The Almost Perfectionist: Griffin's 6th Birthday

My brown-eyed boy is now 6 years old. Crazy.

We had all of our family over on Saturday to celebrate our Griffin. This was the first birthday party in our new house!

We always choose a birthday party theme that reflects the child's interest at the time of his/her birthday. Right now Griffin LOVES a video game called Super Mario 64, and he plays it on both Wii and Nintendo DS. We've done a Mario theme for him before (Super Mario Galaxy, to be exact). I didn't really have any new ideas for this party. Plus I really wanted to give everyone the gift of being more relaxed for his party. :) So we got the plates and napkins that he liked the best, added a few birthday decorations, and had a nice casual birthday party.

Griffin's #1 request for his party was a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I figured there was no sense in making it more complicated than that. I did have a little fun decorating the cake.

I baked a chocolate cake, flipped it out onto a white cutting board, frosted it with chocolate frosting (not caring too much about lines), and added some sprinkles. I drew a 6 on a piece of cardstock and then cut it out. I sprayed some non-stick spray on the back of the cardstock and then carefully laid it on the frosted cake (including the circle in the middle of the 6). I filled in the 6 with sprinkles and then carefully removed the cardstock. I did have to smooth out the frosting again after I removed the stencil. Then I added some sprinkles around the edge of the cake as well.

We had a few little Mario character toys and picked up a few more at a local party store. I just set them up on the cutting board around the cake rather than on the cake so they wouldn't get frosting on them. It would have washed off, but I didn't want to deal with the mess. The bigger toys above the cake were actually filled with candies, which Griffin ate after we had cake. I also bought candles that have stars on them because there are stars in the Mario game.

We set up two folding tables together as well as our kitchen table (moved out into the family room) and covered them with birthday table cloths from Deals. I found a colorful "Happy Birthday" banner at Walmart. We bought some folding chairs on Black Friday (the day before the party) so we'd have enough for everyone.

Some years I try not to have any Christmas decorations up for Griffin's party so it's focused on his birthday. This year I wanted all of the sentimental decorations up to make our house more homey.

I forgot to take pictures of our plates and napkins, but I ordered them from Birthday Express. Here are pictures of the supplies from the website:

Luigi dessert plates

Mario dinner plates

Napkins

I love that we have both sides of our families gathered together for our kids' birthdays. This Thanksgiving I was missing some family members more than ever, like my grandparents who have passed away and my family in Texas. I was delighted that Jared's grandma was able to come to Griffin's birthday party. We cherish every visit with her.

When it was time to sing to Griffin, I had him sit on a stool behind our kitchen peninsula so everyone in the kitchen could see him. He said, "Mom, I'm not turning 9." I explained that I wanted the cake facing me for pictures. :)

A friend of mine sent me a text before the party encouraging me to "look for the joy in Griffin's face." I have to say that seemed to be the theme of Griffin's party. His sweet little face was smiling through the whole thing!

He didn't want to read his cards out loud, but he sat and read every word silently.

Sunday was Griffin's actual birthday. After church and lunch Griffin made his first batch of cookies in his new Easy Bake Oven (the cool black version for boys!).