Lego Party

Lego is a perfect theme for a boy’s birthday party.  I have known I wanted to throw my oldest a lego party for a long time.  (In case your wondering we already did a circus theme and Where the Wild Things Are.  Also on the list are a superhero party, Star Wars, camping…so glad I have two boys which equals two parties a year!)

Anyway, I procrastinated as usual until I came across this great, and inexpensive, printable lego party pack from SimoneMadeIt on Etsy.  I don’t usually like using printable sets, because it does not feel original.  But who am I kidding?  A lego party is not that original.  I was attracted to this set because the invitation style was a match to what I planned to create myself.  In an ongoing effort to recognize what I have time to do and what I should hire out or buy, I decided it made a lot of sense to buy this printable set for the invitations.  The set came with a personalized welcome sign too, which we hung on the chalkboard pantry door.

With the classic lego tone of the party set by the printable invitations, I set out to design the rest of the party.  The party ended up only being a small gathering of my immediate family, but that was no reason to skimp on the decorations.  My son loves parties and could care less how long the guest list is.  I wanted to make a big statement, but keep it simple and inexpensive.  My mind was swirling with primary colors, balloons, and the iconic Lego logo.  The color scheme was red, yellow, blue, and green.  I introduced these colors in all the decorations, but they were most prominent in the party garland and the giant table confetti.

For the bunting, I cut strips of construction paper (from a pad I found at the dollar store).  Then I fed them through my sewing machine to create a garland, just like I did for the circle party garland.  I hung the finished garland zig zagging back and forth across the hallway leading into the family room and kitchen.  I used the tiny 3M command hooks (normally for hanging christmas lights) to string up the garland.

My son helped make the giant table confetti.  I recently bought a Martha Stewart punch anywhere 2″ circle punch.  Then I got the crazy idea to punch holes in colored card stock for a giant stylized Lego confetti.  Well, they turned out great, but you will notice we did not make that many.  The punch was kind of hard for a four year old to press down repeatedly.  It was also difficult to line up the holes while punching.  The few we made still added a little color to the table top.

My kids love balloons.  They are a must for every party.  I try to use them in inventive ways, like the balloon tree for the Where the Wild Things Are Party.  I bought those balloons and had them filled at the party store.  For our Milk & Cookies party earlier this year, I bought a small helium tank to fill balloons but it was only enough for one party. We discovered that the night we tried to use it for my son’s birthday morning balloon surprise.  Well, I don’t want to spend $20 on helium for each party.  So I went helium-free!

My wonderful hubby blew up 15 red balloons.  I strung them up and hung 5 around each of the globe pendant lights in our kitchen.  It looked amazing the night before with the lights on.  The balloons gave off an amazing glow as seen in my Instagram picture.  The day after the party, I cut all the strings and let the balloons fall to the ground for the kids to play with.  They thought that was almost as cool as the party piñata.

The piñata was a fun little project, which started out as building jumbo legos for party decor.  I used empty diaper boxes to create the lego bricks.  For the large red one, I wrapped the box with red wrapping paper.  Then I covered the whole thing in red crepe paper.  I cut styrofoam disks with a big round cookie cutter.  I wrapped each disk in crepe paper and then taped them onto the box.  Towards the end of the party the boys figured out they could remove the dots and stick them on each other…they each became walking legos.  I basically made the piñata the same way, except I cut a hole in the bottom of the box first.  After wrapping the box with wrapping paper and crepe paper, I created a seal for the hole at the bottom using more crepe paper and tape.  I attached ribbons to the seal so it could be pulled away to “break the piñata”.  I poked a hole through the wrapping on the side of the block and fed a ribbon through the handles on each side.  I tied the ribbon at the top.  When it was time for the piñata, my husband held it up by the ribbon and the birthday boy got the honors of pulling the strings to “break it”.  If you have more kids at the party they can each pull on a string.

The giant lego brick and piñata sat on the kitchen island as party decor along with our Lego Head Storage Container and some simple birthday cupcakes.  On the other side of the island, I used the not-yet finished stenciled tray to hold party snacks.  I used the printable party circles to embellish red paper bags for popcorn.  I used an inexpensive Ikea frame to display the party invite, minus the address and info.  I found the yellow square plates on clearance at Target.  They were perfect for mini figure heads.  I cut chalkboard vinyl free-hand and stuck it on the plates to create the classic lego man face.

This was the first time I ever used the kitchen island as the party or food table.  I always hesitated because of the sink.  Since I knew this party would be a more casual family party I went for it.  At the last minute, I needed something to disguise the sink faucet.  I grabbed some of the boys duplos and spelled out my son’s name.  I stood the letters in front of the sink and it helped distract the eye.

Another last minute decoration was the banners on the windows.  I had been saving a couple bags from the lego store just for this party, but had no idea what to do with them.  I ended up cutting the side and bottom of each bag to create four banners.  I taped them above the kitchen windows.  They actually looked good.  A few people in my family asked where I got them and took a double-take when I said they were shopping bags.