I throw my hands up in the air sometimes, singing Ayyyyyyo, I'm a LEGO!!!!

The party today was a huge success, and I am so grateful that it's almost my naptime!

First we had the kids make their video... some came late and some were camera shy, so this isn't everyone, but they sure had fun watching themselves on the internet :)

Then we raced to build the tallest tower.

Ben won both times.

Then we built race cars and played on our homemade track.

I don't think I got any pictures of the actual track.

Bummer, it was made of a yoga mat and painters tape.

It was epic.

Ben opened his presents and got a lot of great stuff from his friends & family.  Lots of LEGO stuff, which isn't surprising :)  His favorite thing was his "new" (used from eBay) iPod Nano.

We sang happy birthday and cut into the LEGO cake, which was a big hit.  Yay!

..

Party Planning

I started decorating today for Ben's LEGO birthday party tomorrow, and I AM SO EXCITED!!!!  This is the most fun birthday party I've ever organized, and I still have two more to go!

Ben's theme is Lego's, Grace's theme is artists and painting, and Ember's theme is Young Women and growing up.  They all have summer birthdays and we're having their parties a little early this year, to catch all their friends before they go on summer vacations.  Next year we're not doing big parties with themes, they're going to get a store bought cake, and pizza while Mom takes a nap.  :)

Here's some pictures of what I have so far:

To start, spray paint baby food jars

Next, use a sharpie and draw on LEGO faces

Fill with candy (I used Skittles, but jelly beans are good too)

Use these cute little jars as the prizes for all the awesome games!

Before they're prizes, they're decorations

Have your son use his LEGO's to build a special message.

BEN...

...IS...

...10!!!

Fill a glass vase with LEGO's and have the kids guess how many there are.  The closest guess wins one of the Skittle-filled jars!

Games:
1. Race to put together a LEGO race car, which they get to keep.  Winner gets a LEGO jar.
2.  Use the race cars to do a Pinewood Derby style race using a made up track fashioned out of Mom's yoga mat (we've practiced, it works awesome).  Race as many times as you want.  Winner gets a LEGO jar.
3.  Guess the # of Lego's in the vase
4.  Who can build the tallest tower (that doesn't tip over) using LEGO bricks in 90 seconds.  Winner gets a LEGO jar.

We're having pizza, ice cream, and the cutest LEGO cakes that aren't finished yet (my house smells like chocolate right now... yum!)  Wanna know how to make LEGO cakes?  Cut a 9x13 cake into thirds, it's the perfect LEGO brick size.  Frost with bright colors.  Get jumbo marshmallows, spray some scissors with Pam and cut them in half, carefully frost them, and put them on the cake!  Voila, LEGO brick cake!

I'll have pictures of the games and presents and chaos tomorrow, but I was too excited about how my little jars turned out so I'm blogging a little early.

Happy early birthday to the best 9 (almost 10) year old I know!!!