Wii All Celebrate Brennan's Birthday

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Brennan's sixth birthday party was a HUGE success. The idea started out as a bowling party, then a Wii bowling party, then it evolved into a Wii sports birthday party with pizza and cupcakes. (Buy less pizza then you think you need. 6 year olds don't eat a lot of pizza, and we are STILL eating it!)

Because we only have one t.v big enough to play on, Brennan was limited in how many guests he could invite. In the end, he invited 8 friends and 7 showed up. Having 8 (well, sometimes 9, when Jack played) kids was a good number because it made for 2 teams of 4.

To keep the kids from getting confused as to who was playing when, I used a dry erase board to divide into two teams and keep score...well, I kept score until one girl rocked at bowling and made all the boys jealous.

Ethan was our official score keeper, too.

To get a picture of all the kids together, I gathered them on the couch before we ate cake and chocolate ice cream...they were more willing because they wanted those cupcakes (though I had to snap fast for the same reason) and they were not covered in chocolate, as they were after their treats were eaten!
Here are the invitations. I made them with simple scrapbooking supplies and permanent markers. They were very easy to put together.

There is a font out there that is a "Wii" font, that I really wanted to use on the invites, but I could not figure out how to install it properly. If you are interested, just google, "Wii font" and you will find it.
The wording for his invite came from this post.

I made the cake out of a 9x 13 cake that I cut and shaped. If I were to do this again, I'd try using a bread pan as that is about the same shape as what I wound up with. Or, I would cut it long ways because the cake was a bit squatty, not really long and lean like a Wii mote. The kids did not mind at all, though.

To form, I cut the cake 2 inches from the edge, then 4 inches from that cut, then 4 inches from that cut, giving myself two pieces that were 2 inches wide, and 2 pieces that were 4 inches wide. (If that does not make sense, email me and I will explain it to you)

I stacked the 2 4 inch pieces first, generously frosting between the layers, then I stacked the 2 edges that were 2 inches each on top (more frosting of course!) I did this so that my edges were slightly curved, like a Wiimote.

I then chilled the cake and covered it in fondant. If you are interested in learning about how to use fondant, check my mom's site in a bit because she is going to be putting out a basic cake decorating DVD in the future.

I made the buttons using gumpaste (I use CK Products brand, but you can also easily make it yourself using this tutorial by my mom). I rolled it out pretty thick because I used sharpies to make the marks and I wanted a LOT of space between the cake and the markers.

I should have made the cord out of gumpaste, but I did a fondant/gumpaste mix and it broke when I moved it. :(

I also did cupcakes because Brennan really loves cupcakes. (I used one cake mix for the cake, which was thin, but since I stacked it that was okay, and the cupcakes) I used the Mii's I created as toppers and stuck them in Wilton cupcake holders that look like feet. I wanted my Mii's to be oval, like this blog has, but I forgot to space them enough on the page before I went to the UPS store to print them and I did not want to waste what I'd paid for, so I just had rectangles instead.

Let me tell you, the kids LOVED the personalization that was at this party. There were personalized straws (and guess what...no kid lost his cup!

They all used only one each!), decorations, and Miis everywhere.

Other then playing the Wii (only 4 at a time where playing, remember?), the kids played Legos or created a Mii of themselves at the "Make Mii" station. I simply traced a Mii face shaped oval onto cardstock and had a table with colors, markers, etc. and let the kids go to town. To encourage the children to particapate, the winner won $1. It's crazy the things a kid will do well for a single dollar bill.

I was also able to do something at this party that I have never done in the past, though I have wanted to for a long time. I saw a picture in a scrapbook magazine YEARS ago where all the children gathered behind the birthday child during the Happy Birthday song. I have always wanted to do this, but felt I could not really boss the children around since their mothers were there. This was a drop off party, so I could boss the kids however I wanted :) and I got my shots. I love them, too!

Also, notice behind the kids? Instead of making a birthday banner, I used my cricut to cut out letters to spell "Happii Birthday" and then used painters tape to adhere them, and each kid's Mii, to the wall. On the back of the Mii's was a thank you note all ready to go after the party!

I had a lot of fun researching and planning this party, and I hope Brennan had a lot of fun being the birthday boy. I did not do a treat bag because the tee shirts were the "goodie". I like that the kids have something they can use again and not just some junky trinkets that will break in a day or two.

I used this and this and this and this as inspiration for Brennan's party. Thanks for sharing your ideas!

Making a Mii and the tee shirt tutorial here.