LEGOS, LEGOS and more LEGOS

Here is the LEGO cake I made for my son's 5th birthday party. I used a yellow cake recipe (not the box) and made a buttercream frosting from the recipe on the Domino powdered sugar box. Instead of the usual food coloring, I used concentrated food coloring paste. It worked well. For the pegs on top of the cake, I cut large marshmellows in half and then put it on a fork to frost.

I tried to come up with some theme related games for the children. I found lots of ideas on the internet. We had one game where there were two teams. Each child had one minute to put as many LEGOS as they could into a big can using tongs. They had to lean over the back of a chair while kneeling. Another game was a ring toss game. We had a tower made out of Mega Blocks and each child had a turn to throw a ring over it. The kids all enjoyed a game of Hot Potato. I enjoyed this version, because I didn't have to keep turning the music off and on. They used a potato looking plush toy that played music when it was squeezed and then randomly shut off. Each child who was "out" chose a piece of candy as they sat out of the circle. I found a plastic ball in the pinata section at the party store which I filled with candy. We also used this ball to go bowling. We set up some cardboard blocks and the children took turns knocking them over with the ball. The boys sat at the kitchen table and played with LEGOS, while the girls were playing with a bunch of different things. We had pizza for lunch and chips, M & M's and Junior Mints for snacks. My son handed out Star Wars Goody Bags to all of his friends. They had a couple of Star Wars toys, fruit snacks and some candy in them.

We had a family party afterwards. We ate homemade Stromboli, taco dip, peanut franks from Karl Ehmer, and Birds' Nests (shredded potatoes with veggies shaped like a nest) from Trader Joes. After we gave our stomachs time to rest, it was time for dessert- more cake, ice cream, coffee and tea. We ordered a cake from our local bakery (their cakes are so delicious!). It was a vanilla cake filled with vanilla pudding on one side and custard with fresh strawberries on the other side with whipped cream topping. Everyone looks forward to the cake. Did I mention our local bakery makes the best cakes? So fresh and delicious, you can't have just one piece. Speaking of that, I think there is a piece leftover in the fridge. Unless of course my husband got to it late last night. Nah, he was probably too tired after 8 hours of birthday parties. Good thing for me.