Lego KidsFest

Santa gave Luke tickets for our family to attend Lego KidsFest in Charlotte, NC, this past weekend, and we have been counting down the days until this wonderful event.  KidsFest is a traveling exhibition that includes all-things Lego, and we were amazed at how well-organized and massive it was.  Our tickets were for the Sunday morning session, and we were there from the moment that KidsFest opened until they finally asked us to leave at closing time!  There were dozens of life-sized Lego models and we learned that some of these took 2,000 hours to build and are made up of hundreds of thousands of Legos:

Spiderman:  Mommy's favorite.  He looks like he is floating in space!

We're a super hero kind of family right now!

Luke loved this Egyptian mummy model.

There were animal models, super heroes and characters, and even entire cities built from Legos:

Uh-oh, she's being eaten by a shark!

Not scared of this tiger!

Luke holds up his Mixel creation in front of a display made entirely of Legos.

 There were stations set up throughout KidsFest with different Lego themes where children could build their own creations.  At the Lego Nexo Knight station, the kids made their own shields to display on the wall:  

L&L created their own action figures in the Lego Star Wars area, and then I asked them to go pose with "that guy" for a picture.  Luke admonished me:  "It's Boba Fett, Mommy!!".  I guess I need to brush up on my Star Wars character recognition...

The kids also loved the Race Ramp station, where they constructed Lego vehicles and raced them against other children:

One of my favorite exhibits was called Creation Nation, and was a huge map/outline of the United States drawn on the floor.  Children built their own structures and were able to choose which state they wanted their creations to be placed.  I was only able to capture a fraction of it in this photo, but the map was huge, and contained thousands of unique creations by participants.  

 We loved the stations where we were challenged to be creative and use our Lego building skills.  In one area, we built a bridge and competed against other teams to see whose bridge held the most weight (ours won with 35 lb.!).  In the Challenge Zone, we had 3 minutes to construct the most interesting creation that we could using a bucket of Lego bricks.  Here's my team strategizing:

We signed up for a session in the Lego Lab and met a Lego Master Builder (there are only 8 in the world!).  Luke decided that this is going to be his new profession when he grows up... "And then there will be 9, Mommy!".  I have to say that it sounds like a pretty cool job, and PERFEECT for Luke!

We battled mini-figures in the Lego Ninjago zone, and played marble race games there.  It was very helpful that we are not "new" to Legos in our family and recognized/are familiar with many of the brands.  The kids knew exactly which themes and Legos that they wanted to play with, and we explored every area of Lego KidsFest except Lego Princess and Lego Friends- sniff, sniff.

One of the coolest parts of the day was the giant Lego brick pile in the center of KidsFest.  I can't begin to imagine how many dump trucks of Legos this pile contained.... and it didn't even hurt to walk on the Legos!  (Any parent who has ever stepped on a Lego on their floor at home understands what I mean!).  Leah LOVED this area, and the kids literally swam in/were buried by/were surrounded by Legos.  It was Lego Heaven for my two children!  

It was an awesome day.  Every session of Lego KidsFest was sold out for the weekend, and we were worried that it may feel too crowded and chaotic.  However, there were so many different areas to explore that it wasn't overwhelming and our kids were at great ages to maximize our time and fun at this event.  Thank you, Santa, for such a wonderful day for our Lego-loving family!