Super Mario Theme Birthday Ideas for JHB

My friend Stephanie is planning a Super Mario party for her son's birthday and asked for some ideas to get started.  So Steph, I hope you get lots of inspiration here.  Please take lots of photos so we can do a feature of JHB's party!

I try to skip buying licensed products as much as possible, I think it makes a bigger impact when used in small doses.  So for the tableware & utensils, skip the boring Mario plates and just go with any of the bright colors.  I might make a little exception for these cute napkins from Amazon.  The same with brightly colored balloons, they make a big impact and they're about 1/4 the cost of the licensed products.  You could also cut out & hang Mario stars or the 1-up mushrooms from the ceiling, or just stick them random places.

Colors:  Red, Green, Blue, & Yellow

Free Printable Items:
Question Mark block template, print on heavy white cardstock, cut and assemble.  These would be cute for tables or for favors to take home.

Tons of free Mario coloring pages are here.  They would be great for keeping the kids busy or for sending home with the goodie bags.


From Oriental Trading:
Mustaches so you can have a bunch of Marios & Luigis running around.  I'm guessing that these are so fun, even the adults would get into this one {you may want to get extras} $4.99/dozen

Gold Coins use these for winning games just like Mario collects them throughout the game, the kids can take them home in their goodie bags too.  $3.99/144pcs  or if you prefer, you can get Chocolate Coins $9.99/60 pieces.

Bright Baseball Caps can be made into Luigi & Mario caps. $19.99/doz.  Ok, I know that they're only supposed to be red & green, but I don't think the kids will mind & all of these colors would match the party.  Get some white felt and cut circles out, glue those on and some felt to match the color of the hat to cut the letters out.  If you want to be super awesome, you can use each child's initial to make their own special cap!


Inspiration Parties & Ideas:
Danielle's party via At Home with Kim Vallee

I love EVERYTHING about this awesome Mario Party via The Tanooki.  The piranah plant centerpieces are do-able and absolutely incredible.  They make such a statement & look pretty easy to figure out. 

These invites from Chica & Jo would be easy to re-create, especially with the great tutorial she gives.


Food Ideas:
These cookies from Geeky Cookies would be super easy to re-create!  Check out this post for a great cookie & frosting recipe.  The dots on the 1-up mushroom would be so simple using flood royal icing.

Keep it simple and go with multi-colored cupcakes & make cute cupcake toppers!  If you would rather buy the toppers, these from Etsy seller ddiapercakes would be a great addition at $22.99 for 40.

How about Princess Peach smoothies or Yoshi juice?  You could also go with brightly colored juice boxes or small gatorades in yellow, red, green, & blue.

Fill bowls or a vase with brightly colored m&ms.

And PIZZAS, of course, as an hommage to Mario & Luigi's heritage.  If you're feeling adventurous, you can even have the boys create their own.

If you're REALLY feeling adventurous and you have the time, check out the 1Up Mushroom Burgers from Instructables.

Games & Activities:

How about a wii Mario Kart tournament?

Yoshi's Egg Hunt - fill easter eggs {they should be redily available right now!} with gold coins, some could have pics of Bowser Jr or Kammy Koopa.  The person with the most gold coins at the end could win a special prize.

Create an obstacle course for the boys to run through.  Through a tube, over the koopas, jump up to hit the 1-up mushroom, etc...



So Steph, there you have it.  You can also check Party City, Target & the Dollar store for random Mario items, or just fun items in bright colors.  I can't wait to see what you come up with.

If any readers have other ideas or if you have had a Super Mario party, please feel free to leave a comment or a link! 

Oh Harry, How I Wish We Were Together.

Hello.  Hi.  Welcome.  Let me grab a drink for you.  It isn't too early for wine is it?  It's after noon, so I think we're good.  Sit down and stay awhile.  My name is Michelle, I'm an Aries, I like long walks on the beach and flowers.  Wait.  This is the wrong place for that.  There are lots of fun things to read over there in my sidebar if you want to learn a little about me.  ---->

If you're lazy like me, here are my 5 favorite posts.

