A Lego Party!

Funny that I always wanted to have a baby in October. I had visions of awesome halloween birthday parties, of course. But Jack REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted a Lego party! Okay, honestly his first choice was Mario Bros, but I said no (I LOVE playing Mario Bros, but Jack & Mario Bros is a whole nother post). Once he realized there was no way that I would do Mario Bros he was set on Legos. Once I realized he wasn't going to change his mind I went to work on the party (meaning lots of time checking out other people's lego parties on blogs) and got excited!

Of course as I was up till I can't even tell you what time the night before the party b/c I'm the queen of procrastination, I kept thinking why am I doing this? What's the point? The kids would have a fun time if I bought a dollar pin the tail on the donkey game at WalMart & had cake & ice cream, right? And that led to how silly birthday parties really are. I mean you invite all these people that wouldn't normally give you a gift on your birthday but then they are suddenly required to. I was telling this to Jeremiah yesterday morning before the party & he looked at me funny & said "who are you?"

It made it worth it while I was getting ready for the party. First Jack was going through some Legos since I'd bought a ton on eBay to fill the pinata with. There had been some minifigs in the mix and he was asking if I was putting them in the pinata. I told him I wasn't because I thought he'd want to keep them & if I put them in the pinata he would most likely not get them. He said, "Oh thanks mom! I do want to keep them! You're the best mom ever!" Then he came up to me & gave me a hug & said, "I love you mom. Thanks for all the hard work you're doing for my party." Awwww! He's the best!

Well onto the deets.

Party setup.

(door sign idea from here)


The table centerpiece is a big lego pinata that I made. I forgot to take a close-up of it! Total bummer since you can't really tell what it is in most of the pics! Plus it would be nice to have a momento of my labor :) The party was from 3-4:30 so I kept the snacks simple: grapes/apples & cucumbers/tomatoes on skewers, cheese & cracker lego bricks & juice box legos.

(Juice box idea here, cracker idea here, green lego base idea here)


The party.

As the kids arrived they got a set of Legos to build their own race cars. I saw on someone's blog to check the Halloween aisle at Target for little packages of Legos - score! I was so stoked to find them b/c I'd been watching eBay for days & days & nothing at the time was working. Thank goodness it's Halloween time! Once the kids had their cars built they could choose some stickers to personalize it (since all the cars were the same). I'd planned on a Lego race for our first game but the first several cars couldn't even make it down the ramp. They were WAY out of alignment! LOL They'd turn to the side a little bit down the ramp! One of the boys must have figured out how to adjust them b/c later they all seemed to be going straight, but we never ended up having an official race. The kids loved the ramp & came back to it later during the party also.



After the "races" it was snack time. I was so glad to have Kate at the party to help - from this point she took the rest of the pictures during the party. Thanks Kate!!!

Next we played "pin the head on the minifig." Each kid got a minifig head that they drew the face on. Funny note about Jack's: The new minifigs have a little more detail to the faces so when he was going through the previously mentioned bag of eBay Legos (that were definitely older) & found the minifigs he commented that he really liked the heads. They were like the faces on some of the guys that his friend Tyler has. So I love that that's the face he decided to draw on his (and I have to say he did a GREAT job of copying it)! The little boy at the bottom L in this collage, Spencer, was the winner - he got his head dead on!

Next we had a Lego relay. The kids were divided into 2 teams & had to use a spoon to get Legos from a bowl to a jar. If they dropped their Legos on the way they had to put them back in the bowl & hand the spoon to the next kid. Everyone got several turns but it wasn't a quick relay at all! I thought that this was an age appropriate game when I planned it, but these kids were probably the youngest it would work for because there was mass confusion going on! LOL Even Ellie & Nixon (Kate's little boy. He & Ellie are both 2) played & did really well. They were both very careful & didn't drop their Legos.

Onto the pinata! Always the highlight of a party. Because we're moving into major candy season I was sold when I was looking for party ideas & saw that a few other people filled their pinatas with Legos. Brilliant (although more expensive than candy unless you could find a bucket at a yard sale, which I didn't).

And finally cake & presents! (The white stuff on the cake is powdered sugar b/c I'd read a few years ago that you can give cakes a nice smooth finish by patting them down w/powdered sugar. I've done it before & it worked out, but it didn't work this time. Most of it got dissolved into the cake like it should have, but it left a mottled appearance. Combine that with the ugly shade of blue frosting and what you have is a kind of gross looking cake.)

As his guests left Jack gave them each a goody bag with Lego candy (called Candy Blox by Dubble Bubble), a little coloring book I downloaded from this girl & put together, and a set of 5 minifig crayons that I bought all packaged & ready to go from eBay. The kids also got to take home their race cars & a cello bag w/their legos from the pinata.



Yay! It's over!!! My feet looked like hobbit feet as my sister Tara said at the end of the night. Even my toes were swollen! But Jack has thanked me several times & said what a fun time he had.

Worth it.