LEGO KidsFest for the Whole Family

When I was a kid, I used to play LEGOs with my little brother. He would build all the cool Star Wars ships, while I tried (in vain) to make him sort everything into neat piles. You know, gray pieces with gray pieces, ittybitty light pieces with other ittybitty light pieces. As much as I enjoyed playing with the tiny bricks, I loved organizing them even more.

Getting everything arranged just so was always so satisfying. Like on those cooking shows where they already have everything measured out into those perfect little dishes before they start preparing the recipe. Sadly, my brother never bought into my plan -- but he did make some very cool space ships and he always let me be Princess Leia.

Now that Junius has graduated from the chunky blocks to the small LEGO pieces packed into enormous sets, I have a new partner -- and because he's such a smart OCD first-born kid, he's much more willing to follow my system, as you can see in this photo. [Notice that we've packed up the trains from his train table and dedicated the entire surface to LEGO-building. Reduces the risk of those teeny tiny parts winding up in my vacuum cleaner.]

When he gets a new set, he lets me hand him the pieces for each step. It's like being a surgical assistant. "Long blue piece, mom." [Press said piece into his waiting hand.] "Long blue piece, Junius."

But this Friday, there will be no tiny piles of pieces on Junius' little table. Instead, there will be millions and  billions of LEGOs in more than 150,000 square feet of space... because this Friday we all get to go wild with the hands-on LEGO KidsFest at the Raleigh Convention Center.

Honestly, I'm not sure which one of the four of us is more excited. And here's a sneak peek at why...

Add your own little square to Creation Nation

Check out larger-than-life creations of your favorite characters

Watch the mystery mural evolve

And that's not even showing you the Big Brick Pile, the monochromatic group build, the Race Ramps, the LEGO Master Builder Academy and the DUPLO Build Area.

Crazy. Good. Fun.

So now you want to join us, right? We'll be there on Friday from 4-8:30 p.m., but you can also get tickets for sessions on Saturday (morning and afternoon) and Sunday (morning and afternoon). Each session offers the same exhibits and activities. All the details for the Raleigh tour are online -- they'll be in Cleveland in November and Hartford in December if that suits you better.

Follow me on Twitter this Friday to see what we build -- and I promise I won't spend the whole evening trying to group all those LEGOs into tidy little piles.

Images courtesy of LEGO® KidsFest

Full disclosure: The nice folks at LEGO KidsFest are giving me four free tickets to the Raleigh show. But I promise that my enthusiasm for those tiny bricks is all my own.
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