5/01 - Mario's Kart is on a roll, and it's not what you think

We saw these big rolled up ads at the BART station.  They are like puzzle pieces. When the workers put them all together on the wall, it’s a big ad that takes up the entire wall.

Afternoon update: I was running for the train, so I didn't have time to take a picture, but this was kinda cool.  The ads were on the walls, but also on the floor and ceiling -- like a big tunnel!

Mario says "Mama mia! Itsa lasagna!"  Damien and his girlfriend are beginner cooks.  I gave him my vegetarian lasagna recipe, and he brought in a piece to share with me!  It was good!!  NOM.

Who doesn't like a dalmatian puppy in a derby helmet?

4/16 - Yellow Yoshi frolics in the flowers (and our new "pet")

These pretty flowers are at our train station.  It's starting to feel like spring around here.

Yellow Yoshi couldn’t decide if he wanted to take the yellow trolley or the yellow taxi.  While he tried to make a decision, the light turned green and they both drove off. Poor Yellow Yoshi.

Here is a photo of our new "pet," King Emmett.  We found him while weeding this weekend.  He is a red pupa that will either hatch a fluffy moth or some kind of stinging wasp.  Let's all vote for the former, shall we?  This pupa is actually King Emmett II.  King Emmett the first was tragically squished with a Spanish-English dictionary.  Pobrecito.

4/13 - Wario wishes his kart had pontoons

Our patio was a small lake this morning, after last night’s storm.  The little red bowl was overflowing!

Wario challenged an old-timey motorcycle to a race.  The motorcycle was glad he was behind glass so he didn’t have to smell Wario’s special gas power.  (Eeeeuw!)  Thanks to David for the special guest hand prop!

2/24 - Mario races through lunch

76 degrees in the city on a sunny February day.   Bella!!

We had lunch today with the always delightful Dana and Ernie.  Mario was racing back and forth on the table between me and Dana until he almost drove a dish off the table (his kart is very powerful!).

2/23 - Legless Bowser feels like a girl in springtime

Legless Bowser hopped onto an orange, and then he was on a roll…  He said, “Orange you glad I can move around now?  Bwahahahaha!”

Doesn’t he look pretty next to all the spring flowers?  Awwwww.

2/16 - Wario zooms away from the lotus root

Wario wants to race.  This morning, he tried to race a mini-van. When I put him down on my desk, he zoomed right across it!

At lunch, he zoomed so fast past a taxi, there were flames shooting out of his tailpipe!  Go, Wario, go!

Raj took us out for lunch at a favorite Indian restaurant.  I tried to take Wario’s picture next to a dish of steaming lotus root, but he zoomed away.  Stop, Wario, stop!

2/15 - In which Yoshi and Yellow Crayon become fashion accessories

Dinesh brought Jeanine a fancy dress back from India, and she thought Yoshi would make a nice hairpiece. He kept falling off, but a binder clip finally did the trick!  (Yellow Crayon and I thought they were both silly.)

We went to Walgreen’s in search of discounted Valentine’s chocolates, but there was nothing left!  Yoshi felt empty inside.

When I saw Yellow Yoshi, Yellow Crayon, and Yellow Cab together, I started humming a little Cold Play tune…

YELLOW

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah they were all yellow

I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called yellow

So then I took my turn
Oh what a thing to have done
And it was all yellow

Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
You know you know I love you so
You know I love you so

I swam across
I jumped across for you
Oh what a thing to do

Cause you were all yellow
I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh what a thing to do
And it was all yellow

Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
And you know
For you I'd bleed myself dry
For you I'd bleed myself dry

It's true
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And all the things that you do

2/13 - Toad's race gets rained out

Toad wanted to race on the city streets, but it was too dangerous – and too rainy.  So I found some friends on the computer for him to race with.  He won!  Oh, yeah!!

Toad wanted me to tell you that even though he’s small, he has a giant heart filled with love for you.   (Or is it a giant heart filled with Toad?!)

1/21 - Super 6th Mario Birthday Party

First of all, let me say that I cannot believe my teeny little twins are now six (6) years old.  I remember getting a bag of hand-me-down clothes and looking at the size 6 pants and thinking, "They will never be big enough to wear these." And now that time has come.  (sniff!)

OK, moving right along...  Lil' Guy is very into everything Mario Brothers.  A little bit on the Wii, but mostly loves playing with Mario action figures, pretending he's Mario, etc.  Lil' Gal plays along.  It's easier that way.  So, when I asked them what theme we should have for their birthday party, it was merely a courtesy.  I knew how it was going to go.

Thanks to many great ideas from the internet, here's what I did....

Cupcakes for school:

Decorations:

• Mario table topper, borrowed from a neighbor (thank you!)
• Balloons and streamers in red, green, yellow and blue
• Plates and napkins in red, green, yellow and blue
• Pin the Mustache on Mario poster (see Games below)

Food:

• Broken Glass Jello, in Mario colors

• Goomba Meatballs (sadly, I ran out of time to add the faces)
• Spinach Dip with Moo Moo Meadows veggies
• Star Power Cookies

• Toad on a Stick (inspired by these)

• Mario and Luigi (red and green) juice boxes 
• Mario cake and vanilla ice cream (not bad for my first attempt at fondant, no?)

Games:

• Race to collect gold the most coins
  Bag of 400 coins found at Party City.  I gave each kid a paper lunch bag with his/her name on it, and opened the doors to the twins' rooms where the coins were hidden.  The kid with the most coins won a prize.  Everyone got to keep the coins they found.

• Yoshi Egg Race
  I used some Easter eggs on a stick that I found at Michael's, and painted spots on them with green nail polish. The kids lined up in two teams.  Each kid had to run to the end of the room and back and then hand off the egg and spoon to the next kid in line.  The winning team got prizes.

• Pin the Mustache on Mario
  I had this poster printed at 18 x 24" at my local Copymat.  We used black construction paper to cut out mustaches and used blue painter's tape on the back to make them stick.

• Pass the Bob-omb
  I found a styrofoam ball at Michael's and painted him to look like Bob-omb.  The kids sat in a circle and played Hot Potato, passing Bob-omb until the music (Herb Alpert worked nicely) stopped.  Whoever was left holding Bob-omb was out.  The last kid sitting got a prize.  This was the most fun game we played.  The kids pointed and laughed hysterically whenever someone got out.  It was so cute, I almost had them play a second round!

Prizes

• Gold coins
• Mario Kart erasers
• Small gold plastic trophies

Goodie Bags/Favors

• Mario/Luigi posterboard hats

• Mario Kart pens
• Mario Kart stickers
• small notebooks in red, green, yellow, blue
• chocolate gold coins

We had a total of 10 kids, and they had a great time.  It was a delight to host them -- they were polite and literally begging me for more and more games!

Here are the twins, still wearing their hats days later -- now with the addition of mustaches!
(They are still wearing the hats, now two weeks later!)

A super shout-out to my wonderful friends, who came early and hung streamers and a million balloons, made the poster board visors, assembled goodie bags and hid cold coins, and did anything and everything else I asked of them.  Thank you so much for your help and for listening to my story over and over again of how the power went out at 2am while I was up to my ears in fondant and none of the batteries in the flashlights worked.  David, Joanne, and Linda, you guys ROCK.