Lego Party Ideas

A few weeks ago my 7 year old wanted to have a Lego Party with some of his friends.  Here is what we did (just cutting and pasting the rest of this post from my own blog):

The Lego Party was a huge hit. Mark had a great time and all his friends seemed to also. I had tons of fun putting it together and was really happy with how it all turned out. And let's be honest, I'd much rather plan a party than clean house, pay bills, etc. So, it really was a great week. Although my bathrooms, floor and laundry may complain of neglect.

Here was the invitation Mark and I put together and delivered:

And here are some pics from the party:

(click to enlarge)

Each picture above is numbered and a coordinating number is below with a description/explaination:

1. We decorated in traditional Lego colors with balloons streamers, and different colored plates, cups, forks, etc.

2. One of the games we played I printed off of Lego.com, it had two similar pictures and the kids had to find and circle the 15 differences between the two pics. The winner got to pic a lego person keychain/bag charm as their prize.

3. For another contest we had everyone build anything they wanted to out of legos. We had spaceships, Star Wars ships, a house, and other things that I had no idea what they were, but everyone loved what they made and loved playing with all their creations together after this game. For this game everyone got a bag of Lego Brick candy that I got at the bulk candy store in the mall for a prize.

4. Here are the Lego Brick Candy prizes. We had one for the most colorful creation, one for the fastest looking one, one for the person that used the most people, etc.

5. These were the prizes for the other games. They are Lego figure keychains that the boys like to hook on their backpack zippers. I took Mark to the Lego store at the mall and he picked them out so of course they are all Star Wars.

6. These are the gift bags I put together for the boys. I found the idea online and just bought bags and coordinating cardstock and then used a craft punch to punch the circles out of the cardstock and then attached them with pop dots to the bags. Inside the bag was a lego poster again a download from Lego.com that I had printed on 8x10 photo paper at Fred Meyer, and a set of lego stickers (from Lego.com) that I printed on sticker paper from the office supply store.

7. The first game we did as the boys arrived was to have them guess how many Legos were in this jar. They all guessed super low, and I would have too if I didn't know how many were in there. Can you believe there are 300? 

8. We had a tallest tower contest to see who could build the tallest tower in 2 minutes and it couldn't fall over. 

9. I used the bags as place cards at the table so that boys who knew each other would have a friend to sit by (some of the kids were from church and some from school so they didn't all know each other before hand)

10. I found the basic idea for these Lego cakes online from Betty Crocker and thought they turned out great. I'm not a cake decorator by any means so they definitely aren't perfect, but the boys thought they were great!

The time actually flew by and the boys were totally content to just build and play with their Lego creations. I had to pry them away to eat the cake before their parents came to pick them up.

submitted by Emily (www.delightfuldistraction.blogspot.com)

Another Girlfriends Christmas Party

My friend Alisha and I enjoy hosting a party for our Girlfriends at Christmas as our "gift" to them. Here's what we did this year.



Wednesday night my friend Alisha and I hosted our 2nd Girlfriends Christmas Party. Neither of our days went as planned but we still had a great time and were happy with how everything turned out. When we were on the phone in the afternoon realizing how much was left to do in such little time I said "I think we might not be the super women we thought we were", she laughed at my drama.

These were the invitations we sent out.


We invited 6 friends to the party so there were 8 of us total. We started off with appetizers and punch while we played a little "get to know you better game". Okay, okay, I'll tell the truth, we started off with Alisha using my blender without putting the bottom of it on and then having quite the mess when she tried to take the blender off of the stand, after that our guests started arriving and we enlisted there help in some last minute food prep. THEN we enjoyed Creamy Mushroom Phyllo Triangles, Veggie Pizza, Shrimp Dip and Frothy Pink Grapefruit Strawberry Drink while we played the "get to know you better game". Four of the girls won prizes which were either a bag filled with foot scrub, lotion, a pumice stone and pedicure kit, or a bag of chocolate covered pretzel rods rolled in toffee bits.



Then it was onto dinner. Alisha made the lime tower centerpiece and had extra berries left over that I used along with some ribbon and a tag to tie the napkins with. We served Christmas Salad, Barbequed London Broil with Vermont Cheddar Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes, Crunchy Green Beans, Orange Rolls, and the most delicious and beautiful Island Fruit Cups you have ever seen (Alisha has an amazing gift for food presentation).




After dinner we did our dessert exchange. Everyone brought a fun holiday dessert on a new serving tray to give away! Here is a picture of them, I took individuals but most of them were blurry. Alisha made the Black Forest Cake, I made the tall cupcakes, Tanya made the Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Torte, Tina made the cutest snowman cupcakes, Kelly made her famous Peppermint Fudge Truffle Cake on a pedestal that I REALLY wanted, Lori made her own recipe of Ooey Gooey bars in this super cute candy cane tray, Heidi brought her favorite wassail recipe in this cute teapot, and Celeste made her famous cathedral cookies. Everyone was so excited to take their treats home to their families.




For the dessert that we actually got to eat Alisha made Double Chocolate Souffles.with Warm Fudge Sauce. And OH. MY. GOODNESS. Heaven in a bowl. Seriously a must try!


The last part of our evening was our little craft. We made these cute ornaments inspired by Becky Higgins. Each ornament has four pics of each child on it to remember this year by. Each person made them so differently and they all turned out so cute.





I had a great time and am so thankful for such good friends to share fun times with. I can't wait for next year!

submitted by Emily (www.delightfuldistraction.blogspot.com)

Girlfriends Christmas Party Invite

Ok this isn't really a gift idea but its the invitation to my "Girlfriends Christmas Party" that I'm having next week... invitations are simple.. maybe too simple but they're done and in the mailbox.

