another birthday that i claimed would be low key has come and become outrageously un-low key and gone! arlo turned 7 in june (YES I KNOW WTH), and since we were going to be on vacation during his actual birthday, i decided a little belated celebration when we got home would be fun and low energy. well i forgot about WHO I AM SO LOW ENERGY SCHMOGENERGY!

we decided to do a sleep under for his birthday (that’s when kids come over, wear their pajamas, have dinner, everything until bedtime when they get picked up and go homeeeee – it’s the best!) he and his little friend group love it so i knew that’s what he’d really love to do and i was glad i wouldn’t have to spend a bunch of money on renting out a place or a bounce house etc.

we got home a few days before the party, so i only had a couple days to go absolutely bonkers on our living room, but i managed just fine! i wasn’t able to achieve much else in those 4 days but who cares about real life right!?

this was my first time throwing a birthday party inside and it was AMAZING for so many reasons. i got to spend days in advance setting up the party decor, versus scrambling to do it all the day of like i do every year. and it was so nice to not be drenched in sweat the day of in the valley heat!

about the theme – arlo has loved legos with a fiery passion for a few years now, and when i asked him about themes he was very into the idea, and i was super on board because it just seemed like such a fun theme that you can do so much with. after creating a whole party with mostly dollar store party supplies and a ton of cardboard, i would highly recommend doing a lego party for your kid!

anyway – onto all the LEGO PARTY DETAILS!

the giant lego wall

i knew i wanted to fill a wall with a bunch of giant legos, but i struggled at first with what wall to do because we have a small house with zero blank walls – so we decided to build it out over our mounted bookshelf! it took a little finessing to get everything to stay up but we cut large pieces of cardboard that we wrapped around the shelves, then i covered the boxes in gift wrap / plastic tablecloth and paper plates.

honestly i had high hopes for the dollar store tablecloths but they were underwhelming visually. super sheer and chintzy looking so i ended up only doing the largest blue in one (with gift wrap underneath because the cardboard showed right through)

because everything was so last minute, i ordered overpriced gift wrap from amazon and planned on returning whatever i didn’t like, but ended up using all the colors – even though i thought the light blue was a little bright for me and the sage green was a little dull haha – in the end it was all fine. then i got paper plates in a ton of colors, and used spray paint i had for whatever colors i didn’t have.

for the smaller boxes, we used foam circles for the studs and wrapped them in the gift wrap – this looks 10000% better than the plates but takes 10000% more time so we switched off depending on the size of the box.

the next day i felt like the opposite wall of the dining nook felt bare, so i tried taping a few smaller paper plates the opposite direction to look like a base plate and then I COULD NOT STOPPED. that was the “missing piece” so to speak! and then no wall was safe.

we spent A WHOLE DAY on the decor – it was not for the faint of heart. but wow it turned out so good!

the table

for the table decor, i used square paper plates because they looked the most lego like – we had a big pack of baseplates already so i used those as the placemats and then topped each place setting with a gift box.

when i found these boxes at the craft store, i knew i immediately wanted to make them like one nice big lego piece and hopefully make them nice enough that the kids would want to keep them. so i used wooden discs on top and spray painted each box a different shade of blue.

i put little mini fig smiley faces on each cup using my cricut – it didn’t take me long at all and i’m so glad i did because it was such a cute little touch.

the cake

i love a CRAZY, HAPPY cake so i scoured pinterest for lego decorating ideas. i know they have edible legos but i just wanted to keep it simple and use the legos we had because it’s easy enough to just take ’em off!

if i had endless funds, i’d definitely spring for a big fancy lego cake because i saw some amazing inspiration on pinterest but i got a nice cake for izzy’s birthday and honestly, it barely got eaten and double honestly, arlo only half even likes cake SO here we are.

so i just got a grocery store cake with no decorations, and [nervously] transferred it to a wood tray upside down. i did a 7 in one color of legos and added little sticks into minifigs hands so they would look like they were holding pieces up. i made a little army of skeleton guys helping the construction (and then there’s also michael jackson, ghostface and a minifig of arlo himself holding up the sign i made of his name). i’m obsessed with how it turned out.

the other (endless) details

we made lego ice cubes (i used a large square ice cube mold and i wonder if a smaller one would have worked better because they melted really quickly). i added yellow paper to the bottom of the drink dispenser to look like a giant lego.

since we didn’t have many party guests and they were all 7, we had just a few snacks. pickle chips and watermelon cut by gid to look like legos 🙂

i wanted to do lego looking pepperoni pizza (again, all over pinterest!), but arlo really loves shake shack so we decided to just order burgers for the boys instead.

i surprised arlo with a cookie made of him as a lego!!

easiest little fun thing to add to all your food – a shocked mini fig trapped inside!

these juice boxes were the first craft i did – i just wrapped them in construction paper and then used a circle punch to create the studs (i stuck them a little piece of foam in between to create the space)

i created some custom art for our frame tv and borrowed all these giant (albeit a bit colorful for me) lego boxes from a friend to cover the cabinet!

at the last minute, arlo wanted to do minifig trading so we made this little tray and i printed a sign and taped it to a kabob stick (i had some thinner ones that fit perfectly in the minifigs hands!)

inside the gift boxes – i put a dollar store lego highlighter, a lego lollipop, lego gummies, a skeleton lego head sticker and a little hot dog keychain for everyone.

the activities

we don’t have a ton of room in our tiny space, but i used the camping tables like i did for izzy’s birthday party to make a little tiny kids table for all their activities and stuck it right in the middle of our living room.

i made these design your own minifig sheets for them and put out markers and they loved this so much.

i also put out acrylic bins of legos for building – and another bin of wheels so they could build cars to race on the giant cardboard track we made (we painted diaper boxes black and used white drafting tape for the lanes and i just printed out the little sign that i taped on the top)

i made a little sheet cake with different color frostings, and put them on these paint palettes with sprinkles and m&ms to decorate.

we also played twister for a solid 25 minutes, i introduced them to the ancient millennial art of prank phone calls and we watched a movie (no not the lego movie, they’ve all seen that– so instead i showed them ernest scared stupid because i knew the terrifying troll would keep their attention)

i think that’s it! please let me know if you have a question about something i missed, hope you enjoyed what might be the most insane i’ve ever gone thus far?!

Photos byJeff Mindell