LEGO Theme Birthday Party

This was our 8-year-old's first "real" birthday party and the Lego theme was so fun to play with (literally)!  If you're looking for more ideas for your own Lego party, I hope you will find inspiration here.

This was my first attempt at cake pops.  I saw the smiley face idea online (easily adapted to Lego minifigure heads) and they seemed like a great treat for his class at school; always fun to share treats with your friends.  My previous post goes into more detail on their creation.

 

Did you realize that the official LEGO website has these fun printables and so many more?  It was my 10-year-old who informed me of this wonderful "free" decoration.

However, the trick is to actually find them!

  

1. Go to "Products" (top bar)

2. Once on "Products", you can select "City", "Star Wars", or "Super Heroes".

3. On each of these pages you will see "Comic Builder" (top right); click on it.

4. Build your comic on the page provided.  I selected the page with one single full-page frame.  It's pretty self-explanatory and you'll get the idea once you start.  

5. I added 4 minifigures per 8.5x11 page.  You can adjust the size larger or smaller to fit the page.  There are also many other Lego items (trees, flowers, Star Wars ships!!, etc.) to select from.

6. Copy and paste your page to Microsoft Word and print it!  It's that easy! (Be sure to select "photo" in your printer options or the images will come out streaky).

7. Cut out characters, laminate, then cut out again for a clean look!  I love having our own laminator; knowing we can reuse these neat Lego printables again!  Boys bedroom decor!

 

 

How fun are these Lego minifigure and brick molds (trays)?!  I ordered them to make ice cubes, finger jello, or chocolate but they didn't arrive in time.  That hasn't stopped us from making ice ever since the party though. I've also seen people make Lego crayons and soap out of these; creative!

...and the Lego birthday cake!  

This was my first time making fondant and creating any kind of "fancy" cake.  If I can do it, you can do it!  Be forewarned though: it is a loooong process.  I have a new found appreciation for why *real* cake artists charge the prices they do.  A future post will detail the process for building this cake.  I didn't have it put together until after 2am, so it was fun to hear our children giddy over the finished product in the morning.  ...then I went back to bed!  Our 10-year-old added the "real" Lego guys and ladders to the cake, making it into more of a construction zone.

I wasn't sure how colouring would go over, but most of the kids took to this activity; drawing their own Lego minifigures.  Thanks to an idea on Pinterest for these pages.
See the square pretzels?  Lego-ish.  ;)

Guess how many Legos in the jar.

Pose and have your picture taken with Lego friends!

I thought these would make for a fun picture to include in thank you notes to friends who came to the party. 

Ideally, these would be square mini-pizzas, but we're not living in a perfect world. ;)

See the cute Lego minifigures cut-out on the wall?  Another cute Pinterest idea for Lego decorations.

Lego Bingo was a hit ~ great game and totally free printable!
Link to the thoughtful family who shared it via Pinterest!

Such a fun birthday!

LEGO Minifigure Head Cake Pops

This was my first attempt at the infamous "cake pops" ~ Lego minifigure head style!  Yes, I realize they are far from Bakerella-perfect but at least they are somewhat recognizable and the kids enjoyed them.  Perfect party or bite-sized treat to send to school on your child's birthday. 

Honestly, they weren't all that difficult to make; easier than I anticipated. Healthy?  Not in any way, shape, or form.  If I had time, I would have at least made the cake "healthier" by scratch, but as time would have it, a red velvet cake mix sufficed.  I basically followed Bakerella's instructions for the cake based on these cute cake pop smiley faces.

Where I differed with her was on the icing.  If nothing else, I avoided the partially hydrogenated oil in the store-bought frosting.  I've never cared for the taste of that stuff anyway...  So, my icing (or "frosting" per the American language) consisted of my usual recipe: butter, icing sugar, vanilla, and milk.  Just for the yumminess factor, I also added cream cheese.

The gist of making your own icing is pretty simple.  You're looking for a creamy, smooth, and spreadable texture.  Soften and beat about a 1/2 cup of butter and a 1/2 brick of cream cheese with your first cup or two of icing sugar (American terminology: "powdered sugar").  From this point on, you just continue to add in the icing sugar and tablespoons of milk until you get to the consistency that you want.  Do NOT add a good dousing of milk unless you want to go purchase another bag of icing sugar; add it only as needed.  (Believe me, I've done this several times in the past few decades; you would think I'd have learned by now....).  When you are at the approximate consistency you want, add about a tsp of vanilla and you're done.  This is the icing/frosting I use to mix into the crumbled cake (per Bakerella's instructions).

Following the basic cake pop instructions, I formed slightly elongated circles (think minifigure head shapes) and stuck them on the sticks.  I used little dabs of chocolate to attach half of a mini-marshmallow to the top of each "head" and put these sticks in the freezer for about 10 minutes.  I was a bit apprehensive about the "dipping into chocolate" part of this project, but it wasn't a big deal at all.  It's really more of "rolling" in chocolate than dipping.  Each head was rolled in the chocolate, then tapped repeatedly (and not too hard) on the side of the pot/bowl to get the chocolate thinned out.  After leaving them propped up in a large piece of styrofoam for a few hours, they were good to draw faces on.

For the drawing of faces, I wasn't sure which direction to head, so I opted for black icing.  In hindsight, I should have purchased the edible pen that was available in the cake decorating section.  I read that the edible marker/pen doesn't exactly work all that well, but the black icing wasn't that great either.  I used a toothpick to draw the black icing faces.  It would be insightful to find out what the best alternative is for drawing faces on any cake pops; do share!

Would love to see your creations!