Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The Lego Birthday...


         I like birthday parties.  I like the planning.  I like the creating.  I like the yard full of happy children.  I have a son who loves birthday parties too, but as it turns out the anticipation created by the planning and the creating and the waiting for the yard full of kids is just too much for him to handle.  His actual day of birth fell on a Wednesday this year.  I made him his favorite dinner, and by special request a chocolate cake with chocolate pudding on top.  We had a lovely evening with the family, but the air was thick with anticipation for the Lego Party on Sunday. 

         
          In all the fun I had this year with my daughter's party, I forgot my son does not deal well with anticipation.  After weeks of planning and preparing it was just too much for him to handle when rain clouds rolled in the day of the party. Please let me remember that next year he needs a very small surprise party!
           When he told me he wanted a Lego party the wheels immediately went to spinnin'.  In my Google search of Lego parties I found a woman who made chocolate Lego candies for her children's Valentine's Day cards...yes I started looking in February. (As a side note she just published a blog post about how to make the candies: http://sugarswings.blogspot.com/2011/05/candy-lego-men-tutorial.htmlI ordered a silicon Lego mold, but opted out of the chocolate and decided to make Lego crayons instead.  Over the years I have accumulated a giant bag of broken crayons.  My daughter and Mother helped peel and sort crayons in to color groups.  




        I made a makeshift double broiler out of a tin can and a pan of water to melt the crayons.  Before melting the crayons I pinched one side of the top of the tin can to make a pouring spout.  When the crayons were melted I poured them into the mold.  It took about 20 minutes for the new crayons to cool, and then I just popped them out of the mold.  I started with yellow and worked my way through the rainbow and then on to brown and black.  I used the same tin can for all the colors and just melted the new color into what little was left of the old.  Very, very little clean up involved in the project...always a plus.  The only draw back is the mold now seems to have wax embedded in it so it has become a permanent crayon mold. 



          When the Lego crayons were complete they went in the party favor bag along with coloring sheets I downloaded from the Lego site.  I also downloaded "stickers" from Lego and used them to decorate the outside of a brown paper bag for the party favors.  For the older children I added a Lego Minifigures to each bag, a small package with one Lego guy and accessories. For the under 5 crowd at the party I found a box of Lego Duplo with lots of different Duplo animals and put one in each of their bags.  The bags also had a jar of bubbles and some balloons.




         My son brainstormed with my husband to plan a Lego adventure game, but the rain damped their plans.  This is where the anticipation and excitement vs. the reality of the weather really started to take a toll on my son.  The game they had planned was really fun and creative, but the weather just did not cooperate.  We had other games planned, including Pin-the-Party-Hat-on-the-Lego-Guy, but after the melt down with the adventure game, we went straight to the cake. 



           Lego Guy Cake started out as a chocolate strawberry cake, but had an unfortunate burning accident involving an unheard timer.   However, all was not lost and I was able to use the bottom half of the cake.  I made a vanilla cake to layer in with the chocolate and the in product was quite yummy.  Having lots of different layers actually helped make the Lego Guy more 3-D than I had originally planned.



           Two weeks later my son remembers it all as a fun party and a chance to play with his friends.  For me, it was more a reminder to cater to the individual child, which doesn't always mean following every creative whim. 



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13 comments:

  1. You know, Daisey, I learned that very same lesson this year. I like them & I like the massive amounts of planning and cake decorating and games and invites. This year time got the best of me and we had cupcakes made from the box with sprinkles and ordered some snacks. Nothing home made. Nothing extra special. The simple events we planned for the year seven were very much appreciated, nonetheless.

    It looks like a great party! Brava mamma! Sorry about the rain.
    d

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  2. You're hired. We'll need our Lego party items next December, okay? :)

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  3. Start saving your crayons and I will send you the mold!

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  4. Is that your picture of the Lego crayons? If so, good shot. Very good. If not, still very good and oh so fun.

    Another excellent post!

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  5. The crayons look great and so does the cake!!! Awesome job! And thanks for the link!

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  6. Those would be the crayons, and yes, my picture. Lots and lots of little Lego Guys. I have to admit I had fun taking the pictures of them!

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  7. Your picture is fantastic. Great eye.

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  8. Your beautiful post has been featured on ' Best of the Web: Lego Parties, Cakes, Food & More' to get your button go to the bottom of the post and copy the code provided.
    http://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/?p=688#comment-273

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  9. This was a most special b-day celebration and a continuous display of creativity and love in action. The results were and are beautiful. The army of lego crayon soldiers was incredible. Who would of dreamed of using all those old pieces of broken trashed out cayons to make something new and exciting like these new and exciting colors.

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  10. Page has moved but you are still featured on: BEST OF THE WEB LEGO PARTIES CAKES AND FOOD check it out and grab yourself a button.

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    1. Thanks Ann! I am working on it, Blogger is not cooperating :o(

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  11. Hi! Congrats for the Birthday cake ;-) You can also find Lego soaps on ledindon.com http://www.ledindon.com/en/decoration-interieure/8795-savons-lego.php

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