A Lego Ninjago Inspired Birthday Party

When your son and his friends love Lego Ninjago, planning a Lego Ninjago inspired birthday party is an exciting choice! Maureen Anders of Anders Ruff Custom Designs set the bar high for this theme when she styled her own son's ninja party a couple of years ago. Coming up with new ideas for party decorations, ninja desserts, favors and activities was a fun challenge! I hope you'll enjoy exploring this new take on an action packed theme with me (Jen from Banner Events). The gorgeous photography was done by Karina Rigtrup of A Fresh Take Photography.

Some of my favorite details from this Lego Ninjago party are:
- Pagoda style backdrop and centerpieces
- Lego Ninjago character cake pops and custom treats
- Custom 3 tiered Ninjago inspired cake with fondant detailing
- Action packed Lego Ninjago inspired birthday games
- Personalized ninja headbands and shirts

We kicked off the excitement for this Lego Ninjago inspired birthday party with a colorful invitation and return address label designed by Anders Ruff Custom Designs. You can find these items and the coordinating printable package in their shop here. As I've said many times, sending out a high impact invitation is the single best way to get guests excited to attend your event.

Designing a new look for the Ninjago inspired dessert table was my favorite part of the whole planning process. My son had a Lego Ninjago "temple" building set, which reminded me of a pagoda. I asked Maureen to design me an oversized pagoda to use as the main attraction of my dessert table. High quality large format printing from Print My Picture Online helped to make my vision a reality. Once the pagoda and black curtains were in place, I flanked each side of the table with tall bamboo plants, propped up on DIY wood stands I repurposed and painted from a previous party. The addition of the Asian inspired birthday banner and colorful table runners gave some pops of color to the table.

I had a lot of fun coordinating amazing sweets for the dessert table. My favorite local cake designer, Christina of 4 Kids Cakes just ran with the design, incorporating my ideas with some incredible ideas of her own. The detail work absolutely blew me away! Fondant throwing stars, a ninja knife, bamboo and a Ninjago character were some of the details that impressed the aspiring ninjas in training.Because I wanted to bring an Asian flair to the dessert table, I commissioned the talented Vypassetti Cake Pops to create cake pops inspired by sushi. I served them in tasting spoons and small 3-sectioned Asian sauce dishes. Vy also created the coolest Ninjago cake pops inspired by the characters themselves. Cupcakes are a popular addition to dessert tables. With a variety of activities we had planned, I wanted to provide a quick and easy way for the guests to transport their treats from room to room. They loved the cupcakes baked up by 4 Kids Cakes and accented with insanely detailed fondant work by Lynlees. I actually saw some kids save their Ninjago head toppers to show their families! I was thrilled to meet a talented local bakery owner who was so excited to give me a tour of her bakery and whip up some of the most delicious and detailed cookies I've ever laid eyes on. Sweet Themes Bakery did a phenomenal job and created several varieties of cookies inspired by the printable graphics by Anders Ruff. There were ninja cookies with custom names, throwing stars, dragon cookies and more!Another fun and custom themed addition to our dessert table were these Ninjago inspired candy "bobs" from Sweets From Heaven, Outlets at Orange. Wynter always impresses me with her use of candy to create a fun take home treat for party goers. One of my son's favorite treats, the Ninjago chocolate covered Oreos were a popular choice by Bella's Bakery & Bowtique. I styled them on a bed of edible lime green Sixlets so the colors would pop!

For the main dining area, I wanted to create the feel of an Asian restaurant. I accomplished this by bringing in Asian screens and hanging Chinese lanterns in coordinating party colors. I brought in an artificial bamboo tree to reinforce the mood.

I loved setting up the ninja / Ninjago inspired table. Woven bamboo placemats added texture atop a bright red tablecloth. Red and black plates were layered with a yellow napkin and accented with a small Asian sauce cup filled with a fortune cookie. Each place setting was dressed up with a lime green napkin, custom labeled chopsticks and a container of caramel corn embellished with a printable party logo from the Anders Ruff collection. Because little ninjas-in-training work up a big thirst, square French milk bottles from Smash Cake and Co. were on hand for easy refills! They looked amazing with custom beverage wraps and paper straws from Hoopla Events, topped off with more great printable straw flags from Anders Ruff. In lieu of place cards with names, Sweet Themes Bakery baked up fabulous ninja cookies with each guest's name. Attached to each chair back was a ninja sword for each attendee from Oriental Trading Company. Many of the place setting components came from them, as did the impressive pagoda style cupcake stand that we used as a centerpiece for the table. Instead of cupcakes, we chose to stack lime green takeout containers that could be filled with treats from the piñata or the candy take out station. Aren't the printable labels so fun?

