Family Game Night: Super Mario Bros Wii #CouchCritics #CBias

Super Mario Bros Family Game Night

These are my nephews – Mario and Luigi. I mean, Cade and Cole :) For this weekend’s family game night, we rented the new Super Mario Bros game for the Wii from Redbox, and the boys really got into character. They are BIG fans of Super Mario Bros! And I admit, so am I. I’m a child of the 80’s, and you just can’t help but think of your childhood when you play this new version of Super Mario Bros – So much fun! It was a perfect choice to bring the kids AND adults together.

Shopping for Game Night Goodies

I was super excited about this week’s game night – My dad moved to Seattle a few months ago, so the kids haven’t seen him since last November. He had a really serious surgery recently, and is finally feeling better again. He was coming over to stay with my brother and I for the weekend, and I was SUPER excited to see him! So, Abby and I headed to Walmart on Friday afternoon, to pick up some great goodies for our game night with Grandpa. Here’s what I had on my list – and you can see our whole shopping trip on Google+ for more pictures too:

Lasagna, garlic bread, and salad for dinner: Because, you know, Mario is Italian and all. I also got some mini-pizza rolls for appetizers, and drew little mustaches on them with tinted sour cream :)
Star Cookies: Sugar cookies cut into stars, frosted yellow, with little faces drawn on. To look like the stars in the game. Um – ended in disaster. I’m not sure how to get the cookies to stay really pointy and sharp – mine turned into puffballs, and looked NOTHING like the stars on the game, lol.
Mushroom Cupcakes: I planned to make yellow cupcakes, frost them red, and then add little white polka dots – like the mushrooms on the game. Another disaster! I could NOT get the frosting for the spots to set. I made little dots on waxed paper, and put them in the freezer, so I could have great disks to place on the frosted cakes. Nope – they wouldn’t set. I made totally sloppy looking mushrooms. They were yummy, but not pretty. I get an A for effort, right??

How can you mess up a candy bowl?

I figured I’d also make a big Mario-themed candy bowl too, for everyone to much on through the night. You’d think that there is no WAY to mess this up, right? But – we couldn’t find ANY of the candies I wanted! The holiday candy we were shopping in above, had been switched out to only Easter – but I’d been hoping to find gold coin candies in with St. Patrick’s Day supplies. Then we headed to the “regular” candy section, for Fireballs and bright M&M’s, but no Fireballs either! So, I settled for the mixture below – M&M’s to feature the Super Mario Bros bright colors, gold-wrapped Rolos instead of coins, and Cinnamon Disks instead of Fireballs.

Game Over for Game Night??

Well, even though most of my desserts didn’t work out the way I planned – they did all still taste good! And everyone had a BLAST. I even went to Amazon later that night and ordered the new Super Mario Bros Wii game for the kids – it was that fun. Like I said – it’s such a great game for kids AND adults, since pretty much all of use remember playing this as a kid. This brand new version for the Wii is similar enough to make you feel nostalgic, but new enough to feel fresh and fun.

Redbox Makes Family Nights Easy!

You can find a Redbox Rental Kiosk at just about any grocery store these days. That makes it super easy to put together a family game or movie night – Head to the store to pick up supplies for dinner and snacks, and then grab your favorite movies and games on your way out. You can even check out the selection online from home, and reserve your favorites before you shop – if you want to plan a theme night like we did! I used to think that Redbox was only for movies, but lately we’ve been changing up family night to include games too, and it’s a blast.

Love Redbox? Follow them on Twitter and Facebook to get updates on cool new products and promotions – even free rental codes!

{Disclaimer: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias. All photos, opinions, and kitchen catastrophes are totally my own.}