Lego Party

This was one of my favorite parties to prepare for.  I had fun looking all of Pinterest collecting ideas.

The marshmallow pops above were a hit with everyone, mostly because of just how darn cute they were.  To make these I cut large marshmallows into thirds and then I used the tip of a frosting decorating tool to cut the small cylinders for the tops.  They were sticky on one side so I used that side to stick them to the top of another large marshmallow.  This made them look like a white Lego.  Next, I used the Wilton candies in yellow to dip them.  Personally, I use a small crock pot to melt the candies; I feel I have a little more control of the melting.  Dipping them can be a little tricky at first until you get used to it.  To make the black eyes and mouth I used the Duff's Black Matte Candy Writer.  I found that at Michaels.  It was my first time using it and I thought it worked great. (Don't forget to use your coupon!)

The banner was pretty easy to make.  I found it at Walmart, but it didn't come with letters on it; I downloaded the Lego thick font from Urbanfonts.com.  Then after printing it I very carefully cut them out and taped them on.  See, super easy!

For some other easy (and cheap) decorations I used 18 x 12 construction paper and made Lego shapes that I hung around the room.

I also used some of the many many Legos my son already had to make a holder for my forks and spoons.  I actually made two, one for the food table and one for the cake table.  The one for the cake table was much smaller and didn't have the Lego men around it.  

This was probably my favorite decoration for the party, I made his name and the number 6 (that's how old he was turning) from his Legos.  If you look back at the banner picture you can see I placed it under the banners.  This was a little more tricky to make, but it just took some playing around with the shape of the letters to make it look right.

This is the cake and thank you gift table.  Can you see the cute Lego head marshmallow pops?  Next to those is the smaller fork holder I made.  I also used a Lego sorter my son had as decoration.  Next to that I placed the thank you bags.

I think the cake turned out super cute.  A friend of mine made it.  To the left you can see the little holder?  Also notice that I used red, green, yellow and blue plates and forks.  Most of them, as well as the table clothes, I buy from The Dollar Store.  I also bought some primary color straws to go with the theme, but honestly they really weren't used.

I made the thank you bags by cutting small circles out of extra bags.  I found the bags at Michaels (use your coupon).  Okay, I'm going to admit these were a pain in the butt to make but they did look super cute.  I sat one night and traced circles on extra bags that I cut apart and then cut those out.  Disclaimer: This DIY'er doesn't own a Silhouette or Cricut.  I know, I know!  

To get the circles to stick out and not sit flush on the bags (giving the effect of a lego) I used double sided foam tape squares.  I cut them into small pieces so I wouldn't have to buy much.

Inside the bags,  I put bop-it balloons that I found at The Dollar Store, some little candies I found at the supermarket and the best part were these Lego candies I found on Amazon.  They taste so good!  We actually had a lot left over and we're still munching on them.

So I sat up some tables with bins of Legos in the middle.  I thought it was a good place for the kids to sit and build and we used these tables for the kids to make their faces for a game we played and to eat cake.

Above you can see one of the cutest touches to the party.  I ordered these yellow lanterns from Oriental Trading Company then I just Google image searched different Lego faces and used a black marker to draw them on!  To hang them I used some thin twine.  (They were also hanging off the fireplace in the banner picture.)

This is one of the games we played, Pin the Head on the Lego man.  This is all over Pinterest.  To make it I made up my own template with construction paper, green for pants, red for the shirt and yellow for the heads.  Then I used a file folder for the hands.  I taped them onto a big black poster board and used a silver sharpie to outline the heads to know where they should go.

Before we played, I had the kids draw their own faces onto the yellow heads.  They had a lot of fun doing this.  I bought a couple of boxes of crayons at The Dollar Tree so I wasn't worried about just tossing them after the party.

Another activity I had for the kids (mostly I was worried about it raining outside and being cold) was a coloring page.  I found the image while doing a Google image search.  I pasted it onto a PowerPoint document and add the text, "Nolan's 6th Birthday Party."

