Creative Storage for Lego Fun with Neat Oh! Zip Bins

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Do you ever struggle with toy storage? Figuring out what's the best way to keep all of your kids toys neatly put away when not in use can sometimes be a struggle. But with Neat-Oh! products, you not only get an awesome storage system, your kids can actually use their storage in their play.

My son absolutely loves to take a box of toys and literally dump it out wherever he's playing. Drives me crazy but with our system, it's not a big deal. As long as he keeps the toys he's playing with contained to one room. Once he starts moving from room to room it's a bigger mess than I want to deal with.

So when he started becoming obsessed playing with Legos I knew I had to come up with a solution that would not only store the legos but keep them contained in one area while he played with them.

It took a trip to New York (and BlogHer'12) to figure out the perfect solution. I first checked out Neat-Oh!'s line of products at the Big Toy Book's Sweet Suite. And the first product that caught my eye was the Star Wars Lego Zip Bin.

The Lego line of Zip Bins are great for storing all those little stray lego pieces found all over the house. You know, the ones you accidentally suck up in the vacuum. The ones that hide in the carpet and take you down as soon as you step on them. The ones that find their way into every stray crevice of your home if you aren't diligent about putting them away when your kids are done playing with them.

These zip bins are super easy to use and can be put together within seconds of taking it out of the box. You just have to follow these three simple steps: 

1. Lay out the mat
2. Fold in the corners
3. Zip up the sides

It's that easy! See the photo below for proof:

And once the box is zipped up you can fill it up with all of the toys your kids have been playing with. I absolutely love that I can also scoot all of the legos onto the mat and zip it up with the legos inside already. Saves time and energy bending over to pick up all those little pieces!

The box also comes with a lid that adheres with velcro for complete storage. And the handles on either end make it portable. The size of the Zip Bin is perfect for our playroom and living room storage areas and it's small enough to fit under our train table.

 

One of the best parts about the Lego Star Wars Zip Bin is that when unzipped, it provides a mat for my son to play on. We've gotten creative and have started to keep all of the lego pieces he isn't using in the lid for save storage as he builds his creations. 

Once he's done building his space ships, towers, x-wings, and more he can then line up his lego men and get to pretend play! He spent about an hour with his zip bin simply playing outside creating and destroying his legos. He had an absolute blast!

And Legos aren't the only Zip Bins in the collection. We have already added many of the Neat-Oh! Dinosaur line pieces on our wishlist for Christmas. Perfect for storing all of your child's dinosaurs! Plus, just like the Lego Star Wars Zip Bin, the Dinosaurs Zip Bin also lays flat and creates a play area for your child complete with volcanos!

That's not it. Here's a list of the varieties of Zip Bins and other collections available:

• Dinosaur
• Farmland
• Full Throttle
• Wild Animal
• Princess
• Blossom Bags
• Go Sport
• Lego Star Wars
• Lego
• Barbie
• Hot Wheels

And their great line of The Picnic Lunch Box for your child's snacking and lunching needs! I know I'm already eyeing the cat and dog lunch boxes for my two. You can find all of these on the Neat-Oh! website.

You can find Neat-Oh! on Facebook and follow them on Twitter at @Neat_Oh to keep up with the latest products and information. And if you're interested in purchasing a few of these awesome products, head on over to their shop online. You can also find Neat-Oh! on Amazon.com.


Because this product is so Neat-Oh! I've dubbed this Noise Girls Winter Gift Guide worthy!

You can find this product and many more featured on the Noise Girls Winter Gift Guide. This is the place to check out if you're looking for awesome gifts to give this holiday season (or for any other reason!).




Disclaimer: I received a Neat-Oh! Zip Bin for review purposes only. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Lego Duplo Party Playdate with HouseParty #LegoDuploParty

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Our HouseParty Lego Duplo Playdate was an absolute blast!

I had so much fun figuring out what foods to serve, how to decorate, and how to keep the little ones entertained. Now normally when we have a playdate I grab whatever's in the fridge and whip it up into something appealing for both the mamas and little ones.

HouseParty was kind enough to send along 4 of Lego Duplo's new Read & Build Kits for us to play with!

2 of the 4 Read & Build kits were raffled off to my guests to take home with them so they could continue the fun. The other guests assured me they'd be picking up a few kids of their own because the kids had so much fun!

For this party I wanted to get a bit creative and really play on the Lego theme.

The Lego Party Food

I started by creating a Lego Duplo Pinterest Board. I was able to find amazing ideas and creations from other pinners, bloggers, online articles, and sites.  I had grand plans of cookies, skewers, and more detailed goodies but when it came down to it, I stuck with the basics. Foods my 1-4 year olds would love AND eat.

You can read all about the food I served here.

The Lego Party Decor 

Then I started thinking about the decorations I wanted to use. There were plenty of ideas for using the legos in the design of the party so I started with the basics, a simple lego brick, and built on that. I absolutely LOVED the fun use of lego-themed garland most of the sites posted but a majority of them were birthday themed.

So instead of going the wording route, I simply stuck to construction paper, scissors, and tape.

From there I decided to add a few more touches to the food decorations by turning the cups into lego heads, adding a lego head in between my two platters to serve the lego brick foods, and made a few empty boxes into legos to go with the theme.

