So you want to have a LEGO party for his birthday?

Everybody loves LEGOs, but this HubPage is focused on a kids party, not one for your hubby's or significant others birthday.

Put some structure to the kids' party play with themed games and you'll keep the kids on track with your planned party activities rather than wandering off doing their own thing. Sit them all down at a big table full of LEGOs for an hour or more of free play and you'll have chaos, not a party. Include a touch of competition in your games and you've now got a very successful party.

But it's not so easy to find LEGO themed party games as it is to find the party frills that us parents get all caught up in- decorations and fancy birthday cakes and party favors. None of these things contributes one bit to keeping the kids busy and out of trouble. Yes, they're fun and colorful, and you can find lots of creative ideas for these that I've gathered from around the web on my Lego party page. The focus here in this HubPage is on the games.

Start your party off with this version of the old 'how many jelly beans in the jar'. Get an old glass mayonnaise jar for this, and do count the bricks as you fill it up. Have small pieces of paper for everyone to write down their guess and their name. Obviously, the closest guess wins the jar.

There are several games where the kids can be challenged to get different sized LEGOs into different sized openings using different techniques. The closer the target and the bigger the opening, the easier the challenge. You can include one or more of these in your party plan as they are actually quite different.

• Have the kids drop 3 or 4 bricks from their nose into a jar or bowl, either from a standing position or kneeling on and dropping over the back of a chair. You'll want to experiment with your birthday child to make this is challenging but not too tough. If doing this from a chair, make sure it's held steady so there aren't any spills.
• Add some distance to this next challenge. Collect various containers of different shapes, such as boxes, bowls, cutoff milk cartons and place them at different distances from a 'stand behind' line on your rug or floor. Masking or duct tape makes a good line. Give each target a point count value with a stick-on label - the farthest away the higher the point count. Give each child 5 or so LEGOs of different shapes and sizes to try to toss into the targets. Keep score either individually or by teams.
• Make the LEGOs the target instead with a ring toss game. Build a not too tall but tapered tower, using a base so it can be taped to the floor or rug for stability. Give your tower some heft so it doesn't get decapitated. Cut the center out of primary colored plastic plates (more rigid than paper) to make the rings. You can use different colored plates and give them different point values just to add a bit more competition. Standing behind the line, the kids toss the rings onto the tower for points - scored either individually or by teams.
• Another target game starts with a big bowl or pile of various shapes and sizes of LEGOs. Each child is tasked with pulling as many bricks out of the bowl/pile as they can in 1 minute using chopsticks. Let everybody practice a bit before the game. You can make them all have the same point value or assign different values for different types or colors. Count each kids' take, then put them back in the bowl. Again, you can score this game either individually or by team.

Every party needs a few more active games, especially a boys party. In any kind of decent weather, you can move the kids outdoors for these, even if they need their jackets, and outdoors will give you more room.

• Here's a silly and fun relay race, with a bucket or bowl of LEGOs at one end and the kids in 2 teams behind a start line at the other end. Each team gets either a kitchen spatula (harder) or cooking spoon - but make sure the two teams have the same tool or you'll be accused of not being fair. Also give each team a container for their 'take'. The object here is for each team member to run to and then pick up as many bricks as their tool will hold and carry them back to their team - all with no hands, just using the spoon or spatula- and drop them in the team container, handing their spoon/spatula off to the next team member. Any that drop are lost. The team that ends up with the most wins.
• Outside if it's nice, inside if not so much, now challenge each team to build the tallest tower with the bricks in their container in 3 to 5 minutes. Don't make the time limit too long as it will be a challenge for the kids to cooperate to do this, and that's the point.
• Your LEGO scavenger hunt can also be done inside if the weather requires it. For young ones, just score based on the number they find, either individually or as a team. For older kids, you can send them off with a key card showing different point values for different sizes and shapes and colors that they find to juice it up a bit.

When you need to bring the excitability level down a bit, LEGO bingo will do it for you. Here are downloadable bingo cards you can use, but if what you find online is based on too many types and figures that you don't own, just take some digital photos of what you've got to work with and make your own bingo cards in Word - not very difficult.

Perhaps after cake and ice cream its time for the LEGO Building Competition, an alternative to totally free play but which can be followed by that free building time. Working with roughly equivalent number and types of bricks, either individually or in pairs, challenge the kids to construct either a pyramid (younger kids) or a bridge (older kids) within a 10 minute time frame. Working in pairs increases the challenge in this game. I'd recommend having a model of each for them to see if you have enough bricks to spare.

None of these games will cost you much, but you may need to augment your collection to have enough for everyone to have a great time. Then again, if you're having this theme for your party, your birthday child is a big fan, and including those extra LEGOs as part of the birthday gifts will be dollars well spent that will get used over and over again after the party.

With these LEGO party games, your kids wills stay tuned in and will have good fun. Creating parties that keep everyone happy and fully engaged is the specialty of the Birthday Party Games Lady, aka Leslie B. Lyons. Check the website out for both complete kids birthday party games packages for kids age 6 to 13+ AND to see all the free kids party ideas gathered there for you to use.