A Lego party fit for a 5 year old!

The last of the "Ashton turns 5" series - his birthday party! I haven't really thrown a big party for him since he turned 1 and 5 seemed like an worthy milestone age to go for it again. It was pretty easy to settle on a Lego theme - he loves them and the decorations were simple (squares and circles and primary colors). Or so I thought! I admit, I probably did too much work and spent too much money on this party :-/ But I had so many ideas and such fun doing it that I got carried away.

I found the invitations on Etsy (naturally):

And everything else was either directly copied or adapted from Pinterest (naturally!). My piece de resistance was a giant "Lego wall" I constructed on the fence. It was made from plastic tablecloths and plates! 

It took forever, I'll be honest. Folding all the tablecloths to different sizes and getting the color pattern evenly dispersed, gluing the plates on, etc. The good news is I have since posted it on the local facebook yardsale site (for free) and someone came to get it for their preschool!

Other decorations/details, in no particular order, were: 

* the banner on the screened in porch where the food was

* the name train made out of Duplos

* The tables: we had green and blue linens, I made giant legos by wrapping boxes and gluing spraypainted foam circles on top:

 And filled glass vases with some megablocks for the centerpieces.

* We had big printouts of Lego guys that we mounted on cardboard - here is Alex with the whole army before they went out:

* We cut out Emmett's face for a photo op:

And used the other guys for signs, like at the coloring and building stations and the bounce house.

* Lego guy head lemonade

* Lego guy head snacks, surrounded by tiny lego heads which were baby food jars that I spraypainted:

* The favor bags all lined up on the fence

Ashton had helped me punch the circles and stick them on the bags with glue dots. The actual favors varied depending on the age of the child - everyone got things like fruit snacks, glow sticks, and a Lego lollipop, but the younger kids got a "Build a Magnet" kit, which was a Lego plate that I glued a magnet to and filled the bag with loose legos so they could assemble it themselves, and for the older kids that could follow instructions, a little kit that made a car or vehicle. By the end, kids had failed to notice that they had a bag specifically for them and were just grabbing them, so who knows who actually got what. Sigh. Oh also, every kid got a cute little Lego party bracelet when they arrived (also Etsy, duh ;) )

* Had enough? I even put Legos in the hand sanitizer!

The most important thing to me was that the kids have fun. The bigger kids could bounce and slide or build at the Lego table, and the younger kids could color or play in the sandbox. The party was a hit I think! If I could do it over, I would have made sure everyone knew we had ordered food for the grownups as well. It was all delicious (from the Linden Store in Wellesley) and the cake was made by my neighbor Ariane (Kayleigh's mom). It was egg-free and chocolate and also amazing!! After we sang to Ashton and he got a piece, he kept saying "I just LOVE cake Mommy!" He was so happy. The whole thing wrapped up around 7 pm, he opened some presents after everyone left (well Poppy, Mema, Grandma, Aunt Lizzie and Cousin Owen were still there!) and that was the end! General action pics:

All I wanted was one nice family picture but it was the most hectic 2 hours and this is all I got at the end:

Maybe I'll get that when it's finally time for MY birthday ;)