My Little "Luigi" Wanna-Be!

When I was taking pictures of Jaron as "Luigi" for Jantzen's birthday party, he had a little shadow mimicking his every move. Jaedyn thought all of the Luigi poses were fun and she doesn't like to be left out of anything, so she had to do poses too. Of course, she made sure I took pictures of her too. I don't really think she likes the camera very much! (Can you sense my sarcasm here?)

Don't you think she would make a cute Luigi?!?!

"Happy 7th Birthday Jantzen!"

Today was Jantzen's 7th birthday. Yesterday he had a "Mario Party" with his friends and today was a party with the family. For breakfast he requested crepes, so Josh got up and made them before it was time to go to church. As you can see, Jantzen really enjoyed them...

After church Jantzen's birthday cake was delivered and some of our extended family and friends came over for a yummy BBQ...we had a ton of food and a lot of leftovers, but it was all good! We all had a good time eating and visiting with each other.

My friend Zulema made Jantzen's birthday cake (she has her own business) because I'm not that great at making cakes and she did an awesome job!...just look at it!...


I gave her the "Mario" figure on top and told her to do whatever she thought would look good. She was worried about how it would turn out because she's never made a "Mario" cake before, but it turned out so much better than I thought it would. It was a two tier chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and fondant Mario decor.

Here's the "Happy Birthday Jantzen" and the back of the cake...(BTW, it was so yummy!)...


After we were all done eating dinner we let Janzten open his birthday presents. Jaedyn had to be by his side again to help him open them all, she's very anxious for it to be her birthday.

Jaedyn gave Jantzen a new "Hero Factory" villain and Jaron gave him an "Angry Birds" game. He got a lot of art supplies from his grandma and grandpa Goddard. His favorite was an art binder that his grandma labeled as "Jantzen's Big Tool Box of Imagination". It's for him to keep all his drawings and stories in.


His absolute favorite present he got was his "Kindle Fire". He had the biggest smile when he opened it. He earned half the money for it and Josh and I payed for the rest of it for his birthday...he was sooo excited!


Here's Jantzen with all his birthday presents. He got a lot of art supplies, some blank books for him to make his own stories in, a couple new "Hero Factory" figures, a Lego "Ninjago" set, all of the "Big Nate" books and a couple "Ninjago" books, the "Angry Birds" game, his "Kindle Fire", and some money...he was a very happy kid!


Before we let him play with his new presents, we did cake and ice cream. Here's a cute happy pose with his birthday cake (he was dying to play with the Mario on top)...


Here, we are singing "Happy Birthday" to him...


...then he blew out his candles...


Jantzen very quickly ate his cake and ice cream so he could go play with his new toys. The present that got the most attention the rest of the night was his "Kindle Fire", of course. Jaron had to be there right beside him with his own to show him how everything works.


I asked Jantzen later on if he had a good birthday and his response was, "It was EPIC!". Wow, epic, I must be an awesome mom to be able to accomplish such a high feat! I was so happy that he loved his birthday so much this year. I had so much fun planning everything for him and it's nice to know that all my hard work is appreciated.

"HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY JANTZEN", WE ALL LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

It's a Mario Party!

Today Jantzen got to party it up with some of his friends for his birthday. This year he chose a "Super Mario" theme and I had a lot of fun planning everything for it.

This was the invitation I made for his friend party...

Here are the decorations I came up with...


These are the "Boo" ghosts, they were fun and easy to make...


I always make a "Happy Birthday" sign to hang in the kitchen...


This was the goodie bag table...


...and a close up of the "thank you" sign...


...and the "Mario" and "Luigi" hats I made (for the boys), and the "Princess Peach" crowns (for the girls)...


Here's a close up of the goodie bags...


Inside the bags were some "power up" juice, a "Mario" notepad, a "Mario" pen, a "Mario" pencil and pencil sharpener, some "Mario" stickers and fruit snacks, a pack of crayons, a stick on mustache, and a white chocolate "Wii" controller (I made)...


This is how the treat table turned out. I made all the "?" blocks, the "bricks", "stars", and "piranha plants" for the decorations ...


Here's a close up of all the treats and "Mario" decor I made for the table...

There were "Yoshi Eggs" (gumballs), "Chocolate Coins", and "Chocolate Mustaches" (I made)...


We had some "Fire Power" (Atomic Fire Balls)...


