For Big Boy’s 6th birthday, we threw him his very first official birthday party! And we did it up LEGO style :0)

We have never really done a birthday party for the kids, save for the big family one at their first. He also had an indoor playground, unofficial birthday party for his 4th, and for his 5th we were in Florida. So I wanted this to be special – but not so special I couldn’t top it in future years.

Why did we decide on Lego? Because he was turning 6! And 6 is the ULTIMATE age to start playing with Lego (if not before). He and JJ have only ever really played with Duplo (which they have loved, and still love) and their first real exposure to Lego was at Legoland in Florida last year. I was really looking forward to getting him some Lego sets and scored a SUPER deal on some new in package and used, but fully complete still-in-the-box sets off Craigslist (I just cannot stand to shell out full price for these kinds of things, unless it is a special set!).

Anyway, on to the party! I saw an idea for Lego Cake Pops over at Living Locurto, but opted for the marshmallow version since it would be much faster, and I already had an idea for cupcakes.

Basically, you take a large marshmallow, a mini marshmallow (or M&M, Smartie – the CANADIANversion :D) and place them on a stick. I used long candy sticks from Bulk Barn. Then, melt your yellow chocolate (it is better to do this in a double boiler on the stove than the microwave) and dip the marshmallows in! I had a hard time getting it smooth, but by using my finger I managed to smooth it over – and got a few good licks of choc-o-lit myself (don’t worry, I washed my hands!).

We reused the Cake Mate icing scribblers from our cookie people project and I had each boy give their Lego men their own faces. I was afraid they wouldn’t be interested, since most of the boys are 7 and 8 years old (friends from our homeschool group – they’re a FANTASTIC bunch of boys!), but they really enjoyed it!

The decor I didn’t go too crazy on. I found a LOT of fantastic ideas by googling “lego party” – some amazing moms out there! – but kept it simple. Green, red, blue and yellow coloured napkins, plates, balloons, etc.

Candy blocks and jelly beans on the table.

The Lego men from the sets Big Boy got in the morning were set them up on our piano to observe the festivities. I made a “bunting” of sorts using this lego font download. (We also used it on the invitations Big Boy handed out, but I forgot to take a picture! Doink.)

For games we played a few rounds of Lego Bingo (again, this was a HUGE hit! And boy are those boys competitive!).

I got off craigslist new in package Lego Racerswhich one winner of each round of bingo got to choose.

After lunch they took a good 30 minutes to set them up.
Using a ramp I made out of an unfolded cardboard box, we had races!
Prizes for this race were bags of candy blocks.
The boys had a blast and probably would have kept playing if we didn’t have to stop for cupcakes and presents :D
For the cupcakes, I tried a new chocolate recipe from Glorious Treats – it’s called Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes, and it is just that!

It even rivals my current favourite chocolate cupcake recipe, except it is a little less rich. It uses boiling water and oil instead of butter, I will definitely be keeping it close as one of my faves! The birthday boy had requested vanilla cupcakes, so I tried a recipe from Buddy – aka Cake Boss. They were fairly good as cupcakes go, but only made 12, so I HAD to make chocolate too :D You can find the recipe here. Cupcakes were topped with vanilla bean and orange buttercream and candy blocks on top of that (can someone say SUGAR COMA?!?!).

JJ and I built a cupcake stand out of duplo – it took a little bit to make it good and sturdy, but it looked great and the kids loved it!

All in all it was a fantastic party. The boys were here for about 3 1/2 hours, which was definitely enough time :D But they weren’t bored as they pulled out and helped Big Boy put together his new sets by the end of the party. Now I have to figure out how to store and keep all of this stuff together! Help! :0)