Everything is AWESOME with a LEGO Birthday Party

Henry turned 5 on October 11, and we celebrated his birthday with a LEGO-themed party at home. I LOVE a theme, and my kids get really into it, too. Henry, especially, has very strong opinions on the theme of his party, and he starts talking about it practically a year in advance! (Though he does occasionally change his mind over the summer!) This year, he has been ALL about Ghostbusters and LEGO. And in the end, LEGO won out for a party. (I’m still hoping for Ghostbusters for #6 since it’s a great October theme.)

If you follow this blog, you know that there are a bunch of kid-focused venues that we love in the area. When it comes to parties though, I prefer to have them at home for now. I might put together a post with some general kid home-party tips later, but this post is going to focus on the most recent party – Henry’s LEGO 5th Birthday! I always love looking through ideas on Pinterest when I first start planning, so I want to document our party!

*When you see an asterisk, it means that I am including an Amazon link. As an Amazon Associate I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases. I am always honest though and tell you if I have found a better price elsewhere.

INVITATIONS/THANK YOUS

There’s a CVS across the street from our neighborhood, so do 1-hour printing there whenever I can. For the invitations, I was able to find a pre-made design that worked out well. I just added our info, searched for a coupon code (ALWAYS!), and had them in my hand an hour or so later.

They didn’t have any Thank You options that I liked, so I did the Design Your Own option. I used the free version of Canva to design what I wanted with a LEGO border and photos from the party, and then uploaded to the CVS site. Tip: I used a free LEGO font that I found online for the Thank You cards and for signs I made for the party.

DECOR

I got lucky with this year’s theme because there are a lot of fun LEGO-themed decorations at Dollar Tree! To make things even more cost effective, I was able to snag some leftover party supplies from another family on Facebook Marketplace. (Sidenote: I almost always sell our leftover party stuff that way, and I also check out Marketplace to buy supplies, too.) The balloons, tablecloths, plates, napkins, pennant banners, and centerpieces all came from Dollar Tree. If you can’t get to a Dollar Tree (or they’re out of stock), I did find a similar party pack on Amazon*, but it’s a bit more expensive.

Another great resource for decorating for a LEGO party? Your child’s LEGOs! Using LEGO baseplates and randomly colored Duplo, Henry and I created bug number 5s to decorate the mantle, and a number 5 to put on the dessert table. He also had fun going through his blocks to help me find any that were birthday-themed. We had stacks of presents, Duplo figures holding balloons, and even birthday trains. They didn’t cost anything since we already had them, and they added to the fun vibe.

I was able to get a homemade LEGO man cut-out from the woman I bought decorations from, and the kids had fun putting their head in the hole for pictures. It was made from posterboard and paper. Henry wasn’t happy with the colors of the clothes the LEGO figure was wearing, but it was easy enough for me to make him a new “outfit” with scrapbook paper I had on hand.

I typically buy each of my kids a new shirt to go along with their birthday theme. I’ve been incredibly lucky that my sister has made several of their more recent shirts, but Etsy and Amazon are always great places to check, too. My sister made Henry’s shirt this year using files we bought from Etsy and a white t-shirt from Children’s Place. HERE is a link to a similar shirt I found on Amazon*. Charlotte’s dress was a great find from the website Great Lakes Kids Apparel. They also have a really cute shirt version that I just ordered for Henry because he loved Charlotte’s dress so much. A few days after the party, they wore these same outfits to Legoland Discovery Center and got SO many complements and people asking if we bought their clothes in the gift shop!

ACTIVITIES

I typically keep the activities pretty simple at our parties because the kids range from toddler to teen. I set up a few different stations with things they can do at their own pace. Henry has an October birthday, and it’s become a tradition since his first birthday that I go pick up a bunch of small pumpkins for the kids to decorate and take home. If you live in Lower Bucks County, Fairless Hills Garden Center has become my favorite spot for getting the pumpkins because they usually have the best prices. Instead of trying to do carving or painting which can get really messy with so many kids, I usually get sticker packs and some extras from Dollar Tree. This year, THIS* sticker set from Amazon was a big hit. And my mother-in-law also grabbed me a few packs of sticker jewels from her Dollar Tree that the kids really enjoyed. We always end up with leftover decorating supplies, but since this is a tradition, I just add to my stock for the following year! Pumpkins aren’t LEGO-themed, but I did put the supplies in a LEGO container we had from one of Henry’s sets. (Looking back, we could have also made some LEGO pumpkins out of orange blocks for decoration.)

Another easy activity that I usually do some version of for parties … a ball toss! I took a big, long Amazon box we had and covered it in red wrapping paper from Dollar Tree. Then, I cut out three holes in both the box and in red plastic plates (also from Dollar Tree). I hot glued the plates over the holes in the box to create bumps like on a LEGO block. Then I just put out a bucket with some lightweight plastic balls from a ball pit we used to have. We no longer have the ball pit, but balls like THESE* come in handy for a lot of activities!

Since this party was in our backyard, we also made use of our usual yard toys … and just added a LEGO twist. I put a bin of Duplo wheel bases and blocks out between our two slides with a sign that said to make cars and race them. I also filled our water table and our little plastic pool (without water, but this would be fun with water in the summer!) with different sets of loose Duplo and MegaBlocks. This created little areas for kids to gather and build whatever they wanted.