Dressing the part is always welcomed at one of my parties! Guests loved receiving ninja gear upon arriving at the Carver Dojo. Custom embroidered shirts and ninja headbands were created by the talented Brenda from GreatStitch.com . Brenda designed an incredible dragon that she appliqued on the front of each shirt, along with names on both the headband (in Korean) and the shirt. The kids had so much fun practicing their ninja skills and playing with their swords and nunchucks. Their new outfits definitely helped them get into character!

In a separate room, I had a candy take out table set up (which included more treats and several party favor items), as well as a variety of activity stations through which little ninjas could rotate. We used the activity table as a gathering place while we waited for guests to arrive. Each place setting included a customized activity placemat designed for me by Anders Ruff. It included things to color, a maze and a word find. Custom Ninjago coloring books designed by Anders Ruff were available for each child to enjoy in between stations. I wrapped boxes of coloring crayons with coordinating wrapping paper and affixed a party logo. Also at each place setting I included a festive ninja plate and cup from Oriental Trading. While this area was not the primary eating area, I wanted the guests to feel like they had a place to snack and eat wherever they were. I attached a printable "enjoy" tag to each ninja bottle so that guests would know they had the green light to eat and drink there too.

Activities were so easy to pull off thanks to printable games available through the Anders Ruff Ninja collection. The first game was a fortune cookie toss! Instead of attaching the take out boxes to an Asian screen like Maureen did in her son's party, I opted for a more affordable version. Maureen designed a printable screen that I attached to foam core board. I hot glued the take out boxes to the screen, and the kids got to take turns tossing fortune cookies from Oriental Trading Company into the boxes. They loved this!

Next up, was the ninja star throwing game! This was by far the easiest game to put together and most popular game to play! I had Print My Picture Online print the large format target designed by Anders Ruff. I hot glued this to a large piece of Styrofoam from Hobby Lobby. Using hard plastic throwing stars, the kids took turns trying to hit the bulls-eye! They loved it!

What would a Ninjago party be without playing a little Spinjitzu game? We set up a table with some Ninjago characters, spinners and a battle arena and let them battle. They had so much fun trying to knock each other's guy down.

To conclude the fast paced action of the party, the guests each took a few whacks at a cool ninja piñata from Oriental Trading Company. It was filled to the brim with ninja star erasers, gummies, suckers and other candy. The kids loved that their ninja headbands from GreatStitch.com also functioned easily as a blindfold!

Before guests were "kicked out" (haha), we had them make a final pit stop at the candy take-away table. A printable dragon poster designed by Anders Ruff served as the backdrop for this prize table. I embellished the front of the table with the Asian inspired candy take-out sign by AR. Each guest got to collect small ninja action figures and nunchucks (found at The Dollar Tree), fill up their candy take-out containers a little more with cookies and treats and consolidate all of their prizes into a custom ninja favor bag I created for them using printables from Anders Ruff. Any materials used during the party were theirs to keep--ninja swords, ninja water bottles, outfits, etc... Score!

What an action packed way to celebrate my fun-loving little boy! A Lego Ninjago inspired birthday party was so much fun!

Vendor Credits:

- Event Design and Styling: Banner Events
http://www.facebook.com/bannereventsfan
- Photography: A Fresh Take Photography
https://www.facebook.com/afreshtakephotography
- Invitation and Party Printables: Anders Ruff Custom Designs
http://www.andersruff.com
- Printing: Print My Picture Online
http://www.printmypictureonline.com
- Custom Ninja Shirts & Headbands: GreatStitch.com
http://www.greatstitch.com
- Cake & Cupcakes: 4 Kids Cakes
http://www.4kidscakes.com
- Custom Fondant Cupcake Toppers: Lynlee's Petite Cakes
http://www.lynlees.com
- Custom Cookies: Sweet Themes Bakery
http://sweetthemesbakery.com/
- Custom Chocolate Covered Oreos: Bella's Bakery & Bowtique
https://www.facebook.com/BellasBakeryandBowtique?fref=nf
- Custom Cake Pops: Vypassetti Cake Pops
http://www.vypassetticakepops.com/
- Custom Candy "Bobs": Sweets From Heaven, Outlets at Orange
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweets-from-Heaven-Outlets-at-Orange/161851840516150
- Ninja Piñata, Water bottles, Cupcake stands, Gummy Stars, Ninja Star Erasers, Paper Lanterns, Fortune Cookies, Take-out Boxes, Ninja Swords, Ninja Sword Picks: Oriental Trading Company
http://www.orientaltrading.com
- Striped paper straws: Hoopla Events
http://www.etsy.com/shop/hooplaevents