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My son's fifth birthday was yesterday, and because he's obsessed with all things LEGO, we had a LEGO-themed birthday party. When we got to the presents portion of the party, he madly ripped into his packages. When I picked up this set of gifts, though, I stopped him and made him (and everyone else) admire the ingenious hand-made wrapping paper. I asked my friend, Amy, how she did it, and she said that she was working on putting together a tutorial for the quick and easy project. Better yet, her son (who made the wrapping paper) even made a short video on how to get the brick effect on the paper. She posted the tutorial and video this morning, and I'm so tickled to see it. I love that their wrapping was not only unique and fun, but that her son got in on the crafy action. I'm the kind of mom who always intends to do something like this with my kids, but can never seem to quite get it together. Amy makes it look so easy! Enjoy!
As for decorating the cake, I ordered a plain cake with the intention of decorating it at home with some of my son's LEGO mini-figures. However, he decided he didn't want to see them submerged in icing, so I had to come up with a backup plan. I picked up some of these brick candies in the bulk section of Whole Foods to sprinkle on top. Then I went on to the LEGO web site and downloaded some of their sticker sheets that they provide for various play sets. Instead of printing them on sticker paper, though, I printed them on shrink plastic. Once they were cooked, they were the perfect size and structure to embed in the icing and decorate the cake. He made sure I included all his favorite LEGO mini-figures. And, yes, R2D2 is on there twice ... because he's just that cool. My son loved it, and I loved that it was so super simple. Now we can take the Shrinky Dinks and stick magnets on the back and use them on the refrigerator! Sometimes I fret about the fact that I'm somewhat of a slacker when it comes to party planning and decorating for my kids, but this just reminded me that simple is fantastic, and the kids love it just as much!
and I'll be linking to the lego shrinkies on dabbled.org!
We grew up with cowboys, policemen, and storm troopers having guns, and I don't have a problem with my son's toys having them.
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Adorable! And too bad about the gun comments. The cake is an inspired idea, and I'm sure your son loved it. These are iconic characters, and in my opinion the guns are simply part of the character design, and an extremely incidental part of the overall cake. What a great idea to print the stickers onto shrink plastic so they can have a use after the party!
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Wow. I was really enjoying this post until the comment section. I'm not for guns either, but i guess i was just surprised that that was what everybody was getting out of this...
On an entirely different note, kudos to the lego love! I'm really hoping that those candy bricks fit together like legos because I am seeing an entire lego village on a cake. As an adult, i think having R2D2 on the cake (twice!) would make me really happy too. The lego obsessed days are probably some of the best i can remember :)
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Ah, nothing says "happy birthday" to a small boy like lots of figures with guns. Sigh.
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Did you look at the actual pictures? The only guns are being held by Indiana Jones, the nazi on the motorcycle (these two come in the same set), and a stormtrooper. The astronaut is holding a pickax and a megaphone (very practical for space). Regardless of the fact that guns are a huge part of American culture (including our Constitution), this cake only shows bad guys holding guns (well, and Indiana, trying to take down a bad guy). Very few non-licensed (ie movie characters) lego sets have guns in them- just the wild west and pirate ones. Everything in moderation, right?
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and yes, I do have small boys of my own and "know what it is like". For god's sake, people, when is this enthusiastic schooling in violence and weaponry going to end? In a few decades, this will surely seem as archaic and grotesque as schooling children in racism.
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