...and some "Star Power Brownies" (they were a big hit)...


There were some "Super Mushroom Cupcakes" (in green and red at Jantzen's request)...


We had some "Ice Power" (marshmallows) and they were also a big hit with all the kids...


...and some "Star Power" (I made) and some more "Chocolate Coins"...


Here's a close up of the piranha plant and star that I made for the table. I really had a lot of fun making all the decorations.


I made a cute centerpiece for Jantzen's gift table...


We had a couple "special" guests coming to Jantzen's party. The first one was "Luigi"...


Jaron volunteered on his own to dress up as "Luigi" for Jantzen's party and he was so excited to do it. He really got into the character with the kids. As the kids were arriving, he would come out all excited and do the Luigi "woo hoo" for them...it was so cute! He's such an awesome big brother to do this for Jantzen.

Our other special guest we had is this mean guy...


...he'll show up later!

When all the kids arrived, I had them each pick out a "Mario" or "Luigi" hat or a "Princess Peach" crown, a mustache and then I got a quick picture of all of them before we started the party games. I loved how Jaedyn had to wear her princess dress because she was so excited to be "Princess Peach"...


Here's my Mario birthday boy all ready to party!


Jantzen categorized all the games into "worlds" (like in the Mario game), so World 1 was a "Yoshi Egg Hunt". I put candy in plastic eggs and the kids had to find them. There was only one Yoshi egg and it was bigger and more colorful than the others. Whoever found it got a lot more candy than the others. The kids found the eggs pretty fast and Jaedyn was the only one who found the eggs hidden up high...she had a little help from her daddy.


World 2 was "Mario Ring Toss" where the kids had to try and capture the bad guys...




Jaedyn did the best, she captured Bowser and the Goomba several times...she was so excited about that.


This was the official party cheering section. I think the older Princess Peach needs to do a little shaving...


World 3 was a "Turtle Shell Relay" where the kids had to go from one end of the room to the other walking on their hands and feet like a turtle gathering stars. We had the Mario's vs. the Luigi's/princess' and the Luigi's won...


World 4 was "Balloon Bowser Ping Pong". I made Boswer as a green balloon and the kids had to try to make him hit the floor of the other team to win. Again it was Mario's vs. Luigi's. Here are the teams getting ready...


And off they go!


The Luigi's won this game too.

Bowser showed up for World 5. That's right, the kids had to try to beat Bowser to win the game.


Josh was a good sport to be Bowser for the party (I made his mask).


The kids had to try and hit Bowser with water balloons to beat him, they were very excited for this game. The rule was, they couldn't leave the patio, but Bowser could go anywhere he wanted. That way it would make it a little harder to beat him. After all, in the actual video game Bowser is very hard to beat.

The kids all did their very best to try and hit Bowser, but they were having a hard time at first...


When their backs were turned, Bowser would come up behind them and growl...it was funny to hear some of them scream.


After that, the kids started getting him pretty good...


Bowser took several shots to his head, he couldn't see anything...


The kids finally beat him...


Poor defeated Bowser (he was soaking wet!)...


He was nice enough though to get a quick picture with Mario and Luigi...


After the kids beat Bowser, it was time to open presents. Jaedyn was Jantzen's little helper when it came time for this.


Jantzen got some really fun presents from his friends. He was so excited to play with everything...




When Jantzen was all done opening his presents, we sang "Happy Birthday" to him and then the kids all enjoyed some "Super Mushroom" cupcakes...


After cupcakes, some of the kids played "Mario Kart" on the Wii and Jantzen dug right into his new "Hero Factory" guys...he LOVES those things!


These girls are such cute princess'...


Jantzen's birthday party was a huge success! Everything turned out cute and fun and the kids all had a blast. I had a couple of the kids tell me after beating Bowser with the water balloons that it was "THE BEST GAME EVER!"...that's how they put it. I'm so happy they all had a good time.

For dinner, Jantzen wanted to go to Red Robin so he could be sung to. When the servers came out with his birthday sundae, they sang to him and all of a sudden he got really embarrassed, he wouldn't look at them. He was happy when they left so he could enjoy his sundae.


Jaedyn didn't waste any time helping herself to his sundae. Lucky for her he was nice and didn't mind sharing...I think she ate most of it!




Tomorrow we get to party some more for his actual birthday!