1. My mother meets Snoop.
2. I am an idiot.
3. My husband's surprise 30th.
4. Being thankful.
5. My sister gets arrested.  I wish I were kidding.

So, I'm not at Blissdom this weekend.  Bummer.  For those of you non-bloggers, Blissdom is a blogging conference being held in Nashville this weekend.  Think 500 bloggers {& an intimate concert with Harry Connick, Jr} just hanging out, enjoying bloggy goodness, and learning a lot.  There is always next year.

{Image via Harry}

So... the next best thing?  Joining Blessed Moon for the I'm Not At Blissdom Blog Hop!  Say hello.  Link up & visit those of us who will have to drool over Harry from afar.   

The Fornification of Frogs

Elise from the Attic is a weekly blog post from my sister Elise who is currently kicking up her heels and studying her ass off in Kentucky. She is a fashionista and a lunatic, but we love her. Mostly. Here is this week's edition of:

I am questioning my sanity and the sanity of the Kentucky population.

First, my sociology teaching assistant, who moved here from China two years ago, went on for twenty minutes about how "our society puts us in chins" before I realized that he was saying chains.

As I was leaving that class, this guy stops me and asks me to point him to the journalism buliding. I guess he thought I looked nerdy enough that I would know where every class on campus is held... he was correct. But, as I'm pointing to a girl in the distance, using her as a reference in describing to him which way to go I said,  "See the blonde girl way up there?"   He responded with, "Oh yeah, the one with the hUGE ass? hahahahahaha," this guy was looking at me like I was going to laugh along and compliment him on his charm and wit.  It took every amount of class I have in me to restrain myself from beating him down right there on the sidewalk. He obviously did not look close enough to see the behind that my mother passed on to me.

The craziness does not end there my friends.

In Biology, my nut of a professor {who my friend and I have decided cannot possibly be married} decided to lecture on the fornification of species of toads and frogs. This, coming from a man who refers to himself as "rat bastard".  THE. MAN. CALLS. HIMSELF. RAT. BASTARD. PEOPLE! Anyway, before pulling out two large snakes from a bag at the end of the class to show us {for no obvious reason at all} he showed slides of frogs getting it on for an hour and fifteen minutes.

Is it creepy that I kind of found it really interesting though? If the answer to that question is yes, then I was just kidding.

But, to prove his theory that a frog will eat anything that moves and fits in its mouth and mates with anything that moves and doesn't fit in its mouth, he put his HAND in a pond in his back yard and watched three toads hump it for hours.... 6 hours to be exact. He said they would have gone for 12.

Naturally, he showed us the pictures.

I was beginning to think I was the only person on this campus with a semblence of sanity left...until I tried to pull the door open at the tanning salon for a good five minutes until realizing I was supposed to push. This is what I'm dealing with on a daily basis.....If I haven't lost my mind yet, it will undoubtedly happen soon.

Until next week,

Elise, From the Attic

Another SUPER Happy Thursday Thing...

Do you know the Birthday Girl?  If not hop, skip, & JUMP right over to check out Becca's fabulous party blog.

Pssst... there is a fab write up about Finn's Seuss Party right here!

I am so excited.  And thankful.  Becca, you're wonderful and I love it.  Love.  It.

