I told you that birthdays are all about the cake and food around here. Well it’s not limited to just the party. On your birthday, you get a special dinner. For me growing up, that meant every birthday I request spaghetti. My mom didn’t like it but it was my absolute favorite (I *still* adore it), so it was a big treat for me.
Well for the Mario birthday, I decided to just run with it. N loves sub sandwiches, so we were going to be having those. I considered making whole wheat buns and trying to make them look like goombas, but because I already had lots of fondant goombas from the cake, I went a different route and served veggies and fruits with standard subs. She loves veggies and fruits, too, so it wasn’t a stretch at all.
And of course, they were a huge, huge hit. She wasn’t expecting anything “themed” for her birthday dinner, so she was thoroughly surprised at supper time. She was so full from cake and such a few hours before that she couldn’t finish her food, though. She looked like she was going to cry before it was suggested she just wrap her plate, put it in the fridge, and save it for the next day. Starts of tears quickly turned to twinkling and there were bits of more excitement the following day when she got to experience it all over again!
Here are a few more pictures of her personalized vegetable tray:
Flowers made out of carrots.
Coin blocks made out of cheese
Cauliflower clouds, of course.
Koopa Troopa turtle shells! Kiwi here.
Other food features included using papaya as coins and stars (there’s a pile behind the kiwi turtle in the top picture), broccoli trees/bushes, radish 1up mushrooms, and various tunnels made out of celery and cucumber. :D
When N turned 8, all she wanted for her birthday was a Mario Gameboy game. She didn’t care what else she got….just that. She spent months after, playing her Mario game. When Christmas rolled around, she got yet another collection of games, but Mario was still a favorite.
A full year later at her next birthday (and her desire for Mario had sprouted before then, so it was really even longer), she was still just as into her Gameboy Advance….and Mario could still hold her attention. Well duh, it’s Mario…. :P
So the game plan was for a Gameboy party, but that slowly morphed into being a bit more Mario-centered. We’d have a Gameboy cake and then Mario “extras” to go with the gaming theme.
My camera picked up more color difference than was actually there. Really, the blues were matched almost perfectly.
I had been playing with fondant the days before, not knowing how it’d turn out, but having fun all the same. I made enough goombas for each of the kids and a couple other feature toons.
They were intended to be just something fun to giggle at and let everybody try, but at the last minute, they found themselves on the cake anyway! Yikes.
They’re held on with toothpicks and tape on the back. The princess is holding a tiny blue “gameboy cake” to mimic N’s own cake.
The candles each went into a button on the game pad. In the lower left of the picture, you can see another Princess Peach and the top of a goomba guy that I pulled from my old stash of toys.
N opted to eat her Princess’ “cake” first, which left the Princess with no middle!
What is it about eating the head/eyes off something first?
I wasn’t entirely sure how into it the other kids would be. Just because N likes playing Mario on her Gameboy, doesn’t mean her friends even play video games at all, much less Mario. And hey, just because I and the rest of the world thinks he’s an icon, doesn’t mean the kids would even recognize him.
Yes, this is picture proof that the Mario Kart Love Song was playing when she was brought into the room and again later a couple times, along with the Mario theme song, which I teased the girls they’d have to hum instead of the Happy Birthday song.
Well they all did, and I got confirmation of their excitement when we passed out the Mario cups. One little girl had needed a drink before the party actually started because she felt like something was stuck in her throat. Because it was all a surprise, she was given a plain cup for her quick drink. When they passed out the cups, she didn’t take one because she already had a cup, but started to get upset because hers didn’t have a Mario M on it. :( Aww! Quickly corrected, of course.
They even played “pin the crown on the princess.”
From the inside, you could still see the color and as all the kids waited, it looked like Princess was spying on them!
This picture mostly sums up the luau party we threw for L.
Actually, I suppose this picture of the pool and them dancing the hula *really* sums it up but that’s not food. After moving into a house with a pool, everyone was excited to have a swimming party. What better way than to have a luau theme? We even considered getting a pig for pig roast but were a little too late in our planning. Maybe next year!
Anyway, for what we did do, we focused on “summer barbecue” food, and themed music, grass skirts, punch, etc. Food included barbecue pork sandwiches, potato salad, chips, and other foods I’ve long since forgotten, oops. Oh right, and fresh pineapple, mostly for use in the punch.
Hawaiian punch, Sprite, chunks of frozen orange juice, fresh pineapple chunks, and ice. No measurements…just throw it all in.
The gifts weren’t wrapped in wrapping paper, but instead, split up as much as possible and distributed among lots of little plastic bags with surf boards on them.
And those grass skirts? Those were actually from a second table runner that we cut to fit each kid. They loved it.
There were other little things that really pulled the party together that you can’t necessarily see. I caught a package of 100 plastic stir sticks for $.75 there were also a huge hit. Simple, but the kids got creative and used multiple ones as chopsticks to get out the pineapple chunks in the punch.
Playing hula music seems pretty basic, but then they got crazy with it. They started shouting out variations, starting with “rock n roll style hula.” Can you tell which is the camera hound?
Tip – Don’t be afraid to serve food outside of just pizza, chips, cake, and ice cream. Even with picky eaters, so long as there’s a bit of variety, they’ll usually eat something. And parents expect kids to be loading up on cake and ice cream, so even if there’s a kid or two who doesn’t really like what’s served, it’s all good. We usually know most of the kids at the parties so can plan accordingly anyway, and usually have a few backups, just in case. Fortunately, the kids usually get excited to have different foods than what their parents cook. In this case, many had never had fresh pineapple at all and thought it was “so cool!”
Tip – If you’re going to do homemade food, choose things you can make in advance so you’re not scrambling right before or during the party.
Tip – For summer parties, having icy pops/freezies/small popsicles on hand can be a nice snacky item to have without costing a fortune or adding too much sugar.
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