When it comes to celebrations for my kids, I like to go all out without going all out. Like any normal middle-class family, we have to have to budget the costs as well as our time when it comes to throwing a party.
This year, my youngest is turning four and I asked him what kind of party he wanted. Naturally, he made it difficult with a request of a Super Mario Brothers themed carnival party. He loves Mario and he loves carnival type games. Anything that requires you to throw something to knock down, he’s into it.
Fortunately my sister-in-law is also down with celebration chaos and together we dived deep into a rabbit hole of DIY carnival ideas and games. We decided to create eight stations of carnival games and deck them out with Super Mario Brothers decorations. Since it was summer, we were able to rent a picnic area at our local park and serve some BBQ.
Rather than rent expensive carnival looking tents, we used our blue pop up tents and added “curtains” with red table cloths from the local DollarTree. This was an easy an inexpensive way to create a carnival feel without breaking the bank. It also helps that Super Mario Brothers use a primary color scheme.
In each tent, we split it in half into two games. I bought wooden dowels and pounded them down into the grass and bought some colorful pennants from Amazon, cut them up and used them as game dividers between each tent.
Unfortunately, I forgot to get a good photo of the tents but you get the idea:
THE GAMES!
Big Boo Balloon Darts (Ballon Darts Game)
Out of all the games, this was our pièce de résistance: the balloon dart game. My SIL and I labored away at this game and it was actually a big hit! We used a foam core board and some water balloons to create this game. If you wanted to, you could essentially stab a bunch of holes into a foam core and stick the balloons wherever you wanted. Wanting it to look cleaner and more cohesive, we measured, lined up and color coordinated. We made two of them and mounted it onto a kid easel. I happened to have some old darts from an electric dart board and used those for the kids to throw. The hard work paid off because this was definitely the favorite of the carnival.
*While these are darts are not super sharp, parental supervision at this game is definitely required*
Super Mario Can Toss (Milk Jug Toss)
I cut out some N logos and taped them to some plastic cups. The kids used whiffle balls to knock down the tower.
Toad Bowl (Inflatable bowling)
This was just an giant inflatable bowling game we happened to have.
Bucket Bowl Toss
We used stakes and I cut out some mushrooms and added a point system. Taped them down to some DollarTree (yay!) planters and the kids had to toss balls into them.
Star Corn Hole
I looked into ordering a custom corn hole but they are not budget friendly. Instead, we took an existing corn hole and added the star design to it to make it more “Mario”.
Warp Pipe Ring Toss
I picked up some noodles and cut them half and staked some dowels into the grass and put the noodles over them for an easy ring toss game.
CheepCheep Fish Bowl (Fish Bowl Game)
You know that really annoying ping pong fish bowl game that you can never win at? We made a dumbed down version of that as well.
Basketball Game
I really wanted to do a basketball type game and decided to DIY our own.
From the very resourceful DollarTree store, I purchased a tri-fold presentation board and two basketball hoop games. I designed and printed out a new background for the the board and hoops with the infamous question mark blocks.
To secure them onto the board, I used zip ties and threaded them to the back of the board. We also had to tape down the whole thing onto a table since it needed to be weighed down.
We also hung these guys on the trees but didn’t get a picture of them.
A lot of times, I focus a lot on the feature table but at a park and battling the elements, sometimes you just have to make it work and it kind of becomes “Ugly Delicious”. It has all the makings of a nice table, just not visually pleasing.
The kids also got to wear some Super Mario themed visors.
As part of the favors, I made some bookmarks and attached them to coordinate with Pocky/Prez. flavors: Chocolate, Strawberry and Pretzel.
Hope you enjoyed reading our party as much as we had planning it!