If you have a child between the ages of 3 and 13, chances are, you’ve seen The Lego Movie and have endured enjoyed endless hours of “Everything is Awesome” being sung, hummed, whistled and generally trapped in your subconscious. It’s no wonder that a LEGO-themed party is a popular choice for birthdays and special occasions. But beyond the building blocks and minifigures, how do you create a celebration that's both fun and healthy? This guide offers a treasure trove of ideas for crafting a LEGO-themed party with delicious and nutritious food options that will delight guests of all ages.
The Cake: A LEGO Masterpiece
No birthday is complete without a cake, and a LEGO-themed party calls for a show-stopping centerpiece. While some find cake decorating a breeze, others might prefer to hire a local bakery to create a custom LEGO cake.
For the DIY enthusiast, consider baking two 9×13 cakes and cutting each one to make LEGO brick shapes. Dirty frost them with a crumb coat, chill 30 minutes and then put a second layer of frosting in various colors. The Lego “buttons” on top are Oreos dipped in candy melts. Then “draw” LEGO on top with some of the frosting.
To make the cake look like a Lego block frost the 4×3 Lego cake first on the edge of the cake board. The 1st trick - OREOS! Frost Oreos for the pips on the Lego. I frosted just the edge of one Oreo. Then I placed it on the cake and frosted the top of the Oreo. The 2nd trick - Place the cake in the fridge to harden the frosting. Frost the sides and top of one of the 2×3 Lego cakes on some wax paper or freezer paper. Then I used two big spatulas to pick the cake up off the paper and move it to the cake board. Add in some Lego candles and VIOLA!
Brick Bites: Savory Snacks
Consider turning simple sandwiches into colorful LEGO bricks by topping them with vibrant M&M candies.
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Cut sandwiches into rectangles and attach a small circle (which I made using a frosting tip) with cream cheese.
The Piece of Resistance: Taco Tuesday!
Also (like the movie) featured Taco Tuesday!
Healthy Alternatives Kids Will Eat
For those involved in the long-term battle of getting healthy fresh fruit and vegetables into smaller people, the watermelon is heaven sent. Sticky, juicy and tasty it appeals to kids in its natural form but can also be easily sculpted into melon-pops. Cut into squares and sculpt the Lego studs with an apple corer. It’s a good idea to chill these, to resemble lollipops, but also to reduce at least some of the sticky/messy content that develops when you add a child.
Creative Food Presentation
Presentation is key to making the food visually appealing and fitting the LEGO theme.
- Juice Box Bricks: Wrap juice boxes in simple LEGO brick printed paper.
- Yellow Cups: Use yellow cups and draw on a face with a black marker so it also looked like a Lego head.
- Veggie Cups: Do veggie cups for parties with ranch at the bottom. It’s easy to grab and eat and the kids actually love them!
- Fruit Skewers: Use skewer sticks from the dollar store to put the fruit on.
Themed Food Labels
Print food labels using a LEGO-themed font like "bangers" to add a cohesive look to the food table.
Read also: Healthy Eating on the Run
Games and Activities: Building Memories
Every party needs some games. The tricky part of games is to engage both kids and adults. Typically, kids parties are not so fun for grown-ups. Particularly folks who are family, but don’t have little kids themselves.
- I Spy Lego Guy: Hide little paper Lego men around the house and have guests search for them upon arrival.
- Bucket Build: Place identical Lego pieces in two separate buckets and have teams compete to build the best creation within a time limit.
- Spoon Relay: If you had a big group with tons of kids, it would be really fun.
- Lego minifigure masks: Print the black and white versions on yellow paper and put them on sticks for Lego minifigure masks.
Decorations: Setting the Scene
Transform your party space into a LEGO wonderland with these simple yet effective decorating ideas:
- Duplo Block Holders: Use big Duplo blocks to make holders for napkins, silverware, and plates.
- Giant LEGOs: Use a plastic tablecloth and colored plates to create giant LEGO decorations on walls, doors, or furniture.
- Lego baseplate: Painted green bubble wrap looks just like a Lego baseplate. I planned to use it as a table runner, but after airing out for three days, it still filled my house with paint fumes.
- Construction Paper Legos: Make Legos for the walls out of construction paper. Used my EK Tools Cirlce Punch for the dots on top. You could also hang these from the ceiling if you wanted.
Favor Bags: A Thank You Gift
For the favor bags I found the white paper bags we bought for Ada’s science birthday last year. I then used an orange crayon and wrote each kids’ name on the bags along with three quick sketches of LEGO® bricks to keep the bags on theme. I then went over whose bag was whose with Zoey and left her to decorate them.
I wanted to keep the bag on theme. For food each bag got a brick party suckers (found on Amazon), a snack-sized Ziploc bag of the brick candy (used and linked in the cupcake post), and a bag of goldfish crackers. After I made the playdough I used some emptied Play-Doh containers and filled enough to go in each person’s bag. Ada, Zoey, and I also made LEGO® themed crayons and filled a snack-sized Ziploc bag for each kid. I then added a couple miscellaneous things I found in the store including a Happy Birthday blowout, a star whistle (Zoey’s favorite shape), and some emoticon stickers.
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