This past Saturday was Louis’ birthday party celebration…and man, was it fun.  Our porch and yard were filled to the brim with party people…parents and children combined.  Bennett and I would like to thank everyone that came over to make Lou’s birthday extra special.  He had the best day ever.  We all did!

The first step I ever take when planning out a party is to design the invitation.  Once that’s settled, I carry out the design elements throughout the rest of the party.  Yes, I still send out traditional style invitations in the mail.  I really like printing and addressing these and I feel like people like to get a formal invite, rather than via facebook or text.  Plus anything that arrives in our mailbox that isn’t junk or bills is way more exciting to me than it should be!

I wanted Lego bricks with more of a pop-art feel.  And of course, some traditional elements like “Louis” in a lego-esque font…as well as some cute minifigure heads.  Once it was settled, we dug into the rest of the decorations.

Now that my Mom is within a closer proximity than years past, she was able to make Louis’ cake this year.  Which was AMAZING.  Seriously.  People were super impressed with her cake decorating skills…and baking too!  Her icing is homemade and to-die-for and the cake was baked to perfection.  Everyone gave it a huge thumbs up!

The bricks and minifigures are edible, they are made out of a candy mold we found online.  So super sugar all the way around!  They turned out so cute though…and I’m realizing that my Mom is waaaay more skilled than me in all baking/cooking departments and she apparently did not pass those skills down to me.

We wanted to carry out the Lego theme throughout all of the party details.  Bennett took these cardboard letters, painted them in traditional Lego primary colors and then added different elements to the top of them.  Little things like this are my favorite.

Just like years past, we used the Take & Toss cups for the kiddos and added minifigure heads to them to play into the Lego theme.  These cups are such a great idea because they’re cheap (like $2 for a four pack) and they can be reused, taken home with kiddos that grow attached to them, or tossed in the trash.  And they come in such bright, fun colors that somehow always fit into our color scheme!

Bennett and I pretty much only drink out of mason jars anymore.  For any and everything.  So we had enough to add minifigure heads to these as well and use them exclusively for drinkware for the adults.  We aren’t so concerned about adults breaking glass AND it saves on so much garbage to have washable items, rather than disposable solo-cups.

Making outfits for the three of us to wear is so much fun to dream up!  Parents want to dress up too, you know!

But Louis’ shirt?  Pretty much my favorite shirt I’ve made him to-date.  Seriously.  LOVE this shirt.  I had so many different ideas on how I wanted to tackle a Lego shirt, but ultimately decided to make him into a minifigure himself.

When the hood comes up, he transforms completely.  AH! Love it!  I made a small “peg” on the hood…it was such a fun addition to this shirt and he LOVED it.  I think every person that came through the door had Louis showing them his shirt.

For the party favors, we tried to create “gift bags” that could also serve as some decoration for us.  Bennett spraypainted some boxes and added small circle, foam “pegs” to the top of them to make some giant bricks for a table.

Inside the boxes we had self-made temporary tattoos, Lego bracelets [tutorial here] and small things of playdoh.

We also made some fun minifigure masks for the kiddos and parents to wear around…and eventually take home with them.  I love favors that can be used during the party.  And dressup-type favors are my ultimate jam.  So these worked out really well, I think.

My Mom got Louis a bouncy house as his birthday gift this year.  WHAT. A. HIT.  It was so much fun to have around for the kiddos to play with.  The bouncy house was in use the entire length of the party, with maybe a little break so everyone could mow down on some cake.  Because cake.

Did you know that local copy shops (like Staples) offer color engineering prints in huge sizes…for pretty cheap prices?  Well you do now!  I designed this 36×48 print and had our local Staples print it out for me.  We then mounted it onto some foam board and cut a hole into the face part for a photo prop.  So much fun!

I think the last me-made decoration element to share was this coloring paper that we had set out for our guests.  Again, we printed it out at Staples on engineering paper and then had a bucket of crayons, markers and colored pencils out for people to color with.  I thought it’d be fun to see what the grown-ups and kiddos would make with it.

All in all, I think this was a pretty darn successful party!  Louis never stopped smiling and being super silly with his friends.  And it was high octane the entire night.  (So much so that I was EXHAUSTED the next day.)

Parties for Louis are always so much fun.  To celebrate and to make decorations for.  I’m glad I have a pretty excellent partner in crime to help me execute my slightly insane ideas.

• Take n Toss Cups :: Amazon
• Lego Brick + Minifigure Molds :: Amazon
• Paper Mache Letters (similar) :: Amazon
• Mason Jars :: Amazon
• Play-Doh party pack :: Amazon
• Lego Minifigure bracelet :: Tutorial
• Tattoo paper :: Amazon

Downloadable files (**for personal use only):

• PSD (photoshop) Invitation :: [download id=”15825″]
• 36″ x 48″ Face-in-hole print :: [download id=”15836″]
• 24″ x 36″ Coloring Paper :: [download id=”15838″]
• Silhouette Studio File for my Lego Shirt :: [download id=”15827″]
• Silhouette Studio File for Minifigure Cup decorations :: [download id=”15831″]
• Silhouette Studio File for Lego Masks :: [download id=”15829″]
• Printable Lego Marvel characters (for my sleeve tattoo) :: [download id=”15834″]