Happy Things for Thursday

• We're getting snow!  Oh, it isn't a lot, just 2-4 inches expected, but we're down 6 or so inches for the year and I miss it.  The rest of the eastern half of the country is supposed to get much more.  Lucky.
• Pregnancies!  {Not mine! Ha.}  Two of my good friends have announced pregnancies recently and I couldn't be happier for them.
• Scrabble on Facebook.  Amy & I are addicted.  Pretty much right up to the line on whether we should join a support group.  So we play, game after game.  With a hit of Word Twist thrown in the mix.  Oh yeah.
• I got a much needed brow wax yesterday.  I'm a freak about my eyebrows.  I like them to have shape and not be too thin and not look like I need to draw them on, but compliment my eyes nicely.  {I know... it's the only area of my life that I am high maintenance.}  I had to give up on my usual girl after years of going to her and have been on a mad search to find someone I loved equally.  Well, I saw Tristan before our trip to California and again yesterday.  I'm in love.  LOVE.  She is fantastic.  Local girls, I'll be happy to pass along her info, just shoot me an email.
• The Superbowl is this weekend and while I'm not a big pro-ball fan, I love the advertising.  Fingers crossed for a good crop of commercials this year.  This might call for a pot of turkey chili. 
• Tomorrow is another installment of Elise from the Attic!  I think I *may* look forward to these posts more than anyone.  Tomorrow also brings the winner of the fun 80s book!  I realize that I didn't put a time on it, so let's say you have until 6 pm {EST} on Friday to enter.
• EIGHT more days & I can not wait!!!

Tell me something happy in your world today!

I Miss My Plastic Charm Necklace.

Once, when Lyndsey and I were little, she shoved American cheese into my Strawberry Shortcake Blow Kiss doll.  You have no idea what I am talking about?  Strawberry Shortcake had baby dolls that, when you squeezed them, would blow fruit scented air into your face.  It was our favorite activity while dancing around in our Wonder Woman underoos watching Saturday morning cartoons.  I believe these days, they call it huffing, but whatevs. We had Lemon Meringue and Strawberry.  And Lyndsey had shoved the american cheese into her mouth which put the end to the strawberry scented goodness until one day, the cheese dried out enough to be dislodged just so.  When we pushed on her belly, she shot cheese out of her mouth at such a great speed that I'm pretty sure Rainbow Brite and Christina Marie were scared.  Christina Marie was my Cabbage Patch... she had a normal name because she was one of the first edition, procured by some miracle the Christmas I was seven  by my Meme from a friend of hers in New York.  Don't tell anyone, but she still lives in my house.

Lynds and I were children of the eighties.  We walked to the drugstore to buy giant flourescent pink triangle earrings.  We wore jelly shoes until our feet blistered.  We had every color of embroidery floss imaginable and would spend hours making friendship bracelets.  That was after the beaded friendship pin craze had died off a bit.  The Christmas that I was in sixth grade, my aunt took me to the Limited to buy an Outback Red shirt, I was in seventh heaven.  It was just about as awesome as my friends renting a white limo for my thirteenth birthday.  We rode around and drank two liters of soda.  How cool can you get?

My aunt also worked for Apple and got a IIe for us.  My mom probably had a $400 phone bill every month in 1987 when we were introduced to Prodigy by my Uncle Jim.  "Mom, we can meet someone in Oklahoma or Maine or New Hampshire!  You just use the phone line!  It is sooooo cool."  It lived in our bedroom, that we somehow convinced my mother to let us paint with bright white walls and black trim.  I can't even fathom the kind of "cool mom" factor it takes to let your pre-teens paint that hideousness with your blessing. 

Of course, it wasn't all Funshine & Cheer Bears, there were bad things too.  It is still the bane of my existance that I lost the tape of Lyndsey falling on her butt captured on my PXL-2000.  I was sure that was my ticket to Bob Sagett and his Funny Videos.  We ran out of cake mix & light bulbs burnt out of our Easy Bake Ovens.  My cousin John had all of his action figures stolen right out of the back of my Meme's Pacer in the parking lot of the grocery store.  And we do have photographic evidence of me only wearing pink and white, mostly flashdance-esque sweatshirts, for about two years of my life.  And the shoulder pads, the shoulder pads.  Who would let a fourth grader wear a turquoise blazer with shoulder pads to school?  That's right.  My mother. 