While I was shopping for supplies I stumbled upon a photo booth kit at Walmart.  Super fun!  However, I think the parents found it more entertaining than the kids.

Finally, the cutest little 6 year old ever wore this custom made Lego shirt.  I bought the iron on from AM Magic Designs on Etsy.  The shirt I got at Michaels and I used my teacher discount!  It ironed on beautifully, but the washes after have made it really fade.  So I would suggest ironing it on and saving it for the party.

Train Party

I'm declaring this week Party Week on my blog!

I'm going to spend the week highlighting some of my favorite parties that I've done for my boys.  I'll admit, they take a lot of work and they totally stress me out, but they are so worth it when I look back at the pictures.  

I'll also confess, that when I was planning these parties and taking pictures for them I had no intention on starting a DIY blog, so the pictures are not always that great and not always on-point for what I should have been focusing on.

One of my earliest party planning experiences was for my then-three year old.  He was really into trains at the time and I was just getting into reading other blogs so I spent hours looking through DIY blogs for ideas (I'm pretty sure this was pre-pinterest for me).

I scavenged the internet looking for scrapbook paper, stickers and pretty much anything else I could find.  I ended up going with the Lionel Train theme in orange and blue.  I wish I had kept record of where I got everything, but unfortunately I didn't and I'm sure by now there are tons of way cuter things out there to choose from. 

Isn't this banner insane!  Looking back at it now, it's a bit overkill and should have been broken up into two separate banners, but at the time I thought it was the bomb digity! To make the triangles, I used Lionel Train scrapbook paper with orange and blue cardstock.  To make the letters, I used the die cut machine at school (I'm an elementary school teacher by day).  However, now with all of the Silhouettes and Cricuts out there I'm sure there's an even easier way to do it.

For the tables, I printed different pictures of trains and used the die cut from school to cut them into puzzle pieces.  I thought it would be a little something fun for the kids to do.  I also used a piece of the Lionel Train scrapbook paper as a center piece on top of a blue tablecloth.  Finally, I placed some of the train whistles that I used as thank you gifts.  (I do remember that I ordered the train whistles from Oriental Trading.)

 

On to food...

If I remember correctly, seeing a version of this train on a blog somewhere (I really wish I could remember the blog) is what gave me most of my inspiration.  I already had these bins in our playroom, so I washed them out and used them as food containers.  To made the wheels, I taped on silver cupcake holders and added a Lionel Train sticker in the center.  I also added some signs with some twine accents and labeled the food.

I turned one of the large red bins upside down and put a blue bin filled with animal crackers on top.  

The next bin was filled with raisins, one of my sons favorites, and I added a sign that said, "Organic Coal."

In the green bin I had pretzel sticks, or "Pretzel Logs."

Finally, in the blue bin, or caboose, I added Chex Mix.

I also dipped marshmallows in chocolate.  I didn't have any round sticks so I used popcicle sticks and added a Lionel Train flag on top using scrapbook paper and stickers.  The white tray I had bought at Target and I added a blue ribbon with a 3D Lionel Train sticker.

I also bought a box of rice crispies from Costco and dipped them in chocolate and a crushed up  Butterfinger candy bars.  I choose Butterfinger because I wanted one that had an orange center.

I also had chocolate covered pretzels (a must at every party).

For the thank you gift table I printed a little note from my son thanking everyone for coming and we gave out wooden train whistles from Oriental Trading.  I also printed a thank you message on labels and put them on the bottom, but they didn't stick very good to the wood.  

Okay, I know I left out the cake...I did that on purpose, because it really wasn't anything spectacular.  What happened was, while we were at Costco picking up food, my son insisted we get a balloon cake.  So we did...

 

 

See, nothing to write home about. However, in an effort to make it at least match the party I had them make the balloons blue and orange and then I added sticks with the Lionel Train stickers on top.

So there you have it, a train party that doesn't break the bank and turned out pretty darn cute!