At the party I'm serving dinner...

3-4 different homemade soups
homemade Parmesan breadsticks
strawberry spinach salad (because its Christmas colors and so yummy!)
Hot Chocolate bar (mints, marshmellows, chocolate chips, etc)
Caramel Apple Cider

and then for dessert everybody will be bringing their favorite homemade holiday treat

I'll also be doing door prizes every twenty minutes... I'll have questions made up before hand and every twenty minutes I'll draw a question and somebody will win a gift... gifts are Christmas items... most from the dollar spot (actually the $2.50 spot ) at Target... christmas towels, cookie cutters, a Christmas movie, a christmas apron, etc.

We'll finish off the evening with "My Favorite Things" gift exchange and everybody received an insert in their invitation describing what to bring.

I hope that it turns out well... I'm reallly looking forward to it!!

submitted by MaryRuth Francks
www.thefrancks.typepad.com

Christmas Card/Sucker idea

Here is one of mine from last year...sorry the photo of the actual item
isn't all that great, but they turned out really cute! We dropped them by
several neighbors and ward members homes and rec'd lots of calls asking how
we made the succors and the tags.

Chocolate Lightbulb Succors:
Candy Molds
Melting Chocolate (I used red and green for the bulbs & brown for the little
screw tip)
Succor Sticks
Candy bags for wrappers (or any kind of cellophane)
Ribbon
Treat Tags

Directions: Melt chocolate in microwave on 50% power stirring occasionaly,
until smooth. Pour into molds and lightly tap mold on counter to allow air
bubbles to rise to the top. Insert sticks. Let harden in fridge or freezer.
Candy should be ready to remove from molds in about 30 minutes.

Note: I purchased about five molds so that I could make several at a time. I
got the light bulb molds from Hobby Lobby, but you can get them at Michaels
or any type of Cake/Candy shop. With the molds and candy I believe I spent
around $20 and made over 100 succors.

Treat Tags:
I created the tags in photoshop using a few digiscrap supplies I already
had. I printed them in a 2x3 business card size and attached one to each
group of succors (Each group had a succor for each person in the recipients
family).

I came up with the tag idea and got the light bulb strand from:
http://heatheranndesigns.info/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=33&osCsid=dc7565ea6991e44f06555b38c1aef4de

Submitted by: Jennifer Kesler http://jenkesler.blogspot.com

More Online Tutorials

this blog: http://adventureswiththeprovosts.blogspot.com/ is also doing 30 Days of Homemade Gift Ideas. They're intermingled with her regular blog posts... but she has some links to fun tutorials!! And they're not all sewing! (phew!) I like sewing but I'm not as talented as Little Miss Shelly! ;o)

submitted by Hilary

Thanksgiving Cards

We moved recently between Christmas and New Year's. Due to the chaos, I never got Christmas cards sent. I love receiving Christmas cards and was nervous that some friends who are "Christmas card friends" wouldn't know my new address in order to send ME Christmas cards, so I came up with Thanksgiving cards.

It was fun to get fall dresses (any excuse for matchy-matchy girl clothes!) and use fall colors. I had the letter inside be based on what each of us was thankful for that year. It was really fun and it felt so good to be completely done with Christmas cards before Thanksgiving even hit! (I have a love/hate relationship with making Christmas cards!) Give it a try!

Submitted by: Hilary

Card/Gift Making Gathering

This is something I have wanted to do for a couple years but haven't yet. Hopefully this year will be the one!

I think it would be fun to host a casual get together towards the end of November where everyone can come and get their Christmas Cards done. Whether it's hand making the cards or simply stuffing the envelopes and addressing them. How nice would it be to have something that made you get it all done so you could drop your finished cards in the mail by Dec 1st! If someone doesn't send cards they could bring any handmade gifts they might be making to work on.

And of course anyone who knows me knows food would need to be involved and since this is a stressful time of year I think this would be a great night for take out or some sort of soup in the crock pot and rolls.

submitted by Emily(www.delightfuldistraction.blogspot.com)

Christmas Card

This was our Christmas Card from last year. I actually don't recommend it if you need to make a large amount. I darn near killed myself rounding so many corners last year. Anyway, I just photoshoped and printed off the pics of the kids in strips, cut them apart and rounded all the corners. Printed the text out on the computer and punched it out with a circle punch. Printed the Merry Christmas on the computer and cut it out and rounded the corners and then put it all together. So, if you only have a few cards to make or if you can adapt it without all the corner rounding go for it. If not, learn from my corner rounding fiasco!

submitted by Emily(www.delightfuldistraction.blogspot.com)

Christmas Party Invite

These were the invitations I made last year for a Girlfriends Christmas Party. Simple but fun.

I used some white cards that were already cut and scored, ran them through the printer and printed all the info I wanted on the inside. Found some fun patterned paper, used red velvet ribbon from Michael's and then the snowflake stamp was embossed with some glittery blue embossing powder. I know these aren't very specific instructions, but I figure with cards it's kind of a look at it and adapt it the way you want. Feel free to leave any questions you have in the comments and I'll answer them.

submitted by Emily(www.delightfuldistraction.blogspot.com)

Christmas Card

This was my Christmas card last year. I love square, but it is extra postage, just fyi. They are just a 6 x 12 piece of cardstock, folded in half to make a 6x6 square. Then I had a strip of striped paper topped with lime rick-rack. I found a bunch of "merry christmas" rubons on clearance somewhere, but you could also do something on the computer. Then I cut it out with a scalloped oval punch and fastened with lime brads.

submitted by Kelly (www.thisterthaster.typepad.com)