A Lego-Themed Birthday Party for My Master Builder

Koen has been into Legos for years now.  It's been the perfect gift, the perfect rainy day activity, the perfect chill-out go-to in the afternoon when his little bros are sleeping...we LOVE Legos.  Koen started with Mega Blocks, graduated to Duplos and then went to the real deal.  At first he stuck to the instructions and loved building and rebuilding structures and vehicles from their instructions, but in the last 6 months or so he's really started getting creative.  As a mom of 3 boys (each on at a different stage of Lego...Penn - Mega Blocks, Tav - Duplos, Koen - Legos), Legos are indispensable.  A few weeks ago Doug took Koen to see The Lego Movie which only added to the coolness of Legos for our eldest son (and ok, also for Doug).  There's a great plot in the movie that everyone can be creative in their own way and work hard to build something that is unique, productive and cool.  Everyone can be a "master builder."  Well, with that theme running rampant in our household playtimes, it was an easy jump to decide to bring Legos into Koen's birthday party.  Now, a little note on birthday parties...simply state, we aren't really into throwing them.  Doug and I both grew up with more of a family party focus, simplicity was the theme and mabye a few friends some years, etc.  We appreciate the low key, the meaningful and the simple when it comes to birthday celebrations.  We did feel though that perhaps it was time to have a little party for Koen.  The last time I attempted it he was turning 2 (pre-blog!).  So, perhaps this will be an every 5 year undertaking. =)  This year went very well and I had a lot of fun being frugally creative with the Lego theme and keeping that aspect a surprise for Koen.  Originally, his party was supposed to be the day after his birthday, but since he was sick, we had to reschedule for this past Monday instead.  That meant that he was home all weekend and all morning/afternoon pre-party on Monday because he's on Spring Break, but thankfully I was able to pull of the element of surprise.  So, here's a recap of the party details.  Thanks to Pinterest and the hundreds of other moms like myself that are throwing their little boys Lego-themed parties this year.  So many great ideas out there.  I kept my search to "free and DIY" and still had plenty of ideas for decor, food and games to choose from.  For instance, here's my favor work.  I found some free coloring page printables and just sized them to print fit in a favor bag.  Then I spray painted baby food jars yellow and drew Lego man faces on with permanent markers.  I found Crayola Pip-Squeak markers at Target's One Spot for a $1 a pack (score!) to make a fun coloring pack as the favor.  Super cute!

For the dessert I prepared brownies frosted in classic Lego primary colors and then added M&M's (upside down to hide the "m") to make them look like Lego bricks.  

I did some other preparations the night before the party, but I waited to set it all up the afternoon of the party while Koen was upstairs watching a movie (he had very specific instructions not to come down and peek!).  Here's how it all ended up turning out.  I was pretty happy with it.  

I tried to take pictures of Koen's reaction to the decor because Doug wanted to see it, but it was tough.  Here's the only picture that really captured it and he was being over-dramatic (already the fact of having 2 hours dedicated to his birthday and attention all on him was sinking in).

His buddy, Delia, was with us most of the day, so she got to tour the birthday party setup early with Koen.  Here they are checking out the "guess how many Legos are in the jar" game as well as the nametags, prize box and a few of Koen's cool  Lego planes that I had on display.

Koen really liked the favors which was exciting to me since that was my favorite special project of love for him and his little friends. =)

The rest of Koen's friends (and by that I mean, 2 buddies, we had invited 2 others that couldn't make it as well, but in general our idea was to keep this a small, sweet party) arrived at 4pm and it was party time!  They started with nametags (they don't go to school together, so I thought it might be nice to have those so they could remember each other's names) and then quickly wanted to do the guessing game.  I was so excited they were into it!

After the big reveal of the actual number of Legos in the jar and the prizes awarded for the top 2 guesses, we headed into our next game...a Lego relay.  We had two teams of 3.  The object of the game is to fill your empty jar first with Legos.  There is a big pile of Legos on one side of the room and each player takes a turn balancing a spoonful of Legos while walking to the jar and dumping them in and then passing the spoon to the next teammate in line to repeat until the jar is filled.  They loved it (I was so afraid they would think these games were lame, but they were big fans of everything I had planned...phew!).  

At this point the pizza had arrived so we took a break for early dinner.  The kids were all hungry, so it was a good refuel point.  Koen has the sweetest friends.  They were a delight to entertain and watch engage with one another (well, Koen was in a weird mood, probably very normal for this age and having all the attention!).  We served pizza, veggies and dip and grapes and apple slices.  The kids loved it.  So sweet.  

After their dinnertime (which was so cute to listen in on their 6/7 year old conversations over dinner, they totally entertained themselves for about 15 minutes while munching), we headed back into games.  Next on the docket were "Master Builder" challenges!  Timed challenges with limited Lego pieces (I had put a baggie of Legos at each place setting).  First challenge: make your first initial, the biggest one wins (2 minute time limit).

Challenge 2: Build the tallest tower (must be able to stand on its own) in a one minute time limit.

Challenge 3: Build a boat/structure that will float! (5 minute time limit).  This one Doug and I weren't even sure would work, but it turns out these kids are smarter than we thought and there were 3 that ended up floating and one that sat flat on the water and therefore won!  I didn't get pictures though because I was up waking Penn up from nap.  The last game we did was to have the kids search for little Lego men that I had hidden around the first floor.  Everyone that found one got a prize.  Over the course of the afternoon each kid won a few little prizes and they loved the cheap, but fun things I had picked up and that ended up being an unexpected, but fun little activity.  Also, we saw how much they all enjoyed building with the Legos that we ended up putting a big pile of Legos out on the living room floor and gave them a big challenge for them to all work on together.  It was a big hit and occupied them all for quite awhile.  They all worked so well together, it was impressive.  I'm thinking we should have some afternoon meet-ups where these kiddos just build Legos together.  It was surprising how fast the afternoon went and soon it was time for the brownies and then presents.  Here's a video of us singing to the birthday boy.  Check out how he's lounging on the couch like he's king!!

Although Koen was kind of off the wall throughout the party, he rallied when opening gifts and was gracious and grateful with everyone's.  He was attentive and took time to check out each gift and got excited about each one.  I was very impressed and it was sweet to watch his friends be so excited to give him something.  We are so blessed that Koen has such wonderful buddies!  

Everyone had left by about 6:20pm.  Tav was unfortunately coming down with Koen's cold from the weekend, but he was dying to dig into his favor (which made me so happy!), that he set right to work at the kitchen table on his coloring pages.  

It was a great afternoon and a really good experience as parents to see what it's like to host a handful of our kid's friends and put on a little birthday party.  We both really enjoyed it and I think Koen did too. =)  Happy Birthday, Koen.  Maybe after this good experience we'll be brave enough to try another party before you are 12. =)