And the charm necklace.  Ohhhhh the sweet sweet plastic charm necklace.  Filled with clip on charms like a baby bottle, a tennis racket, and an abacus, because in 1985, you never knew when you might need a miniature plastic abacus.  To do your counting of Hello Kitty items or Garbage Pail Kid cards or ummm whatever?  If I had that pink plastic goodness today, I would be forced to wear it AND pretend I was putting on the plastic lipstick charm, the awesomeness was just that powerful.  There is no point in denying it.

This post is really for my awesome friend Merrily, who introduced me to this book, modeled by the gorgeous Christina Marie herself...

It's a book, it's a Trapper, there are images of smelly stickers, it's totally RAD.  I read this and laughed hysterically.  And now, I'm passing it on to one of you.  {Full disclosure, I totally paid for this sucker & already read it.} Leave a comment with YOUR favorite and thing about the eighties.  I will choose a winner on Friday, February 5.

Gotta go.  Digrassi Junior High is on and my crimper is done heating up. 

{UPDATE:  Thank you to all the entries!  The winner, chosen very democratically by writing everyone's name on paper and having Finnegan choose one, is GEORGIE!  Congrats!  I need your address to get your book to you!}

Mini Guiness Cupcakes

Nothing like an overload of sugary sweets to fill your weekend here at {So Wonderful, So Marvelous}.  I made these mini Guiness cupcakes for my husband's surprise 30th birthday beer tasting party.  They were a huge hit, they stayed very moist and they pack just enough of a Guiness punch without being overpowering.  Fair warning, we had many requests for the recipe and they are wholly addictive.  It has a Guiness cream cheese frosting as well to mimic the famous foam that tops a real Guiness.  They would be fantastic for a manly chocolate Valentine's treat and they couldn't be easier to make!

Guiness Cupcakes

12 oz. Guiness

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil

1 TB of vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

3 large eggs

dash cinnamon

pinch of salt {I used vanilla salt, but any would do.}

3/4 cup sour cream

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder {use a good quality here, it makes a difference}

2 cups of sugar

2 1/2 cups of flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

- Combine Guiness, milk, oil, & vanilla in the bowl of your mixer.  Beat in the eggs one at a time until well incorporated.  Then, mix in sour cream.

- Whisk together in a large bowl all dry ingrediants.  Gradually mix into the wet ingrediants.

- Butter {or use baking spray} mini muffin tins & add batter.  To make this super easy, you can fill a gallon size Ziploc with the batter and cut the corner off to fill the muffin tins.  I find this is much easier to control than trying to fill with a spoon.

- Bake 15 - 20 minutes for mini cupcakes, test with a toothpick. {Probably 25-30 minutes for normal size.}  Cool before turning out onto wire racks.

Guiness Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces of cream cheese, softenend

1/4 - 1/3 cup heavy cream

2-3 ounces of Guiness

1 pound of confectioners sugar

cinnamon for dusting

- Allow the cream cheese to sit out for at least 30 minutes to soften.  Do not microwave!

- Whip the cream cheese. 

- Beat in the heavy whipping cream & Guiness {start with the lowest amounts here}

- Slowly add the confectioners sugar and add more whipping cream & Guiness if needed for consistency.  It should be in between a stiff frosting and a thick glaze.  It should ooze a little to spread, but not drip down the cupcakes. Fill into a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip & pipe on top of each cucake.

- Dust with a tiny bit of cinnamon.

Jump on over to Bake at 350 to see some other yummy alcohol inspired recipes!

Be Mine.

Finn and I were looking for a project, he was in massive need of something to occupy his time {and my sanity} so we decided to make cookies.  He will happily tell you that except for cracking the egg, he made these himself.  He *may* have been covered from head to toe with flour, but he did a great job dumping all of the ingrediants in and helping me roll them out.

