Every year, I love taking the time to plan and decorate my brother’s birthdays! Last year, I blogged Stephen’s Mine Craft Birthday Party (view it here)! It’s the one time a year I get to play event coordinator and design and organize their blessed days of birth! If there’s one thing I enjoy doing other than photography, it’s decorating and doing crafty things! I loveee DIY!
This year for Jonathan’s birthday he requested for a Mario & Luigi Dream Team theme (it’s a Nintendo 3DS game)! Now Jonathan is a picky boy when it comes to decor and artsy things–he didn’t want this party to look like Mario Party or Mario Kart. But as things got harder to make, he let me slide on a couple things, like the Super Stars (the Power Ups). :)
Let’s start with the cake. To make things easier on me (somewhat), every year I order a delicious Costco cake and amp it up by decorating it! Usually I use frosting to redecorate it and I make props, or buy them! This year, I decided to go back to fondanting, which I haven’t done in years!
Mario started out well when I worked on his head… but as I continued to work on Mario’s body, he ended up a little flabby… heh! I guess he added on some weight during this game? ;)
Luigi ended up truer to character in my opinion! The thing I love about fondant is that it’s like play dough! And I’ve always loved making shapes and sculpting things out of dough! :)
To make things even easier, I used a box cake and added a secret ingredient (Oreos) to it for a top round 8″ layer! :)
After hours of cutting paper for decor, this garland was created after an idea I found on Pinterest! :)
To cut down the costs as well, I glued paper images of Mario & Luigi onto white cups! I found the striped straws at Joanns, which added a fun twist to the table! You can also see the green pipes that I made using construction paper! :)
Usually, I make cake pops made to look like characters from the themes they pick, but this year, I took an easier route and made cookie pops and learned how to ice cookies! It took me a couple mess ups to figure out the best way to frost these bad boys! Click here to see the recipe & tips I used to help make these Super Star cookies!
Jonathan was SO happy to see his Mario & Luigi Dream Team party all set up!
As an arts & craft idea (I think this is the last year they’ll be entertained by a craft), I tried to think of a twist on the “Dream Team” theme: “Dreaming” Door Hangers!
With the help of my friend, Sam, we cut out all the foam pieces (including the actual door hanger–good job Sam!) to cut the costs! :)
The kids had a lot of fun withe the door hangers and the Mario & Luigi theme! :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONATHAN!!! :)
Happy Tuesday!