Brady had his 4th birthday party at our house last, last weekend on Saturday, December 3rd. He first wanted a dog party, then a spy party, then a spy-dog party then a rock star party…which had the specification of “rock star dance party”. I stopped him at rock star and went to work!! Per usual, I had several activities set up and divided the group of kids into smaller groups to go through all the different stuff. Brian and I had a hard time throughout the party planning really narrowing the whole concept down. Rock star sounds like…you know, rock stars who sing and play music…but there was the whole “dance party” element that was specifically requested. We ended with this:

Each group of kids was going to form a band. First, we planned to use the Lego Rock Band name generator to help them pick a band name (most of them used that name…the big girls made up their own). Then, they would make groupies (pet “rock stars”), go through hair and make up, make tour posters, and then have a dress rehearsal, all earning their way to perform in a concert. After the concerts, there would be an “after party” in the basement – all dancing!

When the kids arrived, they all made a necklace with 4 guitar pics on it. I made the pics from plastic cards and this super cool “pic punch” I got through uncommongoods.com (it was going to be a gift for Brian for Christmas….so he got it a little early). The story on WHY we did the guitar pic necklaces is as convoluted as our entire party planning process….but I turned it into a fun way for the groups to “earn” their concert. Each time they went through one of the 4 activities, they got an “X” in permanent marker on the back of one of the pics. Oh and by the way, I got obsessed before the party collecting gift cards. Target has such cute ones, but you can’t just take them, and the minimum you can put on each one is $5. One day, I went in and put $5 on each of about 20 cards, grabbed some gifts for 2 upcoming birthday parties, groceries…whatever I needed…and then paid for everything with the gift cards. I thought for sure the people at Target would think I was a crazy lady…but no one even batted an eye!!

After the activities, photo sessions with Brian, concert performances and dancing in the basement (which I set up to be “Club 554”), everyone had cupcakes and watched Brady open his gifts. I think everyone had a really fun time…and really colorful hair for at least the rest of that day…maybe the next :)

 

My cupcakes

Red velvet with black icing & red sprinkles. All the stars and decorations are made out of that moldable chocolate.

Here, the big girls work on their pet rock starts (aka: Groupies)

I actually had all these rocks in a bag from a flower thing that I used to have in our downtown Condo…6 years ago! I cut stars out of heavy glitter paper, bought some pom-poms, googly eyes and glitter pens. My friend Jen ran the pet rock star station.

Here is a picture of our friend Connor after he got out of hair and makeup (run by Susan)

These are the left over (left over!!) guitar pics that I made….most of the cute ones were taken before this picture. I thought I would only get 2 pics out of each card, but ended up getting up to 5….so that’s why I have so many left over (anyone need a pic?!)

The big boys, all decked out after hair and makeup doing their craft

A glimpse into the hair and makeup room (the bathroom that runs between the playroom and the boys’ room)

Dress rehersal! We had each group chose a song on Lego Rock Band. My friend Heather then helped them dance around, sing and “practice” before the big show to their song.

Here is Anna and the little boys making their tour poster. I had her leave a paper-sized blank spot at the bottom of each poster for later….

Band pics!! Here are: The Rockin’ Meap Girls

The Snakes!

Exploding Desks!

Front man for the King of Letters, Jackson

…and his crazy hair!

Best album cover picture ever – King of Letters!

Each group had a turn playing “real” instruments for their Lego Rockband song. Everyone else stood up on the balcony and watched / cheered them on

Well, Aiden didn’t stand in the viewing zone…I guess he chose to sit in the action and double-fist mini bagel dogs

Ella and Sarah rock it out to Mylie Cyrus

The Snakes chose Free Falling by Tom Petty. I don’t have pics, but the Exploding Desks did Kung Fu Fighting and King of Letters did the theme from Ghost Busters

 

Time for the dance portion of our party! While the kids were doing the “concert”, I lined the walls down the basement stairs with their tour posters, complete with group pictures I printed off real quick and taped on.

 

Rocking out in Club 554. It’s hard to see, but off to the left of this picture is the banner I made that says “CLUB 554”. I  taped up 2 plastic table cloths (dollar store, thank you) and then sprayed the letters on in black spray paint (that I had laying around the house).

Brady really, really wanted a globe for his birthday! I put it on his list and our friends got it for him (Farm and Fleet $18 – not bad!)