I learned how to make these cookies from Bridget at Bake at 350.  She REALLY makes learning easy, with step by step directions and explainations of everything.  My edges are not even close to being as neat, nor the details as fine, but I'm happy to make cute & SIMPLE cookies like these.  The look so much harder to do than they are.  Give it a try! 

Use this recipe to make the cookies.  I used 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste in lieu of the vanilla extract.

Use this recipe to make the frosting.  Don't use the one listed on the cookie recipe page.  I only made half this amount for my purposes and put 1/4 t of almond extract in it, but if you want to do several colors make the whole batch.  If you do them like I did, you will make flood {frosting that has been thinned to syrup consistancy} in two different colors and keep a little of the frosting in it's normal state to pipe around the edges.  I put the flood in plastic squeeze bottles.

To decorate:
1.  With the regular frosting, in a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip {or a ziploc with a teeny tiny corner cut off} pipe a circle around the perimeter of the cookie.  Allow to dry for a minute or two.

2.  Fill with flood in the same color.  Use a toothpick to pull the flood right up to the edges.  Let it sit for a few minutes, then add dots in the opposite color.

3.  Use a toothpick and pull from the main color through the dots and it will make a heart shape.

4.  Let these dry overnight before packaging them, even if they look dry!  Trust me, you'll end up with ugly dents in the finish of the frosting.


Then, we just printed out a little Valentine's message on cardstock.  Finnegan set to work decorating them with his Crayolas.  He packaged them up in glassine bags and I did the folding and stapled them.  We're going to deliver them to grandparents and his three great-grandmas tomorrow as a special surprise early Valentine. 

What do you have planned for Valentine's Day treats?

Self proclaimed nerd.

Elise from the Attic is a weekly blog post from my sister Elise who is currently kicking up her heels and studying her ass off in Kentucky.  She is a fashionista and a lunatic, but we love her.  Mostly.  OK, sometimes.  Here is this week's edition of:

I am a self proclaimed nerd.

For example, I hoped and prayed that I would need braces and glasses when I was younger... until that day actually arrived. I'm that girl in class that gets a little too feisty when a professor decides to share stories of his weekend with the class, stalling the beginning of lecture. So bear with my nerdiness, because I am going to have to share with you my current college disappointment: Students come to class for all of ten minutes until attendance is taken, and then they retreat to their dungeons to sleep, Facebook, partake in mindnumbing activities, etc. After my sociology professor addressed the problem in class I started to think about how awful it is that education doesn't seem to be valued as much as it has been in the past.

I will admit that when I was a young, naive kindergardener who had not quite grown into the complete geek that I am today, my mother would ask me what I learned that day. I would give an annoyed groan, roll my eyes and maybe manage a vague answer. But, after seeing a quote that was something along the lines of "go to school, kids in China would love to have your job" years later, I realized what a complete ass I was for praying for snow/fog/torndados/water heater incidents, etc. every night before I went to sleep (after putting my pajamas on backwards and a spoon under my pillow). I realized that I was beyond lucky to be able to go to school. And although my mom hasn't asked me in years what I learned in school that day, I have since tried to make a conscious effort to ask myself.

I realize you're probably thinking why the hell should I take advice from someone who was arrested in an attic, but I encourage you to try to learn something new daily. It doesn't matter if you're learning a new recipe (this is just an example... NOT something I plan to actually take part in), one word from a different language, or how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop.

Ya know that saying that humans only use a portion of our brain? I was going to mention something about this, but out of curiosity I looked it up and we actually use 100% of our brains so there you go, your newly learned tidbit for today!

Until next week,

Elise, From The Attic

{My} Favorite Blogs: aka Pure Fabulousness I Think You Should Know About

You know I am convinced that I have adult ADD and I really feel that my Google Reader illustrates that wonderfully.  It is chock full of everything from crafty women, to moms with whom I can commiserate, to party planners who are unbelievable, to personal finance bloggers, to home renovators, to humor blogs, to fashionistas, and EVERYTHING in between.  I tend to lean toward the bloggers who lift me up.  There are some I can't wait to read every morning and some that post infrequently, but that I still light up when they do.  Some might be new for you and some may be old, but all are fabulous.