You can read all about the decorations I made here.

Lego Duplo Read & Build 

I wanted to make sure that the Lego Duplo Read & Build kits were front and center throughout the party so I included them on the bar area of my kitchen right at eye level so that as people served themselves they'd see the boxes.

Alongside the Read & Build storybook kits were the Lego red plates and Duplo napkins that came in my HouseParty kit. I also was excited to pass out Lego Duplo play guides, magnets, and stickers to each of my guests.

Two of the sets were opened for the kids to play with on the table. I filled up a vase with some extra bricks we had lying around (shhh... don't tell, these aren't LEGO brand). The rest of our collection of Lego Duplo blocks were kept in the playroom on our train table so the kids could build and create as they pleased.

Play Time

Because I had two areas set up for the kids, the adults were able to converse and chit chat as the kids played around us. I loved having the playroom set up for the majority of the Lego fun. It made clean up a breeze and allowed a great space to build and create.

Although a few of my other toys were quite appealing and the kids quickly spread throughout the house with more than just Legos in hand.

I'm sure if I had a bit more time, help, and money I could have done more but the simplicity of this party was perfect. The kids had an absolute blast playing, building, and reading. 

Disclaimer: I received a HouseParty Lego Duplo Party Kit in exchange for hosting a Lego Duplo Party. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Lego Duplo Party {The Decorations}

I have been looking for a chance to throw a Lego themed party for quite a while. Pinterest has added to this obsession (along with a lot of other party themes I want to attempt).

HouseParty sent out an awesome hostess kit that included 4 Read & Build kits, a Lego Duplo poster (pictured below), Lego red plates, Lego Duplo napkins, and some awesome Lego goodies for my guests to take home including magnet frames, stickers, and a Lego Duplo fun guide.

I was excited to use my new large chalkboard and incorporated it into the party by copying the Lego logo on it with chalk. The logo was very simple and straight forward and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I added duplo to the bottom and *almost* attempted to draw the Duplo bunny but didn't want to mess anything up.

The decorations started with a garland of Lego bricks. I grabbed a stack of red, green, and blue 8x11 construction paper and cut 8x5 bricks out. I used the scraps to make circles (and used an HonestTea bottle cap as my template).

I adhered the circles onto the bricks with tape. Once I had enough of each color I used a hole punch to punch out the circles in the corners and strung the bricks up together with red yarn. I then hung the garland up in the kitchen where I was serving the food.

I added a little fun to the drink cups by turning each cup into a Lego head. Each cup matched the Lego guy I put on top of the cups .

In order to make a tiered serving tower I covered up a soup can with some construction paper and drew a Lego face on it as well to tie in with the theme.

To show off the Lego Duplo Read & Build kits I opened two up and put them on my dining room table. I grabbed one of my vases and added some blocks to make a colorful display. The kids were able to play with the new Read & Build storybook sets at the table and create fun animals as we read the Busy Farm story.

Lego Duplo Party {The Food}

As I mentioned in my party post, I wanted to keep this party focused on the basics. With a few simple decorations and some doctored up fun foods our party was the perfect Lego Duplo

To show off the drink cups a bit more I covered them in yellow paper and drew little faces on each of the cups to represent a different Lego guy. If you look closely you can see that each face actually matches the Lego on top of (and hanging from) the cups.

Munchies were also Lego themed. We went with peanut butter and honey sandwiches and cheese and crackers.

The peanut butter and honey sandwiches were super simple and fun! I made the sandwiches, cut off the crust (and ate them!), and cut the sandwiches in half.

Then I used my smallest round biscuit cutter to cut out small holes out of another slice of bread. I used some more peanut butter to adhere the bread to the top of the sandwiches. Two for each rectangle.

If you have a peanut allergy you can easily use sunflower butter instead. Or make the sandwiches with meat and use cream cheese to adhere the bread dots to the top. I was also considering making cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches as well. There are endless possibilities!

The cheese and crackers used the same techniques. I slathered two crackers with cream cheese and sandwiched in a piece of cheese in the middle. Then I used the cream cheese to adhere some cheese circles to the tops of the cracker sandwiches.

I had all intentions to coat these rectangle sandwich cookies with red, green, and blue chocolate and cover them with little m&m dots but time got away from me so I simply served them as is. Not as exciting but still fit the theme! And the kids couldn't get enough of them.

As a play on the Lego guy's head shape I made some watermelon & feta skewers for the mamas. This is my latest favorite combo and adding a bit of basil makes this a super tasty bite on a stick. You can also cube up the watermelon, toss with feta and basil, and serve as you would a salad!

In order to satisfy the mamas at the party I decided to throw together a simple quiche. Honestly, there's nothing special about it. And really... it's more of an egg bake in a pre-made frozen pie crust. I simply combined cooked sausage, spinach, 6 eggs, a cup or two of cheese, some salt and pepper and poured it into the crust. I then baked until it smelled done (maybe 35 minutes?) and pulled it out.

And the color is yellow like a Lego head, right? Haha... might be too much of a stretch.

Yum!

If you were planning a Lego Duplo party what would you serve?