A Budget Friendly Lego Party

We were planning a dinosaur party. And once Jack commits, he rarely changes his mind. Then we moved into our new house where my craft/sewing/let's just throw everything in the spare room room turned into The Lego Room. I'll admit I was a little put off by the boys taking over my room, but then it became the best idea ever. The days of constantly stepping on and picking up legos are gone and contained. Oh yeah, I like this room lots.

So now we moved on to a lego party. Equally exciting for me. I actually wanted to do this last year, but then he wanted a geography party which was a beyond fun idea. I had lots of ideas, many of which I found were done incredibly well by some fine blogger mommies. Mine would not be done so extravagantly, but equally as fun.

We invited nine kids to the party, plus Mills and Jack. That is eleven kids + legos. What was I thinking? Crazy pregnancy thoughts running all up in my mind. Chris took the afternoon off work thankfully, so it was us against ten crazy little munchkins.

Let me preface that I turn into monster mommy the week of birthdays. There is just so much to do! Buuut, not this week.  Nope. I kept my normal crazy in check and my pregnancy crazy in check. High fives all around!

I did a simple cake, Jack and I made the decorations, Chris made the race track, and we used the legos for building the cars as party favors. So here is the breakdown in cost and how we conquered it all:

Lego Decor

The Lego Light

I took construction paper that we had on hand and cut three different sizes of rectangles. Taped them together, wrapped them around my drum shade, and viola! you have yourself a lego light.

Cost: $0.00 

Balloons

Cost: $6.00

Accessories

Basically we used legos and our minds to make these fabulous cutlery, plate, and napkin holders. Jack even had the idea to put a long piece through the middle of the cutlery holder to separate the spoons from forks. He's a thinker.

Total Cost: $4.00 for lego plates and napkins

 Cake

Lucky for me, I was given a square cupcake pan for Christmas a few years back. These would be super easy to do with a regular pan too. I simply took them out of the pan and cut off the tops and ate the tops. Then I smeared them with frosting (someday I will post my cake and frosting recipes). I rolled out fondant that I had on hand. As you can see I didn't have too much red left, but what can you do? I took a little circle cookie cutter and cut out a piece of fondant and plopped it on my frosted cake. Then I covered the cake in fondant and you have a one by one, flat lego piece. Jack wanted in on the fun too, so I set aside my OCD and let him cut out letters. He wanted to spell lego and the number six. Don't ask why there are two sixes, only a six year old would know.

I did by ice cream too, so there is where my cost comes in.

Total Cost: $5.00

Favors

Because I thought I was being so thrifty by DIYing most of the party, we splurged and bought each kiddo these as their favors.

But, when I actually sat down and thought about it, I didn't go too overboard because half the time your kid gets sent home with a bag full of whistles, games, rings, and candy that cost nearly about the same. Not quite, but nearly. And these were a toy they could continue to play with for years. Years I say!

So I used bags from the dollar store to house the legos sets. I found a free font online to type the names and by using the simple "insert shape" on Word, I made the lego pieces.

Total Cost: $45.00 

  Games

Memory

This one is an idea I found on Pinterest. The mom had bought green tins to use as the tops. It was awesome. Her son's party was awesome. I on the other hand didn't buy tins, just dollar store cups and poster board.

Jack found fifteen matching pieces and we placed them under the cups. I did buy red paint to paint the tops of the cups so it would actually look like lego piece, but it didn't happen. Did it look like the magical green tin version? Nope, but the kids liked it and that's good enough for me.

Cost: $1.69

Pinata

I took a left over Costco sized cereal box and wrapped it with crate paper. Then I cut out black construction paper for eyes and a mouth. Drilled two holes in the top. Pulled a string of rubber bands through the holes and attached them to a rope. Easiest and the only successful pinata I have ever made.

Cost: $1.00 for crate paper

Car Racing

We bought new doors in our old house years ago. I held onto this one to "someday" make a headboard if we ever got a king sized bed. We just bought one so one this is through being a race track it will be on to the next project, a comfy headboard. 

We also had some balusters leftover from the staircase, so my handy man whipped this up about fifteen minutes before the party. 

Chris and I divided and conquered. Five kids worked on building race cars, while five played memory. Once all the cars were complete and to the kids's standards, we were off to the races!

This game was a total hit. The kids were chanting from the couches cheering each other on. And there weren't too many sad puppy dog faces if one lost a race.

Cost: $0.00

One Happy Birthday Boy:

Total Cost for Party: $62.79

Divide that by eleven kids, that is $5.71 per kid for two hours of creative fun. Happy six years Jack!