Building the perfect celebration

One huge thing I've failed to mention was that E turned 5 at the beginning of the month--- an event that in and of itself is slightly miraculous.  I mean there were times over the last 5 years that were iffy (if I would strangle him or not, if we should have called poison control but didn't when he put random things in his mouth if his impulse to run into parking lots would have finally caught up with him, if he would ever be let out in public again after an eventful outing, etc.)  In all seriousness, it's been a very exciting and enjoyable 5 years.

E's current OBSESSION is building with Legos.  We flirted with a few different party ideas but settled on a Lego party at our house.  Essentially EVERYONE is his best friend, so (despite my offer to take him and a few friends to the Legoland Discovery Center in Dallas to avoid a big party at my house) we ended up with 20 of his closest friends (ages 2-6) gathered in our living room (never say I don't love you kid).

   

We invited our guests with little individual homemade building sets.  

E's favorite part of the invite was the little Minifigure we made of him.  He insisted on holding a little bomb so our catchphrase ended up being "Come to my party. It's going to be a blast!". 

 I had visions of turning everyone into one of the characters from E's favorite Lego video games and coming up with a real-life adventure with elements from each of the games.  I think I'd decided that after the kids completed their adventure to find the Lego Arc of the Covenant they would board the Lego Black Pearl and sail to Lego Hogwarts to play a quick round of quidditch in our Lego stadium, but when I found out that the working Lego Nimbus 2000's I was planning on getting were on backorder, I decided to ditch that whole idea and go with a more traditional birthday party approach.  We went with a red, yellow, and blue Minifigure theme.  E requested "BIG" legos and some "Lego guys", so a couple rolls of wrapping paper, a bunch of boxes, cups and plates and lots of cans of spray paint later, we had our decor.

  Once our guests arrived we tried to keep the chaos to a minimum with some classic party games.

We created our own minifigure (on paper as well as with all the Lego body parts I've collected after stepping on them in various parts of the house).

 

I made a little Lego toss game.  My fatal error was that I used clear cups on a white board and placed it on my white tile, so it really just ended up being a Lego step on.  I think the kids had fun with it anyway.

What's a kid's party without a little pin the head on the minifigure? (the tilt of E's head indicates he found the weakness in the "blindfold")

 

We also played a little game I decided to call "punch and build".  The game is sort of self-explanatory.  They took turns punching out the pegs of our giant lego block and then used the pieces they found inside to add on to the group's creation. 

 

The kids had a little time to just play with Legos before they all got a bag of the edible Legos that fell from the feet of our minifigure pinata (please overlook the fact that the proportions of his facial features are a little off).  

Next was present opening (quick side note- Miss A was so sweet and decided that she wanted me to use the money that was earmarked for a "dolly" to buy E a present. When I asked her what she wanted to get him all on her own she decided "Lego Batman.  He will like that", and he did.)

 

We ended the festivities with a little cake and ice cream cupcakes and Lego Pizza slices. One of these days my kids are going to get a real cake for their party (and no, I didn't figure out the correct facial feature proportions for the "cake" either, but I did fix the order of "Birthday Happy" before we lit the candles).

After we got the kids all hopped up on sugar we sent them back home with a little bag of Lego goodies (coloring book, homemade minifigure crayons --not to be confused with the chocolate minifigures on top of the cupcakes-- and a small party pack building set). 

 

A big thanks to my mom for all her help in putting my vision together.  Without her help, I wouldn't have had the energy left to sit down lay on the floor after the party and help E put together all the Lego sets he got from his generous friend. Thank you to Br for just going with it. Thanks to all the parents who stuck around during the party to help keep Lego Lord of the Flies from making its debut.  And thanks to the birthday boy himself for all his good ideas. Thanks for letting us celebrate with you!