Like with everything else this past year, plans pivoted and we got creative. There were no parties, but Papa and Mimi as always brought the fun, and I tried to make it feel as “party” as I could despite the quiet and lack of chaos.

We did a full spread of treats and Mario paraphernalia. I even leaned in to all the branded character stuff this year because WHY NOT — this was the year to do it. Banners, door covers, it all went up in a crazy attempt to make it feel so over the top we’d forget this wasn’t normal.

I made your favorite sugar cookies to look like the stars from the game and used the Cricut to DIY some signage and a cake topper to round out the theme.

We had a tower of krispy kremes in lieu of a cake. In place of friends and party games, I set up gold coin boxes with dollar bills and coins inside all over the house to find like a sort of egg hunt – for one. 🙂

Of course, there was a lot of Mario Kart played with the guys and you got a major kick out of blindfolding us all to play pin the mustache on Luigi.

Looking back, it’s actually one of my favorite birthdays of yours. It was slower, but selfishly that meant I could soak it up more, there was less to prepare and it came together so easily, and you enjoyed it as much as any other birthday.

No matter what’s going on in the world, celebrating you is always easy. Cheers to Level SIX!