Party #1

With spring comes the birthdays of the young'uns here in our household. I think about ideas for months in advance, start planning, and get excited about finding bargains for the parties. This year I was really focused on Jordis' party since Xander decided he didn't want one. And then a few weeks before his birthday he got up one day and announced he'd changed his mind. With limited time to prepare we told him he could have a set number of friends over for a Mario Kart Wii tournament. And this is how it went down......

Since I was working on a budget with two birthdays in the same week, I decided to fore go ordering the Mario Kart Wii party pack online, and went with a theme of primary colors mixed with the black and white racing checks. I made the place mats by just cutting up some fabric I found at JoAnn's (with my 40% off coupon) and the turtle shells were sections of an egg carton that I cut up and painted.

I used my Cricut and existing scrapbook paper to make a banner that hung over the dessert buffet.

The kids had an array of homemade Mario Kart themed desserts to munch on......sugar cookies with royal icing and fondant, chocolate cupcakes with butter cream frosting, brownies with royal icing and M&M's in the primary colors of the party theme.

My plan was to just have cupcakes, but Xander said he HAD to have a cake. So this is the cake that I slaved over lovingly made for him and he ended up eating a cupcake anyway.

I couldn't justify any sugary drinks with all the junk food we were having, so I jazzed up some water bottles and no one seemed to mind.

All the participants received a certificate and a trophy, with a little something extra for our tournament winner.

And goodie boxes on the way out.

The birthday boy had a great time and even had some love for his little sister.