LEGO-mania...

was a success!!!

Friends and family were greeted at the door with some more fun foam LEGOs.

There was some time for hard work & special creations. Awards were given for "Most Colorful", "Most Creative", "Tallest Tower" and "Funniest Creation".
We also played "stick the dot on the LEGO" (you can see it in the back behind the toy kitchen) - and we dropped LEGOs from up high on a chair into a jar. When the kids first got there, they also played hide & seek for a specific color of LEGOs.
There was time for treats & goodies. Brightly colored placemats, red plates, cups & napkins, and bendy straws were set out for each kid. Lego candies were in the middle of the table, and we also had some Chex Mix & popcorn for the kids to munch on. With the kids we had red Kool-Aid, cupcakes with Lego candies on them, and ice cream.

There was time for cake!!!! It's a 9x13 with cupcakes on top. I'm not really happy with how it turned out, but fondant was not my friend on decorating day... and it's REALLY hard to make homemade frosting be a bright LEGO color! We enjoyed the big cake with family.

A good time was had by all... now I'm tired & headed off to bed!

{edited to add link to party}

lego goodies

I finished up the goody baskets for the party!

I used small bright colored tubs from the dollar bin at Target... with foam stickers to label with each child's name.
Each child will also get a Lego magnet - bought at the Lego store near us. They come in a variety of colors, so Conner picked a special color for each guest.
Each child will also get a small bag of Lego block candies - from a candy store in town. They taste kind of like Sweet Tarts. We'll also have a bowl of them sitting out at the party, of course!
At the Lego store, they have a table with built-in tubs full of legs, torsos, heads, and hair. Conner personally selected each of the parts for his guests. Unfortunately, there wasn't any blond girl hair - and the girl torso choices were all kind of pirate slutty-wench looking. But he had fun choosing the parts and putting his friends together. Then you just put your people in that handy dandy box pictured behind them, check out, and bring them home to play. Pretty fun!
They also had a sale section in the back - and we found a couple Duplo grab bags that will be perfect for the younger nieces. Their parents will get the candy too.

lego tee - a tutorial

Boys are so hard to sew for. It's just the way it is. Almost 5-year-old boys with definite opinions about their apparel - darn near impossible.
Luckily - I knew how to weasel my way into his wardrobe!! Appeal to his love of LEGOs!!!!!
Want one of your own?

Gather your supplies:
Scrap fabric - solid color
Scrap fun foam - matching color
Thread - matching color
Scissors
Sewing machine
T-shirt (I chose to use a bright green to match the base he builds off of)

First, cut 2 pieces of solid color fabric in the color you want the LEGO to be. I used yellow for best contrast in the pictures. My LEGOs are 2"x4" - depending on how many you are going to put on the shirt, you can make them bigger or smaller.
Then cut a piece of fun foam the same size. A little bigger is ok - just don't go smaller than the fabric!!
Then on one of the fabric pieces draw 8 circles with a washable marker or pencil. Trace around a dime, freehand, whatever will fit best.

Now, make yourself a fun foam and fabric sandwich. See the layers in the front there - fabric on bottom & top, fun foam in the middle.
Head on over to your sewing machine, set it to free motion and stitch the circles. If you're still a novice sewer & don't have a free motion setting, just be ready to make a lot of turns as you stitch your circles!! You might want to make your stitch length a little shorter than usual too. It helps later, trust me.
When you're done with the circles, clip any dangling threads on the front. Flip it over, and slice up the back. You should now have eight "squares" with circles inside of them.
Fun foam rips pretty easily once you get it started - your stitches will have perforated it enough. Keep on ripping until the only fun foam is sandwiched between the two layers of fabric.
Flip it over, and there's your LEGO!!!!
Line up all your LEGOs on your shirt and pin them in place. I chose not to use anything to iron them in place considering the whole fun foam melting possibility. ;)

Zig zag stitch around the edges of your LEGOs and trim random threads as needed.
Give it to your LEGO-maniac, listen to him declare that the shirt is too big, make him model it anyway, and be thankful that you have a little girl who is too young to argue with how you dress her! And oh yeah, he is SO wearing it at his party. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.Make as many LEGOs as you want - whatever colors you want. Change your measurements, change your LEGO size to be a 2x2 block - your options are limitless!!

LEGO party - invites

My boy is turning 5 next month - so time to get a party organized! In the past, it's just been family parties. But since it's 5 this year, we decided to let him have 5 friends over for a little party. We're hosting "Lego-Mania". I'm having fun looking around for ideas and trying to come up with stuff. Here's what I'm doing for the invites...

I decided to make some Legos. I made 4 different kinds so I could choose which one was easiest to make, which one looked the best, etc. The first one is cardstock on little pop-up foam dots. Cute, and had lots of supplies for those - but hard to line up the dots as you can tell!
The next two choices have foam bases. The one on the left has foam dots glued on, the one on the right has metal brads. The foam dots were static-y and stuck to the hole punch. The brads were easiest, but most expensive and in the least supply.
This was another foam attempt. I hand-cut the foam circles and stuck them on bigger pop dots. Too high of a rise, and too annoying to cut out as many circles as I was going to want. Plus I just didn't like the jagged look on the little circles.

So here's what I finally decided on... On the front, I used a green crayon and did a rubbing with a Lego base plate underneath. Using a LEGO font, I typed out the front of the card "Join us for Lego-Mania", put it on colored paper, and used a couple big circle brads. Then I made 5 Lego blocks - yellow, red, green, blue and black - and put them on the green crayon-rubbed base plate. I ended up going with the all-foam example from the middle picture. (It probably would have been easier to just buy Legos and stick them on. But not nearly as much fun!)(Can you tell my son loves LEGO?!!! See the little black and white car in front - he put that together all by himself!!!)
The inside just has the details - birthday, time, address, etc. Simple.
I'm working on what to do for a little goody bag, so more Lego stuff coming up in a week or two. And a cake - I've got big plans ;)