Patrick's Birthday Party Round-up: Part One

Phew!  Three days of cake and parties.... I'm fat and tired (One party was for our friend, but still.)  I will attempt to give you the link-ups to my resources and everything.  Here it goes!

Day One: Friday.  Birthday Day.

He started his day with pancakes and presents.  Then it was off to school.

He ordered Panda Express for lunch.  It is always fun to have your whole family at school for lunch.

We brought a few dozen dirt cupcakes (and worms) for his class... and a few extra for his buddies who aren't in his class.

Before we knew it, the day was over and it was time for the party with 12 of his best buddies.  Patrick has known for a year that he wanted a Mario Brothers party.  It was a fun theme.  And since I've played my fair share of Mario Bros (N-64!), I know what I know. My original plan was to have a party at home and book the Game n Go trailer.  Patrick decided that he wanted to go to the arcade with his friends instead.  So we did!  Me-N-Eds Coney Island Grill has a fun arcade room and decent size party rooms.  Patrick and his friends had a blast playing arcade games, eating pizza and being 2nd graders.

And yes, Patrick invited girls.  Quite a few girls in fact.

The local party store didn't have Mario Party gear so I ordered the plates and napkins from Celebrate Express.  I signed up for emails (because I don't get enough!) and there was a email coupon for 10% off. 

So all that was pretty easy.... Then I had to tackle the cake.  Here's my honest opinion, $3.50 per cupcake is expensive for 7 year old kids who are going to eat the frosting and throw away the cake.  So I decided that I would find another solution.  I knew that I didn't have time to make the cupcakes, but I wanted Mario cupcakes... I found a couple of sites and blogs with mushroom cupcakes.  Perfect!  I ordered two dozen Red, Green and Blue cupcakes from Von's and we went to work.

The circles are fondant.  Perfectly cut with a round cutter.  We smoothed the icing before we put the fondant on the cupcakes.  We?  Oh yes, that's my hubby and me.

I ordered the little figures on Amazon.  Those were a hot commodity.  All of the kids wanted one, I told them that they were mine!  Actually, I was planning on using them for the next cake, more on that later.

Patrick's special cupcake.  I hastily made the Power Up Star at the last minute.  I'm a pro with the toothpicks.

Then it was gifts galore and time to go!

I got the water bottles from Celebrate Express too.  I put a Mario pen and Mario gummy snacks in each bottle and tied a custom made favor tag. These were cute but if I had to do it over again I would consider ordering several sets of the Mario figurines and letting everyone take one home.

Done!  Best party ever, in Patrick's opinion.