Could any party theme be more fun than Lego? The colors, the shapes, the endless activities…I had a great time putting this one together.

The kids started by coloring their own minifigures, but they clearly needed to do something physical, so I sent them out to the trampoline to burn off some energy. Then we came back inside to build with the giant Lego blocks I created out of cardboard boxes, wrapping paper and foam. I worked for weeks gathering and wrapping boxes, and it was totally worth it, cause the kids had a blast stacking those things up and knocking them down.

I’d come across a website that lets you download and print out masks for many of the characters from The Lego Movie, so the kids put those on and posed for the camera. I had them draw names to see who got which mask, but there were still some unhappy customers, namely Brayden, who really wanted the Batman mask but who ended up with President Business. But we got past that and moved on to the next activity: a team Lego building challenge. I split the kids into two teams, gave them each a bucket of Lego, and told them to design a spaceship. The idea was to build as a team, but most of the kids ended up doing their own thing anyway. It kept them busy for half an hour, so whatever.

Finally, we did a treasure hunt to find the Piece of Resistance (which I made by wrapping a toothpaste box in red wrapping paper). I made up nine clues and hid them in various places around the house, and the kids had to solve a little riddle in order to find the next clue. I wasn’t sure how this one would go, but it was actually pretty popular. And I designed it so that when we found the Piece of Resistance (in the fridge!) we were in the kitchen, ready for snacks and cake.

As for snacks…I made some adorable crackers and cheese that looked like Lego bricks. I’d read online somewhere that you could slice string cheese and it would be round like Lego studs, but I tried that and found that the studs weren’t really round at all. I ended up taking the lid from a marker and using that to cut circles in the cheese slices. They were labor-intensive (each cracker took eight studs) but they turned out great.

I was pretty proud of the cake. I ordered a plain white cake from Wal-Mart, then decorated it with Lego chocolates I made with a mold I got online. The chocolates look so much like the real thing that when I took a bunch to my autism moms group the night before the party, no one realized they were actually edible. Very cool.

So anyway, the cake — and the party — was a roaring success.

Happy 7th, Brayden!

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