A Lego Party

This sweet boy must have had some aching cheeks after his special day on Friday. He was all smiles ALL day. It started with a pancake breakfast on the red plate, and orange juice in the "special glass". The weather on Friday was spectacular. Sunny and mid 60's friends! Mid 60's! We couldn't have ordered better weather.

Our annual birthday photo shoot.


This pretty much sums up how he felt about the whole day. He thought EVERYTHING was exciting and fun and special.
"Mom, today is my first birthday at school!" He was so excited to celebrate with his friends. Diddles and I brought in cupcakes with requested blue frosting, topped with Lego Ninja cupcake sticks, which Yaks put together himself.

We made our very first attempt this year at having a "friend" party. I know! The seven years we've been parents, and we've never been brave enough to throw one. It was Josh's idea, so he was really involved in both the prep and the party. I have to give a special thanks also to Pinterest, without which, this party would have been nonexistent. There are some seriously talented, creative and crafty people out there, who are so kind to share their ideas.

THE INVITATION:

This idea, however, was all Josh. A tri-fold Lego Ninjago invitation, with a cut-out mask.
Yaks thought this was awesome, and he had fun delivering it to his friends.

There is actually a free LEGO font. We used it a bunch in our party!
I figured out how to use the red-eye edit to white-out information like full names. :)

The kids were really involved in helping with the prep and set-up, which was so nice! NO BIRTHDAY ENVY THIS YEAR! HOORAY! Just happy, helpful, excited kids.

(This one's for you, Nana!:)

THE DECORATIONS:
We picked up some blue cellophane goodie bags and put some play-doh, a printable lego coloring book, bubbles, fruit snacks, and a ring pop. We printed out little nametags for them with the Lego font. I forgot to grab a picture of those. Rats.

Birthday poster!
All done by the kids.

Birthday balloon garland! Both kids can blow up balloons now.
I was pretty proud of Boo. She made this little Lego centerpiece for her brother, and had it tucked away in her room for a week.

THE FOOD:

We put Lego sleeves on apple juice boxes.

We got pizzas and had all of his favorites: pineapple, strawberries, grapes and carrots. We used yellow plates and made a lego table runner out of green spray-painted bubble wrap to look like the green lego building plate!

THE CAKE:
You know me and cakes. UGH. This was the one he wanted this year. He spotted it in the March Family Fun magazine. They must have KNOWN! It's a Ninjas-in-Training cake with fruit roll-ups, pretzels, graham crackers, and sprinkles.

We are ready to party!

After school we got to Skype with Nana and Papa and talk to Grandma and Grandpa.

Nana and Papa got him this Lego shirt. I kid you not, it has been worn every day since then!

THE PARTY:
We let him invite four friends. He picked two girls and two boys. One pal was unable to make it, but I felt like it was the perfect-sized group all with sweet personalities.

THE GAMES:
Again, thanks to Pinterest, we found a couple easy games to play. This was LEGO TOSS - just like ski ball, but using Legos.
NINJA STRIKE! This game was awesome! Josh got some helium balloons and drew Ninja faces on them. The kids were directed to ninja kick and punch the bad ninjas out of the room.

WOW!

After that, we gave each kid a balloon, and let them show us their coolest kicks, punches, and moves for 30 seconds. It was fantastic. :)
PRESENTS:
The kids were all so sweet. They each sat next to Yaks while he opened their present. This little friend wrote him a note, along with his gift.
They were all genuinely excited and happy for him.

After "Happy Birthday", the kids had cake and then played with Legos or other toys until it was time to go.

It was a happy birthday, indeed!