The final activity station was for coloring and creating LEGO figure ornaments. This is another area where I’m lucky in that my parents have a craft business where they make handcut/painted wooden ornaments. Henry came up with the idea that he wanted Grandpop to cut out LEGO figures for his friends to decorate. So I found a free LEGO man coloring page. Grandpop cut them out of wood, and Grandma made the outlines of the figures with a paint pen to help give the kids a little more guidance. They used colored pencils to decorate and brought home little DIY LEGO ornaments. At the same table, I put out a big of coloring pages I printed out from free sites online.

And because you really just never know what kids will love best, I need to add that the BIGGEST hit of the party might have been our hammock. All the kids loved climbing in and giving each other pushes.

FOOD

For the main food, we went kid-friendly. We ordered a few different kids of pizza and a half tray of chicken fingers from one of our favorite local pizza spots, Anthony’s on New Falls Road. My husband made a big thing of mac and cheese, and my mother-in-law put together fruit and veggie platters.

My mom and I love baking, so that’s where I focused. My mom made her “famous” chocolate-dipped cookies with bright-colored sprinkles. And I made 3 batches of my roll-out cookies. I started with the same recipe for each batch, which you can find in THIS post. For one, I added mini chocolate chips and used a number 5 cookie cutter. For the second number 5 batch, I added just a bit of almond extract and added rainbow sprinkles to the dough. And finally, I made a batch with the dough plain but with just a bit of yellow food coloring. I then used a LEGO head cookie cutter I bought from Etsy and added yellow sanding sugar before baking. When they were cool, I used melted chocolate and a squeeze bottle to add eyes and a smile.

To make the cake, I used my favorite method of “doctoring” a cake mix. You can find that in THIS post. But I basically make a few tweaks to the recipe and add mini chocolate chips. My kids love when I pair this with brownie, so that’s become a tradition too. For this year’s cake, I made one round layer of brownie. Then I made the vanilla chocolate chip cake using a tube cake pan like THIS* one. It made the cake taller than my regular round pan would. When they were finished, I stacked the brownie and cake, trimming the sides to make them the same size. Then, I placed an a cupcake at the top to create the top of the LEGO figure head. I frosted the whole thing in homemade vanilla buttercream tinted yellow with Wilton gel food coloring*. I added sprinkles at the top and bottom, and made a face out of brown Reese’s Pieces and a melted chocolate mouth. To make the mouth, I melted chocolate and used a squeeze bottle* to draw a smile on a piece of parchment paper. Once it hardened, I peeled it off and added it to the cake. The final touches were chocolate LEGO bricks and LEGO figures I made using silicone molds. I bought these molds at Michael’s Crafts and Groupon, but HERE* are similar ones found on Amazon. We’ve been using these same molds to make ice cubes and frozen juice treats for the kids, so they’ll get plenty of use beyond the party. When it was time to sing, we lit a number 5 candle from Dollar Tree and LEGO brick candles we found in the gift shop at the Churchville Nature Center. No kidding! That’s where Henry spotted them, and they were a few dollars cheaper than the candles* Amazon!

To make the cupcakes, I used the same “doctored” French vanilla chocolate chip batter and made 24 cupcakes using brightly colored cupcake wrappers*. I topped them with vanilla buttercream and rainbow jimmies/sprinkles along with one each of the chocolate LEGO bricks and figures.

FAVORS

I made those roll-out cookies described above for Henry’s first birthday. At the time, there were a small handful of kids with a big age range, and a lot of adults, so I wanted to have a favor that I thought everyone would enjoy. Since then, we’ve added more kids to our family and friend crew, but the cookies have stuck around. I usually will find cute cellophane bags at Dollar Tree, Party City or Michael’s to bag them up before the party. I put them out with a handmade sign thanking people for coming.

In addition, kids brought home their DIY LEGO ornament, their decorated pumpkin, and a LEGO brick water bottle. These water bottles were a fun find at Dollar Tree, but HERE* are similar ones on Amazon. I put these out by the drinks at the party and encouraged kids to add their names with a Sharpie and use them at the party.

GIFT IDEAS

Here are a few links* to just a few of the LEGO-themed gifts Henry received for his birthday.

Ninjago Socks

GARUNK Building Blocks 1000 pcs (These had great reviews of being LEGO compatible, and I wanted to get Henry a big box of different colors for him to be creative with instead of a set.)

LEGO Mickey & Friends Fire Station

LEGO Mickey & Friends Space Rocket

LEGO Movie 2 Queen Watevra’s Build Whatever Box

LEGO Ninjago beanie

LEGO 3-Drawer Storage (I got this cheaper from Zulilly!)

LEGO Ninjago Tournament of Elements set

LEGO Ninjago 5-Minute Stories

LEGO Ninjago Shirt

LEGO City Monster Truck

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases.

Henry had so much fun at his LEGO-themed birthday party! Now to start thinking about Charlotte’s 4th birthday in February!

If you have any questions about the party that I missed, feel free to ask! I will also be posting leftover decor to Facebook Marketplace soon, but reach out if you’re interested.