lego grand opening celebration

we went to the lego grand opening on july 24th. we had been waiting and waiting for the grand opening celebration. we knew an 8 ft. r2-d2 was going to be built by a master builder. they were going to start building the 8 ft. r2-d2 at 11 a.m. we decided be at the mall by 9:45 a.m. we were meeting my friend, mrs. c and her two kids. mrs. c brought me a vanilla coke from sonic in case i became dehydrated from all the waiting. good thinking!


when we arrived, we quickly realized we needed to get in line to build the r2-d2. it wasn't too bad. they decided to start building the model about 20 minutes early. my son was getting tired of waiting in line, but when the master builder started talking about what they were going to build, my son started to get excited.


once we got into the "inner circle" for building the r2-d2, we went to a table where they had everything you would need to build your rectangle. you were able to build 3 rectangles, then you took them to the master builder who was building in the middle of the "inner circle".



in exchange, they gave you a piece of paper and a coupon. you would trade the piece of paper for a certificate that stated you help build an 8 ft. r2-d2 at the lego grand opening. yes, there was another line you had to get into to get the certificate. luckily, it wasn't too long.













after the line for the certificates, we thought it would be best to go get something to eat. it was 11:15 a.m. now, and a line had formed to get into the store. we thought we would beat the lunch crowd and then head back down to the store during the lunch hour. we saw some of my family at the mall too. i took a picture from the food court of the "inner circle".

we ate lunch and decided to head down to the store. the line was longer now. we got in line and waited. we waited for an hour to get into the store. the kids got a little restless, but i think overall they did very well for all the lines they had to wait in.

by law, they could only let a certain number of people into the store at one time. once we waited, the kids looked at all the lego stuff. we'd been in the store before, thankfully, so looking around didn't take forever. the kids all picked out one reasonably priced item (the legos are more expensive in this store, but they have cool items that wal-mart does not have). we looked at the 6 ft. indiana jones. it was quite impressive. the crystal skull is made up of single square legos. it was pretty impressive how much it did look like harrison ford. everything was lego except his whip.

if you made a purchase, you received a special r2-d2 lego grand opening celebration brick.

we went back to the "inner circle" and the kids build more lego pieces for r2-d2. they also had other legos to play with. i don't know why my daugther is making that face in the picture below, i just thought it was funny.

by the time we got home, it was 2 p.m. and the kids were tired. they spent the next hour and a half in blissful silence as they played and put together their legos.

so if didn't go and were wondering if you should have, this should have given you an idea whether you made the right choice. my son had it marked on his calendar for weeks. he was very excited all week leading up to it. the lego store is pretty small; however, since we had been in it before it did help. i think for my son who is really getting into legos, this was a very neat thing he will remember for a long time.

so ....

time waiting in line: at least 2 hours

cost of legos for my kids: $40 (with the $5 off coupon)

being at the lego grand opening celebration and seeing my son have a great time: priceless

thanks to mrs. c who kept me hydrated with vanilla coke and for waiting in all those lines with me. :)