Here are my faves:

Zakary aka ZDub at Raising Colorado is quite possibly the funniest blogger masquerading as a normal mom I have ever met.  Well... as normal a mom as you can be with a manly first name and having to raise your children in the wild.  Ok, she doesn't really live in the wild, but dude she has unidentifiable animals AND bears in her backyard.  I almost always feel compelled to click over and comment on her posts, they are that freaking hilarious.  You will fall in love with this woman. 

Joy at Big Time Fancy - Oh my, I don't even know where to begin.  She is hilarious, and raunchy, and used to sleep with half the world and never felt the need to apologize for it.  Now she is in love, and less raunchy, and deserves all of the happiness in the world.  I found BTF years ago and she was actually one of the few strangers who was invited to my blog when it was private.  I can not tell you how much she reminds me of myself 10 years ago.  Read her entire archives.  It will delight and amuse, I promise.


Rachel at One Pretty Thing finds the coolest stuff ever.  Seriously, I can't even imagine how much time and energy she devotes to finding the most interesting parties, before & afters, printables, crafty stuff, DIY projects and basically anything awesome on the web.  You will want to visit daily just to be inspired and delighted.  She posts daily and each roundup is better than the next.  The woman has an unyielding supply of awesomeness in her arsenal.  She's also incredibly friendly, approachable, and sweet to chat with via email even though she's like the popular girl in school, everyone wants to be her friend!  


Megan at Whatever - Meg rocks.  She is creative and fun and just when you want to hate her because of her amazing house {the kitchen Meg, the kitchen!} she turns around and posts something so sweet and nice that you have to love her.  She also very clearly has a laundry problem {we can't all be perfect}, and with all of those gorgeous kiddos, Waffle the wonder dog and all of that time spent being creative, I would too!


Courtney at Two Straight Lines - Courtney is the ultimate crafty Mama.  Everything about her blog is calm & creative & wonderfully imaginative.  She allowed her son Elliot to have a fantastic lemonade stand and her little Lucie is near Finn's age.  She also lives in an unbelievable house and makes time to do things like sew oh, 14 geese costumes for her son's class without a hitch.


Kim at Today's Creative Blog - yeah, ok everyone in the blog world knows Kim, because her blog is GENIUS.  I mean really really, I want to kick my own ass for not thinking of this.  She first finds and then blogs about the most creative women of the web.  I can not tell you how many people she has 'introduced' to me through TCB.


You will spend approximately 928940 hours perusing Brooklyn Limestone.  I have been reading since it used to be called Adventures in Renovating a Brooklyn Limestone and now is A Brooklyn Limestone in Progress because their renovations are largely complete.  If you're not in the mood for home renovation photos that make you drool over your laptop, perhaps you'd like to check out all of the insane travel they get to do?  She also creates the best, most creative invitations I have ever seen.  If you have spent any time here, you know my love of stationery so yeah, this compliment is saying a lot.


Casey at Moosh in Indy is genuine.  She is amazingly talented and a little fucked up and a lot wonderful.  Some days, you will want to pat her on the back and cringe in the same post.  Some days you will just sit in awe of her mad photography skills.  She oozes strength as she very candidly shares her struggle with depression and infertility and the worst home buying experience I have ever heard of.  Oh, and this is not the blog of a whiner, she is raw, she is honest, and she overcomes.


And my Bloggy BFF Ashley over at Sugar Britches, of course.  She had me at hello.  Well not really hello, but she let me call her Ash and that's about the same as hello.  Right?

 

Well, there you have my very tippy top favorites and there are easily about 20 more I could add.  I would love to hear about YOUR favorites too. 

And if I haven't told you lately, thanks for reading!