LEGO KidsFest

Last Sunday we headed down to San Jose for an afternoon of Lego fun at Lego KidsFest.

There were Lego bricks as far as the eye could see. And kids as far as the eye could see too. The whole event was sold out so it was incredibly busy with excited kids rushing around everywhere.

Of course, our two were among the excited kids rushing around. They wanted to try and do everything all at once: looking at Lego sculptures, building cars to race, building little houses, burying each other in Lego blocks, making Lego angels in the piles of Lego and Duplo, making artworks to display...

So much Lego fun to be had.

Here's a look at our afternoon at Lego KidsFest...

Excited to arrive at Lego KidsFest

First up there were lots of "life sized" Lego sculptures to check out and pose with. There were characters from movies, television shows, comics... And of course, Lego characters themselves. Ava and Lola's favourite was Spongebob. Spongebob is a huge hit in our house. The girls were pretty excited when they spotted the Spongebob sculpture - and even more excited when they discovered Spongebob Lego in the gift store!

Absorbent and yellow and porous is he...

Life sized Lego man

Everyone's favourite robots

Avs still thinks this guy is called Dark Laser!

We missed getting a photo with Gandalf when we saw him in Berkeley but we found him here!

Hulks

Lola wasn't too impressed with Superman.
I love that another kid is punching Batman off to the side!

Meeting Lego man

This Lego man was a little big for Lola to meet on her own!

Oh no! Ava's inside that shark's mouth!

Aaaaarrgghhh!

Tutankhamun

Time to build something... We moved on to the Lego City area where the girls built vehicles to drive around the city display. Once built, their little cars zoomed across the Golden Gate Bridge and down a hill. Only later when I looked through my photos did I realise that Lola had climbed up on the display to race her little car! Oops...

Making cars to drive in the Lego city

Finished cars ready to drive

Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge

Speeding down the ramp

From Lego City we moved onto the Lego Friends area where the girls built little houses. Now, I love Lego and think it's such a great toy for both boys and girls (and grown ups!) but I just don't understand why they have to make "girl specific" Lego. What's wrong with regular Lego being for everyone? Ok, so I do understand why they make it. It sells. Ava herself proved that point by choosing a Lego Friends set from the gift shop when she had every type of Lego imaginable right there in front of her. Personally I'm not much of a fan of the whole "pink for girls and blue for boys" thing, but I guess the colour pink really does appeal to a lot of little girls. And if it gets those girls using their imaginations and building with Lego then I guess it's a good thing. I didn't like the colour pink as a kid so I guess it just doesn't make sense to me. But I'm going to stop my rant now as I've just realised that I'm wearing a pink dress in the photos!

Building houses for Lego Friends

Lola had a little help with hers

All done

Neighbours

Next up we moved on to the Duplo section with its large pile of bricks to play and build in...

Next up, the Duplo pile

Someone else built this Duplo chair. It was the perfect size for Lola.

Building Duplo towers

Duplo angel

Apparently this is Ava's Duplo self portrait 

Lola's tower is taller than she is...

...But it can always be taller!

Mmm... Duplo sandwich

Duplo necklace

Back to the regular sized Lego, but on a much larger scale...
The girls made buildings to be used as part of a giant map of America. Most of the country was complete by the time the girls made their buildings so they were placed somewhere right in the middle where we weren't able to see them. Some of the structures that had been built by visitors to Lego KidsFest were amazing. One couple at a table next to us had built the most amazing volcano to add to Hawaii. The girls' building were a little more abstract and definitely wouldn't meet building code! I do like Lola's addition of a Lego torso at the top though!

Building structures for a Lego map of the USA

Buildings ready to add to the map

One of Lola's favourite parts of Lego KidsFest was racing cars down a ramp. While Ava and I built cars, Lola set about sorting all of the tyres into lines! Once the cars were built the girls raced them down a ramp over and over. Each time the cars reached the end of the ramp they smashed into little pieces. We'd build them again and the girls would race them again. Lola enjoyed this so much that it took a LOT of convincing to get her to move onto something else.

While Ava made her car, Lola sorted the tyres!

Making a car to race

Lola's car - made with a little help

Ready to race

Lola enjoyed racing her car over and over

Hanging with Daddy

The Lego art gallery gave the girls a chance to create masterpieces and display them for all to see. Ava set about making a portrait of herself. Lola's artwork was a little more abstract. Lola finished hers pretty quickly and decided to make a few more - each containing only two or three Lego bricks!

Lego art gallery

Making Lego art masterpieces

Lola's masterpiece

Lola adds more artworks (each with just two or three Lego pieces!)

Ava's Lego self portrait

Ava with her portrait up on the wall

Time for a break on a park bench. Uh oh, he has a chicken on his head and it just laid an egg!

There's a chicken on his head!

Oh no!

Last up the girls jumped into the giant pile of Lego bricks. They made Lego angels and, the best part, we buried Ava completely in the Lego! Ok, not quite completely. We left her face sticking out!

Making Lego angels

Sorting through the pieces

Time to bury Ava

Almost buried

Where's Ava's body?

And then after four and a half hours of Lego fun it was time to leave. When Lola heard the announcement that Lego KidsFest was finished she burst into tears. And she didn't stop for at least half an hour when she fell asleep in the car.

I don't want to leave

Trying to make a run for it when it was time to leave. 

We had a great time at Lego KidsFest. The girls loved playing with all the Lego, they were super excited about the new Lego kits they got to choose from the gift store and they can't wait to go again next year. I was impressed with how well run the event was, especially considering just how many excited kids there were there. The safety of all children attending was clearly a top priority of the organisers and I was pleased when we arrived that they had contact cards available near the entrance. Our girls didn't have pockets so they were advised to keep the contact cards in their shoes. Lola normally can't stand having anything other than her foot inside her shoe but the novelty of the little Lego card got the better of her and she was happy to keep it safely underfoot the whole time. Don't you just love how it's a Lost Parents card rather than a Lost Child card?!

Just incase we got lost from each other

Since Sunday our living room floor has been covered in Lego as the girls rediscover just how much fun it is to play with (it comes and goes with them). As much as I'd prefer to not have toys spread everywhere, and I definitely don't like stepping on them, Lego is one toy that I am happy to have spread around. When they play with it they're using their imaginations, being creative, solving problems and (shock, horror!) sharing, all by clicking little bricks together. Little bricks of happiness :)