Lego KidsFest

 Two years ago I saw a co-worker post on Facebook that her family drove to Raleigh for Lego KidsFest.  What is this? I immediately googled it and found out there are only a few festivals in a few select cities every year. In 2015 there were no events in North Carolina, but in 2016? They were coming to Charlotte, North Carolina!! We were planning to get tickets early, but then my brother and his wife gave us (and of course a ticket for my brother) fix as a wonderful Christmas gift!

Looking down on some of the stations, this is probably only a third of the whole thing. 

I loved spending time at this event with Brycen. According to media, 5600 people attended each session! We went to the Sunday afternoon time - 3 to 7:30 and noticed that by 6 the crowds had really died off. When we arrived at 3:30 it was a tad chaotic, and Brycen was overwhelmed. But the festival is done really well, and each section had tables set up with 4-6 buckets inserted in the table for building.  And of course, legos were allover the tables and floors as well! Once we found a little nook for Brycen to build in, he was happy as can be.

We found a table spot in Junior Legos, Race Car Ramps and Create-a-Nation, and spent at least 20-30 minutes at each!

Building a house to be added to Create-a-Nation, a project that takes the whole weekend to fill!

Create-a-Nation

And I found chairs to sit on in all these locations. Again, thumbs up to the Lego people!

I actually brought along my DSLR camera, but I must be rusty - the pictures are significantly better on my iPhone. I didn't even think to play with modes and settings. Because Brycen moves so much my pictures were blurry.

We spent some time taking pictures with statues - a real life size Superman, Batman and Spider man made completely out of Legos. Brycen also was excited to play with the extra large building blocks - they looked more like tinker toys then Legos.

The best was at the end. My brother wanted to go to the Lego Technic section. Here you find Lego models hooked to electricity. The ages are more geared for 12 and up. Surprisingly, Brycen was really excited by the glassed in exhibit of vehicles - everything from a jeep to a moving ferris wheel. These lego kits are expensive and very detailed.

They had a line for children to try out remote controlled bulldozers. The object was to move a block down a path and dump it in a bucket. The line did not move an inch for 15 minutes but Brycen remained patient. Suddenly people left the line and within 30 seconds we were in front. My brother went with him on "stage" to help with the controls, but B barely needed it. The truck went down the path, up the ramp and everyone cheered when the block when in the bin. I can see a Lego Technic bulldozer request in our future.

pros: 
-well put together, room for literally 1000s of people. I could have brought my wheel chair but it would have been a little rough at the beginning.
-There was no shortage of legos to go around, which makes me wonder how do they deal with stealing?
-The place was clean and hand sanitizer was placed at every station - we used a lot obviously.
-fun for ALL ages!

cons:
-big crowds can be overwhelming for small kids. I am actually glad we didn't end up going when Brycen was 2 or 3, even though they had a Duplo area.

Also, it would be nice if older kids set a better example for younger ones. I was going to go on a huge rant about this, but it is what it is. It happens at any kind of event like this, and it happens at playgrounds and bouncy houses and anywhere there is a wide range of ages in kids. All I can do is make sure when Brycen is older, he is gentle and patient and sets a good example for younger kids. And doesn't steal from them . . .

I think if Lego Kidsfest was anywhere near North Carolina this year, I would go again! It was that much fun. But for now we can just hope they come back to NC next year!