Surely we had your attention at the name “Mario,” he’s a pretty big deal!  Regardless of your age I feel pretty confident that you played one of the many Mario games on one of the many versions on Nintendos….and you loved it (or at least pretended to because everyone else around you did)!  Six year old Cassius is no exception and with athletic parents who are party throwing pros he had a party that might outdo the video game itself.

Melissa gives all the party details below and it’s a party you won’t want to miss!  We love how she used our Vintage Race Car Invitation and Printables theme in red/yellow and black to go with the party!

 

MARIO KART PARTY DETAILS, as told by Melissa….

My husband and I own and operate an athletic facility (Playmaker U) in Sherwood Park, AB, Canada and we’ve recently added active birthday parties to our offerings. With the success of these active parties, paired with my love to add a whimsical element through the party decor, MudPie Parties was born!

So when Cassius asked for a Mario Kart theme for his 6th birthday party, I was initially hesitant. We typically like to encourage an “active” based party and all I could envision were kids playing video games in the basement of our house. I decided to take this as an opportunity to challenge the traditional ideas of a Mario Kart party!

A MudPie Party usually consists of three elements: 1. Active 2. Imaginative Play 3. Lots of Color. This party would be no exception! With this in mind, I knew immediately I wanted to transport the children into the world of Mario Kart with their own cars, hats for dress up, photo booth area, and lots of theme based colors like red, yellow, along with checkerboard print throughout.

DECOR

Anders Ruff customized the colors for their vintage race car collection to go with the red/yellow/black color scheme I wanted to use for the party. Local photographer Jesse Kushneryk did an amazing job capturing all the party details.

Red, yellow, and black 36” round balloons were used to frame the perimeter of the party area. Smaller red/white and yellow/white polka dot balloons were used to frame the cake/drink/entrance tables.

I printed various 2 ft. tall Mario Kart images I found online and mounted them on a plastic board and placed them through out the training area.

The entrance table greeted the children with a 24×36 chalkboard poster created in photoshop with all things about Cassius. The table also doubled as our “trophy station” which included Mario Kart character themed gift bags.

PIT STOP

We created a “pit stop” station which we decorated with kraft paper and assembled Mario Kart character hats (Yoshi, Luigi, Mario, and Princess Peach) for the kids to choose from to wear! Also stationed here was our Melissa and Doug decorate a race car kits. As the children arrived, we encouraged them to choose a hat and they could either decorate a race car or play in the 30 foot obstacle course bouncy castle while waiting for the other guests to arrive.

(Ps. We love the vintage race car center piece – as inspired by the Me & Riley Vintage Race Car party in Dubai!)

KIDS TABLE

The kids table was transformed into a roadway using a black table runner and white duck tape strips. I also printed a 2 foot long race car from Anders Ruff to include as a centerpiece , which I mounted onto checkered print covered styrofoam. The table setting included black/white striped round plates (wheels), napkin rings with the 2” party logos, water bottles wrapped with the labels from Anders Ruff, vintage glass milk bottles with Mario Kart characters, and wooden cutlery.

DESSERT TABLE

I used the vintage race car birthday banner as a backdrop, which really gave the dessert table lots of color! I also incorporated checkered fabric I found at our local fabric store as a table runner. Lots of Mario Kart details were scattered throughout in the dessert table.

The cake – by far my favorite element on the dessert table! Over the Top Cakes created the cake, cupcakes, and cookies featuring some of my son’s favorite characters! The cake pops designed by Cake Couture were created using individual characters from the MarioKart video game as inspiration. I found some styrofoam at Michaels and wrapped it with brick paper inspired from the Mario theme to create a cake pop stand. I also scooped ice cream into small mason jars and topped them with 2” labels indicating chocolate or vanilla.

Small galvanized metal buckets with 2” party logos from Anders Ruff were designed to hold utensils and napkins. Bright yellow and red polka dot balloons were used to frame the area.

FOOD

I wanted to serve food that kids could easily manipulate, were likely to eat, and could easily incorporate more of the MarioKart theme! The menu consisted of:

Sunflower butter and jelly sandwiches in star-shaped cutouts
Turkey sandwiches on a stick – Kids love anything on a stick!
Vegetable crudite, with dip and without, in individual cups
MarioKart push pops were filled with fresh raspberries and blueberries.
The kids also had a choice of milk, fresh squeezed strawberry lemonade, and water. We had a drink station filled with glass vintage style milk bottles with Mario Kart characters and small mason jars with star cutout lids and striped paper straws.

ENTERTAINMENT

To create the active element to our party we decided to create a race car driver training academy.

We built Mario Kart race cars and bikes for the kids to use in their training. This was by far my favorite item of the party AND the most time consuming to create! After much research, we made 14 cars and bikes using cardboard, duck tape, paper mache, spray paint, and labels with various Mario Kart logos and numbers.

We ran 3 separate stations which focused on activities surrounding defensive driving, agility, and a grand prix race.

When “training” was completed each child received their official MarioKart “racers license”. I asked parents before the party to email a picture of their child and in photoshop added the picture, along with some cute driver details, to a MarioKart drivers license image I found online. I printed them out on card stock and put them in a clear name badge holder and attached a lanyard that I bought from Staples.

Our friends were wonderful enough to dress up as Mario, Princess Peach, and Yoshi and were included in the training activities throughout the party as well as for pictures with the kids.

We had a friend paint child size cardboard cutouts of the MarioKart characters for the children to take pictures in the photo booth area.

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Thanks so much for sharing your party with us!

Find the Vintage Race Car party printables in our shop here.