Where has the time gone?
My baby turns 7 years old in just a few days, and we celebrated last weekend with a party that was right up his alley and mine!
Normally, we like to host birthday parties at home, as we did last year when we celebrated Scaredy Squirrel style. But this year, Jackson decided he wanted to have a party at the local Bricks 4 Kids franchise, so we took our Lego Ninjago party on the road.
Just because we were having the birthday party off-site didn’t keep us from adding a personal, crafty touch to it.
With homemade Lego Ninjago minifigure invitations that I designed using this Ninjago coloring sheet and cut with my Silhouette Cameo and then Jackson colored them.
I made Lego marshmalllow pops (though this might qualify as a Pinterest fail!)…
… and Fushi, candy sushi, out of homemade Rice Krispies treats, gummy candy and Little Debbie snacks.
I filled some mason jars with colorful candy, and made custom Ninjago wooden serving spoons for them.
Our favorite local bakery, Maxie B’s, made this delicious and awesome Sensei Wu birthday cake.
We mean — actually, let me correct that — I built a utensil holder out of Legos. And those are vintage Legos, in case you’re wondering, ones my mom saved from our childhood.
I even wore Lego earrings for the occasion.
Here’s the birthday boy with the party spread.
Legos are, by far, Jackson’s favorite toy in the world. So, how else would he want to spend is birthday party than building Legos?
When he was a toddler, I never thought he’d outgrow his obsession with dinosaurs, but Legos are certainly supplanted them as his passion.
The kids made all kinds of nifty creations.
Like this motorized Lego tsunami carnival ride.
Every kid got to create their own minifigure. That was one of the highlights of the party. When they brought those minifigure pieces out, the kids swarmed them like vultures on carrion.
But the kids’ favorite part of Bricks 4 Kids was the Lego zipline. They had a blast zooming their creations down the zipline, with the ultimate goal being shattering them into pieces.
After birthday wishes and cake…
It was time to send our guests home with kid-crafted Lego birthday party favor bags made simply by affixing circle punch-outs to paper bags.
Each bag included a Lego Max birthday minifigure, a pouch of building blocks candy (that you really can build with!) plus homemade origami ninja throwing stars — or shurikens of ice, as they’re called in Ninjago.
Those throwing stars were a doozy to fold; if you follow me on Instagram, you know how much we struggled with them. But once we cracked the origami mystery, they were easy to create, and we had fun having a family throwing contest. (I lost!)
I have to give a shout out to Craft, Interrupted, whose awesome Ninjago birthday party inspired many of the creative touches we used for Jackson’s party.
Marty Walden
What a fun party and a great way to record the memory on your blog! You’re the queen, my friend!
Atta Girl Amy
Aw, thanks.
It was a fun time, for sure. A party we’ll never forget.