Back in South Africa, Cape Town, I opened a 350m2 conceptstore, Lil'Dreys Deci Dela, where I was selling about everything that I love, antique furniture that I customized, books, bags, jewelry, toys,... Anything who caught my eyes at point in my life was ending up in my store!
.....but more important, I was hosting art workshops for kids which led to art birthday parties later on.
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| Matilda's drawing, at 3 years old. |
My tailored-made parties became a huge hit over there...
I really miss all the party plannings around the kids' wishes (incredible sometimes!!!) and make their special day a moment that they will never forget! See their faces on their D Day, is wicked!
I will in the future post some pictures of some of my best parties and show you how from a theme I get ideas for an activity, buffet, etc... but here is a little preview, this pictures have been taken at Lilla's party, she wanted a Harajuku girls Party ( Gwen Stefani's japanese dancers if you are not too familiar with them!) It was for her 7th Birthday, we customized tutus, had hair do and make up, and a hip hop dance show...
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| in the middle of decoration time |
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| Customize your own tutu workshop |
But back to Jack, he had of course an amazing party last year but I don't have that kind of space anymore here in our flat in Barcelona, so he invited 15 of his friends (against almost 40 last year!)and asked me for a Lego party.
Lego are so much fun and colorful so it was kind an easy one! and the fact that we went to the Lego store in NY helped as well!
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| Dragon Lego sculpture coming through ceilings and walls at the Lego Store in NY. |
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| Jack and Matilda |
Ok, what do we need for a kid's party?
1- invitations
2- a cake + eats + drinks
3- an activity / games
4- decorations
5- party favors for the guests
Invitations:
I went to a shop which specialized in packaging, you can find a nice variety of boxes for pretty cheap, I decided to go for small square shape boxes, they didn't have the vibrant colors of Lego so I just took them in white, in mind to paint them with Jack and Matilda, I also purchased some foam 12mm thick from the same shop.
Once home, I cut circles (10mm of diameter), you will need 4 for each box, Matilda has been in charge to glue them on the lid in each corner. (just with white glue, if she messed it would not have matter, the glue dries clear).
Later in the afternoon we painted the "Lego boxes", some yellow, some red, some blue, some black, and some gold. (it's better in this kind of project to use acrylic paint, water based, dries quickly and waterproof). They really looked great, inside we just put a note with all the details of the birthday party, I used a nice font and put the words in different colors, oh I dropped some Lego sweets in there as well, we found them at Dylan's candy bar shop in NY again.
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| Paradise on earth for the sweet tooth! |
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| a gold Lego brick invitation with its content |
Cake + eats + drinks:
I make my kids' birthday cake every year, it is another interesting medium to work with! I used a chocolate recipe of mine which is to die for and so easy and quick to make.
I baked 5 cakes for my Lego cake, 1 with dark chocolate, 2 with milk chocolate and 2 with white chocolate.
Here is the recipes:
- 200g of dark chocolate
-125g of butter
-3 eggs + 1 yolk of an egg
-100g of sugar
-80g of flour
or
-200g of milk chocolate
- 125g of butter
- 3 eggs + 1 yolk of a egg
- 90g of sugar
- 90g of flour
or
- 200g of white chocolate
- 125g of butter
- 3 eggs + 1 yolk of a egg
- 80g of sugar
- 100g of flour
Preheat your oven at 180˚C.
Butter and flour your baking tray
Melt the chocolate and the butter in a plastic bowl in a microwave for 1 minute, then mix until nice and smooth.
In a big bowl, mix the eggs with the sugar until they get fluffy and a pale yellow color.
Once you are done, add the melted chocolate in the egg mixture, mix well but don't over do it.
Then mix in the flour.
Pour your batter in your baking tray for 10 minutes or until you insert a knife in the middle of the cake and it comes out clean. ( don't over bake it, 15 min. should be the maximum time but it really depends of the quality of your oven)
The trick is (I learn with time!!) to bake the cakes and put them cling film wrapped in the fridge 2 days before the event, sculpt/shape and ice/decorate the cake the day before (sculpting a cold cake in so much less trouble!!!), and on the day, you just have to take it out of the fridge at least an hour before serving it.
Icing recipe:
-100g of butter
- 400g of icing sugar
- juice of a lime
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
- 3 tablespoons of iced cold water
- food coloring
- Cream the butter, mix in all the rest of ingredients. Add more icing sugar if the mixed is too hard for you to work with, iced cold water for the opposite.
- To color just add 1 drop at the time of food coloring in your icing until you get the shade desired.
Those links helped me for the process of icing my cake.
For the rest of the buffet,
Put some sweets, but don't go crazy, usually I put lollipops ( it takes a while for the kid to suck them), i bought some gummy bears, and colors related sweets like bananas, strawberries...
Jack's birthday was after lunch, so I didn't put to much savory things, but mini pastries like baby croissants, baby pains au chocolat... And I break down a Toblerone chocolate bar.
I don't do sodas, so we had differente kind juices and water...
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| The Lego sweets were a huge hit at the party!!! |
For the finally with the cake, I always opened a bottle of kid's champagne that they drink out of plastic wine glasses, and they love it!!! This year I actually customize the bottles, so there they are....
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| Cheers Jack!!! |
For the activity, I always try to do something again linked to the theme, we had a mix group, so for the boys, I came up with Building your own robot with Lego and stuff..., and for the girls Making your own jewelry using Lego and stuff...
For the robots, they had wooden trays to build their artwork on, and a choice of Lego, wooden bricks, toothpicks, colored tapes,... my mum was there to assist them if they needed the hot glue gun.
Here are pictures of some robots made by the boys...
For the jewelry, they had pipe cleaners to bead and finish the necklace with ribbons, to bead with they had a choice of Lego (that my dad pierced with a tiny drill), and a variety of beads of course! I was the one to assist them.
The girls wore they necklaces and bracelets straight away, and I forgot to take some pictures of them, so here is the one that I made...
I transformed my living into Legoland!! I taped some blue Kraft paper on the floor for some sea, green for some countryside/mountain and some gold for an airport space.... They played the entire afternoon...
I used streamers, and balloons (Lego colors) that I hang from the ceiling and walls, used black table clothes as I have lots of bright colors to put on the table. I made a champagne glass tower, and I used those huge Lego boxes and Lego head (they actually are the boxes where my kids keep their loose Lego) I found them at Caixaforum museum's shop, here in Barcelona, they are wicked!!!
