms for the rest of us :)

And keeping with the cheapo-theme, Little Caesar's $5 pizzas!

Favors were done with paper mache-balloons, filled with candy and little prizes from the dollar store.

Painted to look like Yoshi eggs.  Also did them green vs. pink so boys vs. girls favors could be determined a little easier.

And, for the finale, we finally splurged.  We are fortunate to have a costume rental close to home, so we rented a Mario costume (about $100) and had Grandpa dress up and visit the kids.  We took pictures and each mom got a copy for each kid, and of course Mario helped open presents too. It was the icing on the cake!

Look at that face!

Also, this makes for a great end, because it gets very hot in there, or so I'm told, so when Mario left, the party was over for the kids.  It was a nice finish to a perfect day!

When the blogger's away....

See what happens when you don't update your blog?

No?  You don't see it?  Over here....no wait.....a little more left.....little mooooore.....THERE!!  NO! WAIT!  Ugh, you almost had it.

Ok, fine...you don't see it....it's a blog, not a magical portal to the mystical world of my stupidity.

So, enough bullhonkey, it's about time we update this biiiiaaaatch!(Sorry blog, I don't think you're a biatch....although you have your days)

After two years of trying, we are finally EXPECTING!  That's right, Baby #2 is due 3/31/13, that is of course if the world doesn't end thanks to an extinct group of people that the "educated, civilized world" insists on taking the advice of. 
SIDEBAR: On that note, can I just ask WHY the HELL no one has stepped back and realized that we're all terrified over a group of people who perished due to bad planning; all while consulting their dayplanner?  HELLOOOO!!!!
I just don't get it, but hey, we're the most advanced, scientifically intelligent, technologically apt species in the history of the world....at least I'm pretty sure, let me double check that through my tea leaves here......

So back to the point....yes, scary as it is, we have procreated once again.  We are very excited, especially Little One, who is turning into Big Older One, because he is no longer little.

It's actually been kinda weird and surreal this time, in a good way.  We were officially done trying when the doctor told us to give up and gave us a number of a fertility specialist, which, by all means go for it, more power to you, but we just decided as a couple that if that's the case, then we were pretty much throwing in the towel.
A week later I was pregnant.  And I am surprised we found out so early, at 4 weeks.  On my birthday.  Oh, and HusbandMan, as much as you keep trying to claim that as my birthday present, uh, dude, I'm still thinking you owe me one...... ;)

So now the big pool is what sex the baby is, and everyone-and I mean EVERYONE, minus HusbandMan and my father think it's a girl....more wishing, I assume, because every child in our friends and family have been boys in the last seven years. 

I think I'm going to open up a gender pool just to see how much mon-uh, how many people think it's one vs. another...hehe :)

The coolest part about all this is five seconds after the dreaded Facebook announcement, I got a few messages from friends telling me they were pregnant as well and just haven't been as insane as us to announce it so early, which I was not only stoked, but also tickled that they trusted me with that cute little secret until they let the news out.  So being pregnant with some of my most awesome friends is pretty awesome, although that scene from Romy & Michelle popped in my head...

Although, we're not bitches and, frankly, I'd kill to have that chick's arms;

 (I have more like a "uh, did you have too many cheese fries?" belly at the moment.)

Now, I'm not one to complain, especially when given a miracle after losing all hope.  But I do have to point out something that has recently occurred to me, and help me out girls if this hasn't happened to you....

I'm starting to wonder if the human brain erases all memories of the BS you had to endure in the previous pregnancies.  Now, hear me out....

When the time comes to have another child, you reminisce about the last time you were pregnant.  You think about the kicking, and the glowing, and the time HusbandMan played guitar until you fell asleep, and how he read his novels to your belly until you fell asleep.

Then you become pregnant again, anticipating those wonderfully peaceful moments that bonded you and your partner. 

As you close your eyes to smile, you suddenly pop them open....

BLLEEAAHHCCHHCHHCHCHH!!!!!!
What the hell?  I didn't throw up my LAST pregnancy.....

This is around the time you learn that all pregnancies are different.

Just when the nausea subsides, in comes the horrendous vertigo that leaves you mumbling and shying from light, outwardly praying for mercy while you spin the room again just for glancing at the video games the first one is playing on TV.

When the vertigo finally leaves, you finally get off the couch....only to find...you CAN'T get off the couch, your groin is so sore from the pulled ligaments and muscles, you feel like you just finished a training session with Nadia Comaneci.

Yo, can I borrow your thighs for, like, the next six months??????

Now that you're hunched over, limping, wondering why you're not a prime candidate for LifeAlert, you wonder how on earth you managed to skid on by last time without any of these symptoms.  Not to mention, I don't remembering my boobs hurting the ENTIRE time last time....to the point that if I get a chill, my boobs shiver last and DAMN it hurts!!!!!

I also believe my bladder was damaged, or traumatized last time, because it has reverted to about half its size, I'm guessing.  I am up in the middle of the night EVERY NIGHT like clockwork to pee.  That didn't happen last time either.

Honestly, the only thing I remember was horrendous heartburn and pelvic floor pain right before I went into labor, that's it!  Other than that it was 9 months of cheese fries, lemonade and tuna sandwiches (don't you judge me, he came out fine!!!!)

Ok, well, MOSTLY fine.....



Help me out here, girls, because I have been talking to the other moms due around the same time (which, may I add, can someone tell me what the hell was so sexy around the 14th of July that caused this baby boom????  All I remember is an elevated temperature....) but they're all experiencing some seriously different symptoms this time around. 

All I know is I'm not gonna complain, but I will observe, and this girl JUST got rid of her stretch marks, in time to get a nice purple sheen to them....THAT's a nice little visual for ya ;)

And I'll probably post belly pictures soon, we're in a huge debate about whether this is a baby bump or I'm still digesting lunch......