FIVE!! (Leeland's Lego Birthday Party)

Our big boy is FIVE!  ... Man, oh man, still having a hard time wrapping my mind around that.  We've done dinosaurs, trains, Bob the Builder, soccer... and now, LEGOS!  Naturally after our Lego filled Christmas it was bound to happen.

Look at that "cheese"!  We had his birthday party at a local park/amusement park this year and he was SO thrilled!! Another small family only event filled with cousins chasing each other and bouncing around from amusement ride to ride.

As usual, the birthday shirt came from Ooe and Auti, our go-to each year for their custom birthday shirts.  I'm gonna put them in birthday shirts with their age and name on them as long as they allow me to!

Here's a peek at the invitation-- address and phone number blocked out for obvious internet reasons.

Invite made by cre8tesbyRacheal

This is our first time doing an afternoon birthday party.  I'm a little bit of a nap nazi and in the past have refused to do afternoon parties and interrupt nap time.  I mean, who wants cranky kids anyway? And it wouldn't be just your kid, it'd be all of the kids invited.  So since birthday parties have always been dinner, lunch, or brunch, the menu stumped me a little bit to be honest.  We only had 2 hours at the park from 1-3.  I was assuming that most would come to the party having already eaten lunch, but I wanted to have snacks and "real food" there along with the cupcakes just in case.  That'd be the worst to have a birthday party with little children running around saying they were hungry.... Anyway, what I learned was, that we could have just done without.  The kiddos were SO distracted by all the rides and the fun to be had that none of them really wanted to sit and eat.  Some of them didn't even want to sit long enough to eat a cupcake!!

Table full of marshmallow pops, cupcakes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, watermelon and pretzels.  That's how we roll. 

The Legos on top of the cupcakes were made by me using a Lego candy mold purchased here from Etsy.  Be warned if you attempt to recreate, that this mold is a lot larger than I anticipated and these candies were huge.  The kids LOVED them of course, but I couldn't finish one.  I feel like the mold would make really great Lego shaped crayons or soaps or something.

I wish that I could take credit for the adorable marshmallow pop idea, but alas, I found the idea from my BFF Pinterest.  They were crazy easy to make!  Jumbo marshmallow topped with a small marshmallow that was cut in half and then put on a stick and dipped in yellow candy.  Then I used some black royal icing to pipe the smiling faces.

So once the cupcakes were downed, the presents were ripped open, is when the rides became fair game.  I spent much of the time in the gazebo straightening things up, making sure people had what they needed and catching up with some family.... while I stood back and watched cousins literally run from ride to ride.  Judging by the smiles on their faces and how hard my kiddos hit the pillow when they got home, I think that there was fun had by all!

Looks fun, right?  To top it all off, we sent all of the kiddos home with a large bag of cotton candy to enjoy. 

Dear Leeland,
It feels like 5 years just flew right by us in a blink!  We feel so incredibly blessed to be raising such a smart, genuine, happy, and kind little boy.  We thank God that we get to share this life with you and have been able to have such a wonderful first five years.
We love you SOOO much!!
Daddy, Mommy, Hayden, and baby Joel.