I’m so grateful to know people that have connections to ‘the big city’ where awesome events like Lego® KidsFest take place. I would never have known 1.) about it and 2.) that the traveling show would be in Novi this past weekend. I asked Connor if he wanted to go and as per usual he was like, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about, but okay.’ ‘Sure, I’ll go.’

Without knowing exactly what was coming, Connor was worried it wouldn’t be worth the trip. He’s a tough one to please sometimes so I pulled up the website and shared some photos with him. That was all it took. There was every flavor of Lego® ever created and activities centering around each. There was a pile of bricks, life-sized creations, Technics, Star Wars, Ninjago … if you’ve seen it as a Lego®, it was there.

And this thing is a big.deal. There are five sessions per city each weekend and we were session four of five (all ultimately sold out). Each lasts four and a half hours and I’d read testimonials from parents who swore they would pull their hair out leave after two hours who stayed the whole time. We decided when we got there to visit the pile of bricks first as we’d read that it quickly starts to flatten. Connor stayed in the mix for twenty minutes or so. I dove in and sat next to him after taking a few pics. Hey, everybody deserves an authentic experience, right?!

i’m really glad connor wasn’t wearing a shirt with red and white stripes. i could barely keep an eye on him as it was.

After hanging out in the bricks for a while, we took a tour with some of the life-sized creations. Talk about feeling completely unworthy. Why didn’t I think to pursue a dream of being a Lego Master Builder? Yes, they have those.

mmm … who needs a crabby patty?! i can pretend to sup on mustard and ketchup!

One of the exhibits I knew Connor would love the most was the Ninjago area. Here, they let kids build Ninjas, add “weapons” and battle other attendees or staff. Once we heard about ‘Mike’, Connor decided he wanted to battle him. Apparently, Mike had been training the whole weekend working the event. So, we battled Mike three different times. Connor’s Ninja fared pretty well until the time Moooooooom touched it (and ruined it).

battling master Mike

After the Ninjago area (and the subsequent time-out that resulted), we took to the Technics area where he remote-control trucked his way across an obstacle course against another little guy. Don’t tell CJ … but he lost. (He will claim the other little guy didn’t hit any obstacles, thus the reason he crossed the finish line first). After that race, we took to the race tracks to build Lego® cars and race them down slanted tracks. I felt like Luigi and Guido from the movie ‘Cars’ the entire time we were in that area. So.many.tires.

pick a tire. no really, pick a tire.

I looked at my watch phone to realize we only had an hour left. Wait, what? An hour? It went by that quickly. I urged Connor to check out the other areas we hadn’t seen yet. We headed to the challenge area where tables were set-up with Lego® bricks and challengers were instructed to build something in two minutes. Our challenge was to build something we were afraid of. Did you know its hard to build a tornado out of Legos?

We stopped at the two stores in the convention center room. Yes, of course, there were two areas where you could buy Lego® goodies. I was glad to walk away from the $400 Super Star Destroyer and stick with a more reasonable $10 X-wing fighter. Of course, the $400 set was the only one in the store to include a Darth Vader minifigure. I told Connor I would find him the minifigure elsewhere, besides, I couldn’t buy him a Lego® set made for 16 years and up. I’m pretty sure it’s illegal, or something.

We then headed over to ‘Creation Nation’ where staff pile attendee creations across a map of the U.S. over the three-day show. I was totally blown away by the creativity. I quickly threw together a snowflake because we were running out of time. Connor elected to show me up and build a bigger and better snowflake. I think the staff person thought my contribution to the map was lame. I can’t even see it in the final product (at the end of the post).

hi, florida. look at the boats!

We wrapped up our visit with a final look-see at the life-sized creations. I loved what he did without me asking when we saw the shark. So did everyone else’s parents before they proceeded to tell their kids not to do that.

don’t eat me!

like my ride, mom?

I would 100% recommend (and visit again) Lego® KidsFest. It’s money and time well-spent. I know Connor was glad there was at least one thing for him to do. I do have to say, though, I’m still upset they didn’t prominently display my snowflake. I think it might have been placed somewhere near Missouri. Do you see it?

the map created during the novi event. photo courtesy of the lego kidsfest website.